Architect’s Newspaper Best of Design Award – maharishi Tribeca
We’re proud to share that our design for the maharishi Tribeca store received the 2019 Best of Design Award for Interior — Retail from The Architect’s Newspaper. The jury highlighted how the project transforms a landmarked Tribeca loft through a distinct architectural insertion: “a floating, olive-green cabinet grid that forms a building-within-a-building, creating display, circulation, and mezzanine vantage points while preserving the historic envelope.” The space pairs raw plywood, a camo-inflected palette, and meticulous detailing to produce an environment that feels both utilitarian and refined, aligning with the brand’s philosophy. The award recognizes the project as a benchmark for retail spaces that merge narrative, material clarity, and adaptive reuse.
Related
ABA’s maharishi Tribeca project is featured in Domus, which highlights how a light, two-story timber grid sits inside the historic loft without competing with it. The olive-painted insert stands apart from the original shell, creating a clear dialogue between old and new. Custom woven cotton curtains act as flexible boundaries, allowing the space to shift easily between display, storage, and small gatherings. Instead of a renovation that erases what was there, the project adds a deliberate, temporary layer—one that respects the existing architecture while giving the brand a strong and memorable spatial identity.
ABA’s maharishi Tribeca project is featured in Azure Magazine in the article, “In Tribeca, Maharishi’s First International Flagship Has an Appropriately Edgy Vibe.” The piece focuses on how the design inserts a timber grid “building-within-a-building” into a reused landmark loft, pairing the brand’s tactical influences with references to Japanese garden craft. Azure notes how the project preserves the character of the existing shell while introducing a modular display system that can adapt, conceal, or reveal—aligning with maharishi’s material intelligence, upcycling ethos, and utilitarian aesthetic.
ABA’s design for maharishi Tribeca is featured in the Hong Kong-based print publication Hinge, showcased in its “Folio” section. The piece highlights the project’s adaptive reuse, its balance of East–West references, and the transformative role of custom roll-up textile partitions that reconfigure the interior for display, gathering, and retail rituals.
The article on Dezeen explores how Abruzzo Bodziak Architects transformed the new U.S. flagship store of maharishi in New York’s Tribeca district into a “building-within-a-building.” Inside a landmark loft, the firm inserted an olive-green two-level timber module that floats within the historic shell, preserving original features while giving the brand a distinctive identity. Military-inspired shelving, mirrors, raw plywood, and rolling Japanese cotton curtains create a layered atmosphere that speaks to maharishi’s fusion of utility, camouflage, and refined materiality.
ABA’s maharishi Tribeca project earns a feature in Interior Design, where the duo describes the design as a “building within a building.” Set inside a landmarked 1867 loft, the intervention incorporates a bold, olive-painted timber grid filled with plywood display bays and a new mezzanine with a perforated steel balustrade that channels the brand’s utilitarian ethos. Custom waxed Japanese cotton curtains roll down over each bay, morphing the space from gallery to storage to retail environment within moments. Rather than a simple renovation, the piece shows how ABA layered architecture and brand narrative to create a branching, responsive interior calibrated for movement, material presence, and strategic surprise.