People from all over the world visit New York City for a culturally rich, cosmopolitan experience. The Travel Agency on Fifth Avenue wants to give them a taste of the high life, as well, in elegant retail surroundings.
Located between 47th Street and 48th Street in Midtown Manhattan, The Travel Agency on Fifth Avenue is a stone’s throw away from Rockefeller Center, Radio City Music Hall, Bergdorf Goodman, and Saks. Patterned after its chic elder sibling, The Travel Agency Union Square, the new location blends into Fifth Avenue’s luxury vibe and echoes the diverse, highbrow, fashion-forward savoir faire of its neighbors.
Co-founder and President Arana Hankin-Biggers wanted the Fifth Avenue store to feel “way more glam” than the equally elegant but somewhat more utilitarian original location. “That’s why we decided to partner with the Leong Leong architecture studio for the design piece,” she said. “We really wanted this space to be reflective of its community, and all of the firm’s designs are reflective of the broader Manhattan culture. We figured [Leong Leong] would be a perfect match for our Fifth Avenue location.”
The Travel Agency team let the architects take the lead, placing full trust in the firm after it brought the concept for the Union Square store to life. Sticking with a theme that centers on the mystique of travel—think romanticized, main-character-at-a-train-station energy—Leong Leong developed Fifth Avenue to be reminiscent of an old-school, Grand-Central-like pit stop for the city’s most sophisticated stoners and the cannacurious alike.
“Fifth Avenue is such an iconic shopping space, and The Travel Agency is surrounded by other very upscale establishments,” said Chris Leong, founding partner at Leong Leong. “However, the location is also continuing on with elements that were originally developed in Union Square. Each location loosely takes on the idea of travel—not in a literal way, but more referentially and emotionally. With Fifth Avenue, you have this really tall storefront, so we wanted to take advantage of that and really give the location visibility and presence amongst its neighbors. Creating a waiting area behind the all-glass storefront was one of our first moves in that direction.”
Upon entering the space, visitors are confronted with a long, linear space that feels…well, train-sized. The unassuming displays—minimalism at its finest—are arranged so they “breathe,” spaced out enough so consumers can peruse the merchandise without being overwhelmed by a barrage of brands. A circular light resembling a faceless clock sends a wash of warmth across the wall, playfully referencing the sun and engendering a buoyancy that imbues the space with a sort of mellowness that’s uncommon in the City that Never Sleeps.
“There’s also a gold palm tree displayed in the checkout space—a subtle reference to 1970s Viennese architect Hans Hollein, who often included similar golden palms in his postmodern retail designs,” Leong said. “We just wanted to have fun with that concept, so for us, the palm tree is both a reference to traveling imagined realities and a historical architectural Easter egg.”
Between the metallic tree, a papier-mâché cannabis plant, and the clever ways Leong Leong played with high, vaulted ceilings and moody lighting, The Travel Agency is arrestingly immersive, with each intriguing design tidbit gently pulling visitors through the space in a natural manner that satisfies the senses. It’s the sort of space Leong is most accustomed to designing. The team is well-versed in building pathways of fascination.
“We just finished the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute design for the season, and it featured a lot of parallels when it comes to the idea of observation,” Leong said. “We were able to pull a lot of those concepts into this project but, in general, most of our work involves building spaces that enable experience: immersive and activating for senses that go beyond the visual.”
In the case of cannabis, aroma was a big driver for the Leong Leong firm. The team focused on scent and taste when curating The Travel Agency’s Fifth Avenue presence, creating displays that invite consumers to understand different strains on a personal, synergistic level.
“Displays were core for us when it came to developing the brand’s environment,” Leong said. As with the Union Square store, “we wanted to create a surreal sanctuary—a place that is removed and serene from the business of the street. And in terms of display, we needed to accomplish two things: One, follow the state’s regulations of keeping products behind lock and key, and two, make space for The Travel Agency’s visual merchandising strategy. The company puts a lot of intention behind curating products for their customers, and to best showcase those efforts, less is more. So, we created displays that act as frames or portals to the products in the best way.”
The Travel Agency Fifth Avenue is still new to the neighborhood, but according to Hankin-Biggers, feedback already has been “overwhelmingly positive,” partially because the design fits in so well.
“For this location, we really wanted to create a space that felt like a New York institution—reminiscent of the culture that has existed here for decades,” Hankin-Biggers said. “People are initially blown away by Leong Leong’s amazing designs, but once immersed in the atmosphere they are equally impressed by the quality of our budtenders and how knowledgeable they are. We spent a lot of time training our team so they could guide our customers through the best, most purposeful experience possible. We have a lot of foot traffic from people who’ve never set foot in a dispensary before, and we want to make sure they feel comfortable and willing to learn about the plant.”
The Travel Agency isn’t the first dispensary to try applying Fifth Avenue’s style and flair to cannabis (MedMen’s now-defunct store earned that distinction), but the brand aims to learn from its predecessors and hopefully adopt a more nuanced, sophisticated, and interesting approach.
“The reason we’ve done so well in such a short amount of time is that we’ve really invested in finding the best [retail] talent—the top performers in the industry,” Hankin-Biggers said.
The team also puts a lot of energy into making sure they’ve covered every product category. “Part of that is selecting brands that have unique offerings, like vegan and/or sustainable products,” Hankin-Biggers said. “Then, we also give special accommodations to [Black-, indigenous-, and people of color-], women-, and queer-owned brands and as many New-York-born brands as possible. We have these larger West Coast brands coming in to crush it, so we’re trying to do what we can to support New York while also making sure we have something for everyone and at every price point. It’s an upscale location, but we can’t forget that all types of people walk down Fifth Avenue, and everyone is welcome in our store.”
The Travel Agency on Fifth Avenue also plans to follow the Union Square dispensary’s lead with community events. The new location recently hosted a film screening for a documentary about the intersection of cannabis and creativity, along with a few celebrity brand activations Hankin-Biggers called “major successes.”
“The great thing about working in cannabis is that you’re able to bring people together,” she said. “I feel like the most successful dispensaries are the ones that are great at building community around their spaces, and we want to do more of that.”
In addition, The Travel Agency team is focused on developing new spaces in historic downtown Brooklyn and Manhattan’s fashion capital, SoHo.
“We’re planning to bring some compelling art activations into each space, which is super exciting,” Leong said. “Downtown Brooklyn is going to have more of an industrial vibe, while SoHo will be more future-forward. We’re still building off the DNA of the previous locations, but SoHo in particular will feel really gallery-like and will have the most space for art activations down the line.
“I think part of the DNA of the brand is that each location has a different relationship with travel and a different expression of that communion,” he added. “And for each location, the different artworks on display will give presence to the space so it can uniquely connect with each customer.”
