Gap - Paris, France
Retail fit-out for Gap in Créteil, outside Paris, developed through Studios Architecture’s Paris office. The project combined the translation of Gap’s U.S. retail standards into a French construction environment with detailed architectural and engineering coordination of the store’s central stair.
CHALLENGE
Gap required its established American design and technical standards to be carried into a European delivery environment with different drawing conventions, fabrication practices, and construction expectations. At the center of the store, the stair presented a second challenge: maintaining the visual lightness of the design, particularly an intermediate landing intended to appear as though it were floating, while resolving the structural requirements behind it.
PROCESS
As one of the bilingual members of the Paris team, I coordinated between the local project team and Gap’s U.S. counterparts, producing and reviewing documentation and helping ensure that brand standards were correctly interpreted through local detailing, manufacturing, and installation. The stair required extensive coordination with engineering to reconcile structure, glass, open risers, connections, and the concealed support necessary to preserve the intended floating appearance of the landing.
OUTCOME
The completed store carried Gap’s established retail language into the French market while adapting its execution to local technical practices. The central stair became a defining architectural element: structurally resolved but visually light, with the engineering largely disappearing behind the finished design.
