Best Products: Forest Showroom
Built: 1980
Location: 9008 Quioccasin Road
Richmond, VA 23229
In the ’70s and early ’80s, BEST Products, a retail chain based in Richmond, built nine showrooms designed by SITE (Sculpture In The Environment). Each store had a unique facade. One was made to look like the front brick wall was peeling away from the building. In another, a whole corner of the building detached to allow customers to enter and exit. Another had a tropical rain forest in between the front glass and the actual front of the building.
Nearly all of the store buildings have either been torn down or had their unique fronts removed. This one in Richmond is a photo of the last BEST Products store with its ’70s/’80s 
facade still intact. Called the Forest Showroom, it was made to look like the front of the store had been pulled away from the rest of it, allowing trees to grow in the space between. The showroom was located in a fairly wooded area, so the forest-themed design complimented the natural surroundings and celebrated the setting as opposed to the more commercial aspects of the site.
BEST Products is long gone, but the building is still there and now houses the West End Presbyterian Church.