Design Research (store)

Last updated
Design Research
D/R
Founded1953;72 years ago (1953) in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Founder Ben Thompson
Defunct1978 (1978)
FateBankruptcy; Brand rights acquired jointly by Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn

Design Research (abbreviated and trademarked as D/R) was a retail store founded in 1953 by Ben Thompson in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and which introduced the concept of lifestyle store. In the 1970s under subsequent ownership, it became a chain of a dozen stores across the United States, and went bankrupt in 1979. Thompson's goal was to provide "a place where people could buy everything they needed for contemporary living", [1] notably modern European furnishings and in particular Scandinavian design.

Contents

Without question, D/R was the most influential force in twentieth-century America in creating an awareness and appreciation for modern design in the consumer world.

Rob Forbes, founder
Design Within Reach [2]

D/R has continued to have an outsized reputation: in 2000, a survey of influential design stores named D/R as number one, though it had then been closed for 22 years. [2] The store influenced later retailers like Crate & Barrel, [3] Design Within Reach, [1] Pottery Barn, Workbench, and Conran's. [4]

Selection of products

The genius of Ben Thompson was that he wasn't a retailer, so he didn't approach retailing in a conventional way at all... Eventually we took the whole idea and translated it into a reproducible formula.

Lon Habkirk
Crate & Barrel [3]

Design Research carried an eclectic selection of products, from furniture to clothing, from toys to pots and pans, at a wide range of prices, introducing the idea of a lifestyle store. [5] [6] It carried furnishings by such designers as Marcel Breuer, Hans Wegner, Alvar Aalto, and Joe Colombo. [7]

Design Research was the exclusive US representative for the Finnish clothing and textiles of Marimekko from 1959 to 1976. [8] Jacqueline Kennedy was pictured on the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1960 in a Marimekko sundress purchased at D/R. [9]

Stores

The original Design Research store was in a 19th-century wood frame mansard house at 57 Brattle Street, in Harvard Square, Cambridge. [10] D/R later added stores in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts; Lexington Avenue (1961) and East 57th Street (1964) in New York City; and Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco (1965).[ citation needed ]

Harvard University bought the original Brattle Street store and demolished it in 1969 to build the Gutman Library of its School of Education. [11]

This marvelous building... is conceived as a five-story glass showcase, faceted like the surface of a diamond. The facade is so transparent that the merchandise on display indoors becomes part of the architecture.

Robert Campbell
architecture critic, The Boston Globe [12]

In 1969, Thompson opened a new, much larger, Cambridge store in his revolutionary new building on Brattle Street with entirely glass walls.

Until 1969, D/R stores were all located in urban areas, but under new management, D/R opened stores in suburban shopping malls, which Thompson disapproved of:[ citation needed ] South Shore Plaza in Braintree, Massachusetts (1972); South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California (1972); and The Mall at Chestnut Hill in Newton, Massachusetts (1974). The company also opened urban stores at the Embarcadero Center in San Francisco (1973), and in downtown Philadelphia in Rittenhouse Square (1975). [13]

The Brattle Street store

In 1969, Thompson moved the original Cambridge store to a revolutionary new 24,000-square-foot (2,200 m2) building designed by his firm, Benjamin Thompson and Associates, at 48 Brattle Street in Harvard Square, on a block that came to be known as "Architects' Corner". [14] The 5-story building consists of flat concrete slabs supported by interior columns, and enclosed by frameless tempered glass walls. [15] The use of butted glass with no frame or mullions was unprecedented, and "allowed D/R to be a building almost 'without architecture'". [16]

It immediately received favorable reviews: "points the way to a method of glass building that could create a warmer city, adding color and light and optimism to the life of the streets". [17] The building won many awards over the years: [18]

Later tenants

Since D/R closed in 1979, the Brattle Street building has had various tenants:

Corporate history

Design Research was started by the architect Ben Thompson in 1953.[ citation needed ] Spencer Field, a furniture designer, joined the firm as a 50-50 business partner in the early 1950s. [25] By 1966, it was clear that the company was underfinanced for Thompson's expansion plans, and he started looking for outside investors. The company was reorganized as a new corporate entity in 1967 and was recapitalized, with Field's interest being bought out in February 1968 by Peter J. Sprague, an entrepreneur and chairman of National Semiconductor, who became chairman.[ citation needed ]

