The Resort Collection

Designers were challenged with designing an exciting, playful environment in an oddly positioned space. The Resort Collection, an upscale women's boutique, is situated in a community of adjacent storefronts and has limited exposure to the public way. So, designers added a new storefront window and angled walls to attract passing customers. The storefront mimics the prow of a ship, with the walls angled down toward the back.

Inside, a palette of light woods and colors of sun, sea and sky reinforce the vacation theme. Soft curves add femininity and motion to the store, and display niches built into the walls add visual interest, while highlighting single accessories.

Above the store's focal point — a circular cashwrap — a sculptural, spandex-wrapped chandelier floats under a lighted blue cove. Small matching lamps attached to the cashwrap lend a soft touch and canvas webbing on hang-and-fold units behind evokes thoughts of lounging by the sea. And in keeping with the “resort” theme, the atmosphere is one of relaxation and indulgence, of being on a vacation.

Client: MGM Grand, Las Vegas — Teri Borowski, vp, retail; Patrick Lucas, director of retail operations; Steve Hoffman, retail services project manager; Diane Butner, visual manager

Design: Design: Robert G. Lyon & Associates, Schiller Park, Ill., and Pasadena, Calif.-Robert Lyon, ceo; Joseph Geoghegan, president; Paul Nieboer, director of client services; Randy Sattler, director of visual merchandising and presentation; Karen Lee Poltorak, lead designer; Suzan Sanders, designer; Sam Demonteverde, project manager

General Contractor: Retail Construction, Rockwall, Texas

Suppliers: Arc-com, Orangeburg, N.Y. (fabrics); Pinkus Woodworks Group, Addison, Ill. (woodwork and cabinetry); Crystolon, Commerce, Calif. (metal fixturing); MET Merchandising Concepts, Chicago (fixture legs); Helios, Calhoun, Ga. (flooring); Barrett Hill, New York, Niedermaier, Chicago, and Pinkus Woodworks Group, Addison, Ill. (furniture); Hughes Design, Chicago (graphics); Luminary Tools, Brooklyn, N.Y. (custom chandelier, cashwrap lamps); Juno Lighting, Des Plaines, Ill. (lighting); Lamin-art, Elk Grove Village, Ill. (laminates); Greneker, Los Angeles, and Seven Continents, Toronto (mannequins/forms); Seven Continents, Toronto, and Pinkus Woodworks Group, Addison, Ill. (props/decoratives); Larson Electric Sign, Las Vegas (signage); Innovations in Wallcoverings, New York, MDC, Elk Grove Village, Ill., and JM Lynne, Chicago (wallcoverings)

Photography: Russell MacMasters Photography, San Francisco