Grand Central Optical

Our firm has enjoyed a long and productive creative relationship with Grand Central Optical, a family-owned business that began operations in New York’s famed Grand Central Terminal in 1924. Years later, following a generational change in the store’s management, BFA was commissioned to design a new shop for the Lexington Passage of the Terminal. This store gave the retailer a radically upgraded visual identity, recognized with the 1995 First Place Interior Design Specialty Award from the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID). Since then, the firm has designed a total of eight GCO stores, in the Terminal as well as on Madison Avenue, that have garnered additional awards. Each iteration has reinforced our client’s brand image as a progressive, high-quality, style-conscious retailer.

BFA’s latest store opened in 2023 at 340 Madison Avenue. It further refines GCO’s minimalist but rich material palette of glass, stainless steel, black rubber flooring, and a judicious application of accent color. The deep, narrow space is dominated by a 30-foot-long internally lit glass sales counter, which draws the customer’s eye back to the company’s trademark super-graphic of eyeglass frames applied to the backlit frosted glass wall of the venue’s office.