The corner of Toorak Road an Chapel Street is one of the highest profile retail sites in suburban Melbourne and offered an appropriate setting for the new store as the gateway to the Chapel Street shopping strip. Having identified a need for a prominent retail outlet in the area, Country Road Australia approached METIER3 to develop a new flagship store which refl ected the qualities of their diverse range of clothing and homeware products.

As the first of a new generation of retail buildings for Country Road, it was essential to create a building which would capture the Country Road “style”, and reflect the future direction of the company. A series of polished precast concrete columns frame the double-height shop windows. Two large glazed display boxes, suspended over the pavement, draw attention to the retail activity within. The composition of these tall elements, linked by articulated parapet, continues the rhythm of the adjoining Victorian style street frontages, and successfully integrates the modern building into the streetscape.