Richmond exhibit revisits Best Products' radical design
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The "Forest Building," at 9008 Quioccasin Road. Image: Courtesy of SITE / James Wines
A new exhibition at The Branch Museum of Design explores how the "radical design" of Richmond-based Best Products helped reshape the national retail landscape.
Why it matters: Generations of Richmonders grew up with these stores — and Best's catalogue.
State of play: Richmond couple, contemporary art collectors and major VMFA donors, Frances and Sydney Lewis founded Best Products in 1957, launching a catalogue and their first showroom near Willow Lawn.
- By the mid-1980s, they had 200 stores in 23 states, but Best is perhaps most known for the experimental, architectural design it showcased on a handful of stores in the 1970s.
- Those included two in Richmond — one on Midlothian Turnpike and another on Quioccasin Road.
Zoom in: The new exhibit at Branch — "Imagining Best Products" — lets visitors explore the architectural drawings, photos, sketches and more that helped shape these iconic stores.
- Plus, it highlights Best's graphic identity, the people who helped create it, and the impact these stores and the Lewises had on commercial architecture nationwide.
What they're saying: "These buildings are studied in schools and museums around the world, and it all started here with Sydney and Frances Lewis," lead curator Don O'Keefe said in a statement.
Fun fact: Best Products closed in 1997 and, per Richmond Magazine, only one of its experimental design stores still stands: The one on Quioccasin.
- It's now a church.
If you go: "Imagining Best Products" runs through June 21. The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday and admission is $10.