In 1969, Sprague forced Thompson out as director of the company, but Thompson remained a stockholder.[ citation needed ] Under a succession of presidents, D/R opened more new stores, but Thompson felt that they had lost their distinctive style and approach.[ citation needed ] By 1976, the business was deteriorating, and in 1979 it declared bankruptcy. [4] Rights to the names "Design Research" and "D/R" were bought jointly by Crate & Barrel and Pottery Barn. [26]

Bibliography

Notes

  1. 1 2 Pilar Viladas, "One-Stop Living", The New York Times September 29, 2010
  2. 1 2 Rob Forbes, "Foreword: Who's Your Daddy?" in Jane Thompson and Alexandra Lange, Design Research: The Store That Brought Modern Living to American Homes, 2010 ISBN   0-8118-6818-4, p. 7 excerpt available
  3. 1 2 Joseph P. Kahn (November 1, 1985). "On Display: Founder Gordon Segal's sense of selling as theater has made Crate & Barrel one of the world's most admired and imitated retailing operations". Inc. Retrieved February 5, 2010.
  4. 1 2 Suzanne Slesin, "Design/ Research Store Starts Its Final Sale", The New York Times June 1, 1979
  5. ↑ Carole Nicksin, "The Legacy of Design Research: The impact of the long-defunct retailer is still being felt within the home furnishings industry", HFN The Weekly Newspaper for the Home Furnishing Network, November 8, 2004 full text
  6. ↑ Lange, Alexandra (August 15, 2010). "When Shopping Was Sociable". Design Observer. Retrieved 2025-11-02.
  7. ↑ Travers, Rachel (29 October 2009). ""Through a glass, brightly"". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2 November 2009. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  8. ↑ Marianne Aav, Marimekko: Fabrics, Fashion, Architecture, 2003 ISBN   0-300-10183-X, p. 305, 324 excerpts at Google Books
  9. ↑ Sports Illustrated, December 26, 1960; in Marianne Aav, Marimekko: Fabrics, Fashion, Architecture, 2003, ISBN   030010183X, p. 162
  10. ↑ Mierzwa, Katherine (April 16, 2015). "A look back at Cambridge's Design Research Store". Wicked Local. Retrieved 2025-11-02.
  11. ↑ "57-61 Brattle Street [Demolished]". Harvard Property Information Resource Center. Retrieved 2025-11-03.
  12. ↑ Campbell, Robert (21 December 2008). "Two urban drawing cards are now in limbo: Challenges ahead for Faneuil Hall Marketplace and a glass icon in Cambridge". Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2 November 2012. Retrieved 19 October 2025.
  13. ↑ Janet Levy, "Design Research: Marketing 'Good design' in the 50s, 60s, and 70s", Master of Arts thesis at Parsons The New School for Design, 2004. Chapter 2, p. 63
  14. ↑ "Architects' Corner", Society of Architectural Historians, SAH Archipedia
  15. ↑ "25-Year Award to Design Research Headquarters", ArchitectureWeek full text
  16. ↑ Tom Green, as quoted in Mark Pasnik, Michael Kubo, Chris Grimley, Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston, 2015, ISBN   1580934242, p. 188
  17. ↑ Architectural Record as quoted in Gavin W. Kleespies and Katie MacDonald (Cambridge Historical Society), "Design Research Building" in Harvard Square Business Association Archives Archived 2010-12-23 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ↑ "BTA's Honors and Awards". Archived from the original on 2011-07-08. Retrieved 2010-10-24.
  19. ↑ Twenty Five Year Award Recipients Archived 2016-11-19 at the Wayback Machine .
  20. ↑ Peter F. Zhu, "Crate & Barrel To Close", The Harvard Crimson, November 19, 2008 full text
  21. ↑ Alyssa Giacobbe, "A Look Back at Design Research", The New York Times October 28, 2009 full text
  22. ↑ Xi Yu, "Women's Clothing Store Anthropologie To Light Up Space on Brattle St.", The Harvard Crimson, June 24, 2010 full text
  23. ↑ Messier, Catherine. "Anthropologie is closing its location in Cambridge this week. How to get the closing sales". Wicked Local. Retrieved 2025-01-18.
  24. ↑ Levy, Marc (2025-07-22). "Harvard Square will be site for a store by Muji, Japanese retailer with a simple-life aesthetic". Cambridge Day. Retrieved 2025-11-02.
  25. ↑ Obituary, "Spencer Field, at 78; owned travel firm, designed furniture", The Boston Globe, February 21, 1997, p. B7
  26. ↑ Levy, "Design Research" Chapter 1 Archived 2013-05-15 at the Wayback Machine , p. 17-29

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