Best Products' design legacy explored in first comprehensive exhibition

The Branch Museum of Design in Richmond, Virginia, presents 'Imagining Best Products,' the first exhibition to comprehensively examine the design vision of the defunct retail chain Best Products. Founded by philanthropists Sydney and Frances Lewis, the company commissioned iconic showroom buildings from architects like SITE, Robert A.M. Stern, Stanley Tigerman, Venturi Scott Brown, and Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates. The exhibition, curated by Don O'Keefe in partnership with former communications director Edwin Slipek, features models, drawings, graphic materials, and ephemera, including works lent by the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. Student-created models from a Harvard GSD seminar are displayed. The show contextualizes Best's visual identity within American political and media history, including the Three Mile Island incident. Programming includes a talk by James and Suzan Wines on SITE's showrooms, a screening of Jim Venturi's documentary 'Stardust' on June 20, and a conversation with curator Jay Barrows on June 21. Only one Best building remains recognizable: the SITE Forest Showroom in Richmond, now a church.