The multilevel, 580-sq-meter flagship store is the largest Grand Seiko Boutique globally. Featuring an elegant and contemporary design that reflects Grand Seiko’s Alive in Time brand message, the store’s first floor features a bar, lounge area and a semiprivate consultation space. A spiral staircase leads to lower level event spaces. While the staircase’s initial design required attaching structural steel beams to a foundation wall, it was discovered that the wall was obstructed by existing building services. To overcome this, the team redesigned the structural steel and coordinated closely with the building’s structural consultants to secure necessary approvals to ensure the staircase’s integrity and aesthetic.

The 16-ft ceiling height required lifts for HVAC and sprinkler installation, but building regulations deemed the lifts too heavy. To resolve this, the team built a structural wooden platform for safe work at necessary heights and constructed scaffolding to install the wall panels behind the staircase. The tongue-and-grove flooring in the lower level had to be built around the scaffold legs and filled in after removal.

The 11-month project was completed at budget and on schedule.