In the heart of New York’s Financial District, where the city's pulse beats with relentless energy, something unexpected unfolds inside One Wall Street—a 50-storey Art Deco landmark rising among the vertiginous towers that define Lower Manhattan’s skyline. Once the headquarters of the Bank of New York, the building now houses the new flagship outpost of celebrated French luxury department store Printemps. With the 55,000-square-feet space spanning two floors, the brand seeks to reimagine the future of retail design, just as it did in 1865, when it opened its first store on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris.

Designed by Paris-based architect and interior designer Laura Gonzalez, the space invites visitors into a multisensory retail experience that goes far beyond shopping, aligning with Printemps’ larger ambition: to redefine what a retail store can be today. “It represents a visionary approach to the future of retail – where we seamlessly integrate innovative programming with a curated approach to fashion and lifestyle, allowing us to continually adapt and evolve to meet the needs of today’s discerning consumers,” says Jean-Marc Bellaiche, CEO of Printemps Group, in an official press statement.

Printemps’ interiors offer a layered reverie of the past and present. Gonzalez drew inspiration from the brand's Parisian roots – its mosaics, stained glass, patterns and original art – and reimagined them for a New York audience. The result is a store where the two great cities come together. The project is designed as a series of interconnected rooms, each evoking the charm of a Parisian apartment, with rooms themed to evoke a salon, boudoir, playroom, among others. Walking through the retail space feels like drifting through a mise-en-scène. Each room has its own personality, its own palette, its own story to tell.

The store features five distinct food and beverage spaces that cater to every mood, from an airy, all-day café to a refined fine dining experience. Tucked between the carefully curated fashion floors are wellness and beauty treatment rooms, ateliers for clothing and accessory repair and fluid spaces designed to host a rotating lineup of designers, artists, events and more.

One of the store's standout features is the Red Room, the former iconic red ombré and gold mosaic-tiled bank hallway entrance on Wall Street, meticulously restored into a luxurious shoe salon. Filled with a forest of freestanding flowers acting as shoe stands with a canopy of intricately cut-out flowers crafted from ecological resin specially made for this project, the space evokes a fantastical garden in full bloom—a poetic nod, perhaps to the store’s name, Printemps, meaning spring in French.

The Red Room leads the way to the Red Room Bar. A space that seemingly appear plucked from the pages of The Great Gatsby, its rich crimson tones conjure the glamour of a bygone era. From there unfolds Printemps’ fine-dining concept, Maison Passerelle. Here the walls are adorned with a unique fresco that Gonzalez designed using culled photographs of sunsets from the colonies, using AI to merge them into a singular image. With its dedicated entrance on Broadway, the restaurant offers a fresh take on French culinary classics, featuring dishes influenced by former French colonies.

Maison Passerelle also offers a quiet passage into the vibrant Playroom—one of the store’s most dynamic zones—though it can also be entered directly through an entrance from the 1960s glass-and-metal tower extension of One Wall Street. Bright and playful, the space opens into curated fashion displays, fitting rooms, an all-day café called Café Jalu (named after Printemps’ founders Jules and Augustine Jaluzot), a section with books and a cocoon-like Sneaker Room, pulsating with lights from an LED screen ceiling, casting a kinetic glow over the space. The room is designed to ensure you wouldn't want to leave once you enter.

The Playroom leads right up to the next floor into the Salon. Laden with intricate Versailles-patterned parquet wood flooring, frescos, floral carpets and floral sculptures, the Salon serves as a backdrop for women’s ready-to-wear and accessories. Tucked within its lush surroundings is an intimate bar, Salon Vert—equal parts respite and rendezvous—where shoppers can pause over a glass of champagne before continuing their journey. Just beyond, the atmosphere shifts subtly as the men’s clothing area, La Garçonnière, unfolds. The space sports pink moiré wallpaper, soft blush curtains and pastel frescoes under large-scale light sculptures that resemble cascading feathers. It’s a surprising, subversive take on retail spaces for men.

This area opens into a green-tiled apothecary, or the fragrance room, designed as the beginning of a transition toward a more refined universe, the Beauty Corridor. The latter is conceived as a passage between the historic Art Deco tower of the building and its more modern glass extension, leading directly to Printemps' beauty and spa area, the Salle de Bain. Gonzalez envisioned this corridor as a metamorphosis, like a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly. A white 3D-printed plaster caterpillar winds its way through the space, a poetic symbol of transformation that anchors the corridor’s surreal elegance.

Drift further and you arrive in a chic boudoir that exudes a quiet grandeur, its double-height ceiling soaring above moon-gold metal cladded walls. This exquisite space houses Printemps’ curated collections of glamorous evening wear, vintage clothing and high fine jewellery, alongside stunning displays of original haute couture. The champagne bar in the boudoir invites the guests to linger in glamour just a moment longer. And then, in a quiet gesture of spatial poetry, a few steps down from the Boudoir, one arrives at the Red Room, completing a full circle through the store.

Sustainability at Printemps New York is not just a footnote, but embedded into the very fabric of the space. Gonzalez has outfitted the store with furniture crafted entirely from recycled materials. Resin tables made from discarded fashion waste, upcycled seating and architectural remnants repurposed from the historic site converge in a luxurious visual language. She has also sourced unique antique pieces from French flea markets, reinforcing the sustainability of the design while giving it a timeless touch.

Printemps New York emerges not merely as a department store but as a stage where Parisian elegance pirouettes with New York's audacious spirit. Its layout unfolds like an island designed to make you wander a little farther, a little longer. And once you enter, you stay—like lotus eaters—in a land lulled by beauty, fashion and the soft haze of perpetual spring.