David Jones Elizabeth Street Flagship

David Jones Elizabeth Street's flagship store in Sydney’s Hyde Park District is one of Australia's leading and most iconic department stores. Housed in an elegant, Inter-war Stripped Classical Style building with close to a century of history and heritage, David Jones has been at the forefront of Australia’s immersive and experiential luxury retail environment since 1927. Benoy takes what is unique and exciting about David Jones and the department store at large and rejuvenates this for contemporary patrons. The design strategy seeks to strengthen the urban relationship of the building with its current urban context and create a distinct and well-curated contemporary retail experience complementing the heritage of its interior. This is achieved through a series of delicate exterior intervention and interior modifications that expresses the future vision of David Jones and likewise honors the heritage of the architecture. We delved into the history, took influence from, and placed our twist on what the great brand could and should become. At 32,000 m2 the department store offers a shopping experience to remember. One of the main design focuses was to introduce new entrances located at the chamfered building ends along Castlereagh and Elizabeth Street. The 3.3-metre repositioned brass doors were carefully considered to preserve the heritage façade whilst creating a grand street entrance and access never before achieved. New thin and elegant black metal awnings not just act as a framing device for the entrance, but also function as weather protectors. This has been designed in keeping with the undulating language of the heritage awning and the horizontal facade datum. We also opened up a double-volume space inside the entrance which acts as a decompression zone for customers as they move from busy street intersection to luxury retail environment. And on the penultimate level, we used the lofty ballroom proportions to create a stunning shoe gallery, enhanced by spectacular views of the park and harbour. The main concept for the interior is Windows to the World, where each level was designed as a portal to bring the customer into a new world of David Jones. The project created 5 distinct ‘worlds’, each one with different interior architecture qualities and specific target audiences. These worlds are The Agora (homeware goods and food hall), Glamour Hall (beauty and accessories), The Terraces (women's fashion), The Salon (men's fashion) and lastly, The Verandah (luxury shoes and bridal). We also introduced a new central atrium that houses the stack of escalators that seeks to spatially define vertically stacked floor openings into a series of discreet and human-scaled rooms that complement the contemporary David Jones retail experience. This iconic shopping destination has been given a new lease of life. In a first for Australia, customers will be able to experience the worlds of Louis Vuitton, Chanel, and Gucci outside their eponymous boutique stores. The redevelopment of David Jones Elizabeth Street will continue to celebrate and preserve the rich history and heritage of its store while offering an inspiring and truly innovative retail experience for modern customers.