At The Branch BEST Notch Building 2. Courtesy of SITE, James Wines.
Imagining Best Products At the Branch Museum
05.2026
Imagining Best Products, on view through June 21 at The Branch Museum of Design, explores the radical experiments in design led by Frances and Sydney Lewis, whose Richmond based company Best Products became an unlikely platform for architectural innovation.
Best Products was a Richmond-based retail company known for its distinctive catalog showroom model. By the 1970s, it operated a growing network of retail stores across the country. And the Lewises were avid collectors of contemporary art world, even trading products from their catalog with artists like Andy Warhol.
That perspective shaped how they approached their stores – treating them not just as functional spaces, but as opportunities for experimentation and design. They invited architects and designers to rethink the retail landscape: The result was a series of bold, unconventional storefronts that challenged expectations and expanded the possibilities of commercial architecture.
Imagining Best Products brings together architectural drawings, models, photographs, sketches, and printed materials that trace these collaborations. The exhibition also highlights Best’s iconic graphic identity. Research for the exhibition was supported by students from the Harvard University Graduate School of Design.
The Branch Museum of Design
2501 Monument Avenue
Richmond, VA 23220
(804) 655-6055