By James Murdock

Although developers are typically warned against constructing vertical retail venues in Manhattan, a joint venture between The Related Cos. and Apollo Real Estate Advisors L.P. is betting that six levels of shops at the AOL Time Warner Center will be a success.

The developers have good reason to be confident. Responding to its unique urban context, the Time Warner Center's compelling interior architecture, designed by Elkus/Manfredi Architects Ltd., is likely to draw passersby into The Shops at Columbus Circle, a 350,000-sq.-ft. shopping complex containing 40 stores, five restaurants and a jazz club.

Like a European galleria, these retail elements curve through the AOL Time Warner Center's bottom stories, following the arc of Columbus Circle and linking the building's twin skyscrapers. At the heart of the galleria, nestled between the towers, is a 75-ft. high lobby -- dubbed the Great Room -- that will open onto the street through a dramatic glass wall.

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"The metaphor here was to bring you from an outside experience to an inside experience in a seamless way," explained Kenneth Himmel, president of Related Urban Development L.L.C. Toward that end, materials and finishes throughout the Great Room will heighten this effect and help draw people further into the space.

Aluminum-leafed panels in the ceiling, for example, will appear cloudlike when lit by a battery of theater-quality lights. And patterns in the floor, made from the same stones used in the outdoor entrance plaza, will direct visitors to the escalator banks as a metaphoric continuation of the sidewalks on 59th Street.

"We're very excited about all the materials and the way we're using them," said Howard Elkus, principal of Elkus/Manfredi, who has designed other galleria-like shopping complexes, such as Copley Place in Boston. "It's what you walk on, touch and feel that's often the measure of the attitude of a space."

The Shops at Columbus Circle is likely to measure large. If nothing else, it will boast substantial retail variety. Although the tenant roster includes upscale stores such as Stuart Weitzman and Hugo Boss, it also includes neighborhood staples such as Whole Foods Market and The Equinox Health Club & Spa.

"You've got some interesting people-generators here," Himmel said. "People thought we were just going to go after luxury retailing for this project, but at no time did we try to eclipse Madison Avenue. ... This project is meant to be a good fit with the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Drawing repeat traffic is what makes a good center work."

The Shops at Columbus Circle might not even need the surrounding neighborhood. It will in many ways be the true, active core of the Time Warner Center, a 2.8 million-sq.-ft., $1.7 billion mixed-use complex. The stores will draw traffic from office workers, condominium residents, hotel guests and patrons of Jazz @ Lincoln Center.

"It doesn't close up at seven o'clock," observed Bruce Warwick, president of Columbus Centre L.L.C., the project's developer. "It's more of a total place, enlivened at night by restaurants and a bar--there's also a gourmet supermarket--so it's a place where people go morning, noon and night."

Detailing

Bovis Lend Lease Inc., general contractor for common areas in The Shops at Columbus Circle, is ensuring that materials come together to produce the intended effect. Several contractors, chief among them Structure-Tone Inc., New York City, are building the individual shops and restaurant interiors. The work is by no means easy.

For example, to install the Great Room's ceiling panels and apply 5.5-in. by 5.5-in. sections of aluminum leafing, Bovis Lend Lease hired Universal Builder Supply Inc. to build a special scaffolding platform -- nicknamed the "dance floor" -- that was suspended high above the lobby.

Working with the galleria's curving shape also proved a challenge, said Michael Povlick, a vice president of Bovis Lend Lease and the project executive. Whereas some spaces were segmented and relied on right angles, such as the individual store fronts, others followed the graceful arc determined by Columbus Circle.

Complicating matters, Bovis Lend Lease needed to maintain a clean line along the junction of a metal pan ceiling and a plaster ceiling; the two materials are always difficult to install next to each other, Povlick said, especially in a curved space.

The floor also contained tricky spots. "Howard (Elkus) had a vision in his head of the stone he wanted," said Karen Pearse, founder and CEO of Innovative Marble and Tile, Hauppauge, N.Y. Innovative matched the architect's vision with raw material from all over the world, fabricated it in Italy, shipped it to New York and installed it. The circular design of the great room added to the complexity of the fabrication. "Every piece was splayed, so each stone had to be cut separately," she added. (See sidebar for more about the search for the right stone)

In addition to several varieties of stone -- granites from India and Finland, marbles from Greece and Australia -- Elkus/Manfredi specified glass pavers. These tiles are comprised of four glass layers, three clear polyvinylbutryl layers and a bottom layer of impermeable wediboard. Although sealed with silicon, they are easily damaged by the cement substraight and surrounding stones.

"The glass pavers must be set even with, or below, the stone pavers to avoid chipping," Povlick explained. "Cleaning and other floor maintenance like grinding and sealing will likely present a challenge to the maintenance crew."

Unfortunately, Bovis Lend Lease itself has already had some experience with floor maintenance. In early April 2003, a four-alarm fire broke out in the Jazz @ Lincoln Center space, which is housed one level above The Shops at Columbus Circle. Heat and flame destroyed an escalator bank that links the two areas, while smoke and water severely damaged finishes throughout the retail space.

During the cleanup, Bovis Lend Lease removed 5,000 sq. ft. of stone pavers from the fourth and fifth floor hallways. (To ensure construction did not fall behind schedule, Related paid for new stones to be cut and air-freighted from an assembly plant in Italy.) It also removed several sections of cherry wood walls panels and stripped aluminum leafing from roughly one-sixth of the Great Room's ceiling.

Despite the setback, Bovis Lend Lease was on target to complete the common areas in time for a September 2003 delivery date. The Shops at Columbus Circle, however, will not open until the individual stores are finished in February 2004.

Fitting out the individual stores will be no small chore. "Part of the challenge in the project is the shape of the building," Himmel said. "The crescent-shaped gallery that follows Columbus Circle means you get these very unusual shapes and that means each store needs to be customized for the space. You can't just take a shopping center lease plan and put it in this building."

The retailers themselves also have ambitious ideas. Williams-Sonoma Inc., for example, is building its largest store ever: a two-level, 20,000-sq.-ft. unit that will be the first store visitors see when they enter the Great Room from Columbus Circle. In keeping with the concept of bringing the outdoors inside, the store's facade is designed to appear as though it fronts onto a real street.

J. Crew Group Inc., meanwhile, is building its first two-level store. Located on the northeast edge of the retail galleria, on the second and third floors, the shop's windows look out onto Columbus Circle.

"J. Crew has developed a custom stair that connects its floors. The stair faces onto the Circle, so you're going to be able to watch the traffic connecting between floors from the street," Himmel said. While practical, the staircase is another way of drawing visitors into The Shops at Columbus Circle by heightening its dramatic appeal.