Muji in New York

Your Guide to Design and Pop Culture in Tokyo

Mar 6, 2007

A reader was kind enough to send me these details regarding Muji‘s upcoming flagship store in New York, set to open sometime before the 2007 holiday season.

Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC) announced that MUJI, the environmentally conscious retailer based in Japan, has signed a lease for its first flagship store in the Americas at The New York Times Building. The store will open in time for the 2007 holiday season, serving thousands of workers in The New York Times Building at 620 Eighth Avenue as well as the half-million New Yorkers and visitors who pass through Times Square every day. MUJI is leasing approximately 5,000 square feet along 40th Street overlooking the moss-and-birch-tree garden on the ground floor.

Bruce Ratner, President and CEO of FCRC, said, “We are honored that MUJI–a retailer known the world over–has chosen to put its American flagship store in The New York Times Building. I’m especially pleased that a global pioneer in environmentally friendly retail practices will be a centerpiece of our retail mix. MUJI’s dedication to useful and well-designed products makes them a perfect fit for the elegant and environmentally advanced tower Renzo Piano has designed.”

Hiroyoshi Azami, President of MUJI U.S.A. LIMITED, the U.S. subsidiary of MUJI’s corporate entity, commented, “We feel that the ideal location for our American flagship store is at the crossroads of the world–and that describes The New York Times Building exactly. MUJI products are known as ‘essential elements of living,’ and are based on a philosophy of simplicity, minimalism and consumer functionality. We look forward to sharing both our products and our philosophy with New York City and America at large.”

[...]

The renowned Japanese interior design architect Takashi Sugimoto, principal of Superpotato Co. Ltd.–the international firm known for its retail interiors–will design the MUJI store so that it is seamlessly integrated with the dramatic New York Times Building designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, in association with FXFOWLE Architects.

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A longtime resident of Tokyo, he lives and breathes design, pop culture, and gaming, sustained by an unhealthy addiction to magazines and frequent visits to his favorites cafes. He has reported on these obsessions for various online/offline publications, including the following: Time, Inside (Australian Design Review), Gizmodo, Gridskipper, Kotaku, 1UP, Tokyo Q, Superfuture, OK Fred, Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel, I.D. (International Design), Metropolis, Azure, MoCo Loco, Kateigaho International Edition, Wired's Game|Life, PingMag, CNNGo, Phaidon, and The Japan Times.

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