Imagining Best Products

Imagining Best Products, on view May 7 – June 21 at The Branch Museum of Design, explores the radical retail experiment led by Francis and Sydney Lewis, whose Richmond based company Best Products became an unlikely platform for architectural innovation.

The Lewises were passionate collectors of contemporary art, often trading appliances from their own catalog for artwork, even as they found themselves building big box stores across suburbia. They began to ask: how do you bring art into the American landscape? They answered by inviting architects including James Wines of SITE, Robert A.M. Stern, and Stanley Tigerman to rethink the retail warehouse.

Through original drawings, models, and photographs, the exhibition traces how that question sparked a creative response that helped redefine retail architecture in late twentieth century America.

About the Curation Team

Curator:  Don O’Keefe – Architect, Lecturer in Architecture, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Associate Curators:  Dana Barale | Yuwei Chiang | Hazel [Chang] Gao | Luisa Haller | Xiya Jiang | Emi Kim | Maggie Martin | Maya Shamir | Sean Skaskiw | Meagan Tan Jingchuu | Shlomi Wolman | Fei Xiong | Yiming Zhu

Advisory Committee

Gabriel Boudali – Writer & art collections specialist | Elizabeth Cogar – Writer & visual artist | Tom Geismar – Founding partner, Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv | Malcolm Holzman – Architect, partner, Steinberg Hart | Janet Parks – Retired curator & archivist, Avery Library, Columbia University | Edwin Slipek † – Writer, educator & architectural historian | James Wines – SITE | Suzan Wines – SITE, I-Beam

Additional Support

Students from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design contributed to the curation of this exhibition. As part of a research course, and with support from the Branch Museum of Design and exhibition sponsors, they investigated contemporary issues in design curation, including how museums can participate in the civic life of cities.