The Gallery at the Historic Bethlehem Steel Building, Restoration Hardware’s newest retail project, has opened in San Francisco as a prominent addition to the city’s Pier 70 and gateway to what was once one of the country’s most storied shipyards.
With five retail floors, the store integrates luxury home furnishings collections from RH Contemporary, Interiors, Modern and Outdoor with rare art, antiques and artifacts from around the world. The building, opened in 1917 and designed in the Classical Revival style by San Francisco architect Frederick Meyer, RH noted, adding that the landmark building has been meticulously restored and reimagined with respect for its original vision. Restoration Hardware chairman and CEO Gary Friedman has led the company in the revitalization of several other iconic buildings across the United States, RH maintained, including the former Museum of Natural History in Boston’s Back Bay, the Post Office in Greenwich, CT, and the Historic Three Arts Club in Chicago’s Gold Coast.
RH Interior Design Firm & Atelier occupies the entire lower level, and, at 10,000 square feet, is the company’s largest such department to date. The interactive studio includes private client presentation rooms combined with state-of-the-art technology, an RH Rugs showroom presenting an exclusive collection, design libraries dedicated to a vast assortment of textiles, furniture and lighting finishes, and an elegant jewel-box gallery showcasing bath and cabinet hardware designs, RH indicated.
The gallery devotes the second level to RH Interiors. Then, the building dedicates a full floor to an exclusive preview of RH Contemporary in advance of its upcoming debut. RH Contemporary operates between the space occupied by RH Interiors and RH Modern. RH Outdoor, the company pointed out, operates as part of the building’s rooftop park.
“We are both humbled and honored to play a part in the reestablishment of San Francisco’s historic shipyards, and to reimagine the iconic Bethlehem Steel Building into a place open to the public for the very first time,” said Friedman, in announcing the opening. “This was a rare opportunity to do what we love, in a city that we love and call our home.”
