1) The document summarizes the design of two HANNspree retail stores in Beverly Hills and San Francisco. 2) The design aims to present the playful electronics products in an elegant, minimalist style inspired by museum display, to appeal to both children and adults. 3) Key design elements include maple floors with court-like markings, cylindrical pedestals and spot lighting to showcase the products, and use of squares as a motif inspired by the scale of the products. In San Francisco, a curving staircase connects the multiple levels with glass railings and signage to draw customers upstairs.

1. TRANSITIONDESIGN ANNUAL
MULVANNYG2
ARCHITECTURE
01

2. 54
TRANSITION
TWO THOUSAND THIRTEEN
Sleek Significance
Wuxi Ying Hui Center - Wuxi, China
Eastern Soul, Western Veneer
Wuxi Ying Hui Shopping Center - Wuxi, China
Incremental Innovation
Costco Wholesale - Worldwide
Ripe With Possibility
Suning Chengdu Plaza - Chengdu, China
Mise En Scène
Hiroshima Ballpark Town - Hiroshima, Japan
Social Agenda
Tonkon Torp - Portland, Oregon
Water, Symmetry, Scale
China Resources Land Mixed Use - Taizhou, China
Creative Team Members
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Gary Larson, AIA, FAAR - Global Design Leader
Moments In Transition
Ming Zhang, AIA, LEED AP - President
Intention Drives Design - Relevance Is Our Measure
Gary Larson, AIA, FAAR - Global Design Leader
Instigating Urban
Bellevue Towers - Bellevue, Washington
Playful Minimalism
HANNspree - Beverly Hills and San Francisco, California
Reading Target
Target @ Mosaic District - Merrifield, Virginia
Civic Gravitas
Redmond City Hall - Redmond, Washington
Product and Placement
Suzhou New World Center - Suzhou, China
Theater of the Brand
China Resources Land Showroom - Qingdao, China
45
49
55
63
69
73
77
83
85
07
09
11
13
19
25
29
37
41
CONTENTS

3. 19
TRANSITION
TWO THOUSAND THIRTEEN
Architect
Developer
Construction
Completion
Type
Location
Square Feet
MulvannyG2 Architecture
HANNspree
Fisher Development
2005
Retail
San Francisco, California
Beverly Hills, California
9,500 SF (San Francisco)
5,250 SF (Beverly Hills)
O
ur designs for two HANNspree stores, in
Beverly Hills and San Francisco, channel
the nature and scale of HANNspree’s
products while adapting conventions of museum
display to a retail context. HANNspree is a retailer
of playful, novelty televisions and electronics—for
example, TVs with frames surrounding the screen
with motifs of, say, animals, sports or fruit. Some
TVs are encased in an “apple,” for instance,
a treatment that combines technology with a
cuteness that’s akin to a toy. They’re also well done,
functioning as much as objets as televisions, so the
experience of the products’ display is a collusion
of the tactile allure of playful and cute with the
objective distance that’s created when you admire
something elegant and luxurious.
Those two aesthetic experiences—tactility
and distance—provide contrast in interpreting the
HANNspree brand and its audiences: The spaces
convey luxury to present products that could be as
much for adults as they are for children. In service
of that, restrained evocation of luxury is our design
intent, with a touch of humor. In execution, while in
some ways thematic, the interiors in no way pander
to conventions often deployed to attract children
as consumers. Instead, the design subtly quotes to
balance elegance and playfulness.
Tactility is communicated in several ways
includingthesportsthemeofsomeofHANNspree’s
products. One example is the treatment of floors.
At both locations, maple is specified throughout—
the same material of basketball courts. “Court
markings,” in a lighter stain, then allude to the half
circles of the free-throw line or the half-court center
circle. On the other hand, objective distance
is conveyed by tapping techniques of museum
THIS DESIGN ACHIEVES THE REMARKABLE
CONDITION OF DELIGHTING CHILDREN AND
ADULTS WITHOUT PANDERING TO EITHER.

4. 2120
TRANSITION
TWO THOUSAND THIRTEEN
display design that include a spare, minimalist
presentation and palette, the use of perspective
and spot lighting, and the use of the product itself
to bring color and fun to the experience. Together,
these moves achieve the remarkable condition of
delighting children and adults without pandering
to either.
BEVERLY HILLS
White cylindrical pedestals, at counter height,
display TVs throughout this store, positioned with a
subtle jocularity that reminds you of players on the
court. Another humorous nod
is to speed racing in the use
of a checkerboard patterned
rug—with black seating atop,
inspired by bucket seats,
eliciting grins from all ages.
Concealed lighting under
pedestals and display tables
produces crisp white light that
twinkles along the edges of
the televisions and projects
circles on the maple floor—softly spotlighting the
maple-lined walls. The pedestals’ circular shadows
hover at their base, all part of the elegant pattern
play. Lighting design—the nature of the light and
the positioning of the ceiling fixtures—offers
bright, white illumination, with fixtures delightfully
integrated with HVAC vents in a double-dot/
double-dash pattern. But, more than beauty, the
perspective that the light fixture pattern creates
moves your eye forward through the space, working
in concert with the position of the pedestals and
floor tiles. Our design intends to literally move you.
In terms of defining a motif
for the space, the scale of the
products themselves—cubes
of between one and two
feet—sets a precedent for our
presentation. Squares—about
the size of the products—are
presented on the floors, the
maple-lined walls, as well as
the white “scored” squares
of the storefront outside.
Squares in fresh, clear colors, including the lime
green of the signage outside, comprise a grid that’s
the primary visual focus for the store’s cash wrap,
too. The products themselves contrast with their
minimalist context as punctuating zings of bright
color throughout the store.
SAN FRANCISCO
The San Francisco store—a four-storied space
unlike Beverly Hills’ one story—required more
architectural and structural intervention, including
a seismic upgrade, and also posed a design
challenge: Visually connect this store’s multiple
merchandise levels to entice people to ascend.
An adaptive reuse of an early 20th-century
commercial building, the structure features
three stories of double-paned, double-sashed
windows capped with a heavy cornice—all above
the larger windows of the first floor. This format—
larger punched windows on the first floor with
smaller-scaled windows on floors above—is the
first expression of modern retail space, from the
19th-century. This architectural convention helped
PLAYFUL MINIMALISM
HANNSPREE
THE SPACES CONVEY
LUXURY TO PRESENT
PRODUCTS THAT COULD BE
AS MUCH FOR ADULTS AS
THEY ARE FOR CHILDREN
Bright squares serve as a motif that harken to the scale
and nature of the products, at the Beverly Hills store.
In plan, the activation of the corner
entry. Below, experimentation with
signage and an atrium for the multi-
level San Francisco store.

5. 2322
TRANSITION
TWO THOUSAND THIRTEEN
create the relationship as we know it between
object for purchase, window, and reflection—literal
and metaphorical—of ourselves. Our own design
decisions for HANNspree react to this context.
To cue the current function of the entire
space as retail and to focus on the first floor
display windows, we chose to paint the entire
facade the same shade of white—flattening the
cornices and the columns-in-relief—a kind of de-
materialization. This choice to whitewash flattens—
turning the volume down—on the facade’s historical
connotations, mentioned above. That choice
also pops the lime green signage, accentuating
the building corner, a design move that activates
the streetscape and focuses the store entry on
that corner. Lighting shines upward from fixtures
at the secondary cornice atop the first floor, in
a manner that acknowledges the rhythm and
panache of Art Deco. Taken together, the design
intentionally communicates play between historic
and contemporary signifiers.
Inside, the stair curves through a
large, 30-foot square void carved from
the second level. Travertine-edges
create a serrated rhythm along the
staircase, a material foil for the curving
staircase with glass railings that
swerve upward—its visual momentum
akin to a pitched baseball—to the
second floor. Then, a large photo of
a baseball is set where the stairs
end, a humorous punctuation to the
staircase’s kinetic, curving “pitch.” It’s
a pleasing aesthetic pun. Looking up
from there, the space that the stairs
wind within terminates at the circular coffer in the
second-floor ceiling. The use of transparency and
white surfaces throughout the space abates a
foreshortening effect created by a restricted floor-
to-ceiling height on the second floor itself.
Design moves in both the San Francisco
and Beverly Hills stores stand on the shoulders
of choices that are already part of a lexicon.
Downlight, spotlight, uplight and glow all work with
fixture design, and material and spatial intervention
to conjure high-end retail display. The design
also taps our associations with the stillness and
objectivity of museum display conventions, which
create a calm platform for viewing clever objects. 
OUR DESIGNS CHANNEL THE NATURE AND
SCALE OF HANNSPREE’S PRODUCTS WHILE
ADAPTING CONVENTIONS OF MUSEUM
DISPLAY TO A RETAIL CONTEXT
PLAYFUL MINIMALISM
HANNSPREE
Transparency and white surfaces at the San Francisco store
abate a foreshortening effect of a restricted ceiling height.
At left, speculating on visual and literal movement through the store.
Below, a consumer’s view of the swerve of the staircase.
Maple-lined floors and walls—scored in a motif of squares.
Elegant, minimal design that includes a serene horizontal
plane showcases the playfulness of the product.