courtesy of James Wines and SITE
BEST Notch Building. SITE was commissioned to design a series of nine ?big box? shopping centers for the BEST Products Company in 1972. Since these retail structures are ubiquitous in the public domain, people?s reflex acceptance of their archetypal imagery was used in each case to invert and change the meaning. Instead of approaching the BEST buildings as conventionally ?designed? architecture, they were treated as a ?subject matter for art? and a source of visual commentary on the American commercial strip. Mechanized façade section in the process of opening the entrance to the building. BEST Products Company, Inc. Miami, FL. SITE. 1979
James Wines is best known for his innovative buildings, public spaces, parks, interiors and product designs. He founded SITE, an architecture and environmental arts studio in New York City in 1970, and immediately broke into the architecture scene with his controversial BEST Products buildings. With a background in sculpture, he viewed architecture as something to be examined and challenged. The BEST buildings questioned the typology of the big-box retail store while experimenting with the user’s expectations in such a setting. Wines continues to create architecture that eschews the comfort of conventions, and as a result, his work has reshaped how buildings are perceived and how architecture is itself defined. Much has changed since SITE was first founded, yet the studio’s work continues to b...