Tracy Watts
Billboards: These should be posted with images of mystery and intrigue, such as pictures of a pair of glasses with a lightning bolt above them. And the words “coming soon.” In the background there should stand a silhouette of a castle. In the foreground there are the words Harry Potter Store NYC. These should be placed on billboards with a five-mile radius of the store, especially on electronic ones. There are ones in time Square that would be great if they can be obtained. In big bold print, it should read “The boy who lived.” These can be placed on bus shelters, used on the light rails and subway terminals. What follows is the working history of the Harry Potter store NYC.
Three-Storey Harry Potter Megastore Opens In New York
Emma PocockJun 3, 2021,
Harry Potter New York storefront
Harry Potter New York opens today, June 3, in New York City’s Flatiron District. An immersive three-Storey retail experience boasting the world’s largest collection of Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts products, the store includes interactive elements, photo opportunities, authentic props from the films, fifteen themed areas and the promise of events and virtual reality experiences still to come.
The store is hard to miss; located at 935 Broadway, next to the iconic Flatiron building, the store front is adorned with a Hungarian Horntail dragon sitting atop a clock outside the building, and a huge floating model of Fawkes the Phoenix (weighing over 100kg) greeting guests as they enter the store.
The Broadway production Harry Potter and the Cursed Child found a home at New York City’s Lyric Theatre back in 2018, the same year the Harry Potter: A History of Magic exhibition visited the New York Historical Society. A global city and home to ample numbers of Wizarding World fans, Karl Durrant, VP & General Manager at Warner Bros. Worldwide Retail Destinations, explained why New York was their first choice for a groundbreaking flagship Harry Potter store:
“New York’s always been on our radar as one of the most important cities globally. We have a passionate fan base here, and the fans have been asking for something like this in New York for some time.
“In terms of the location in the Flatiron District, we really wanted to target somewhere that reflected us as a brand. Somewhere that was exciting and vibrant, with beautiful architecture and incredible places to shop and relax. The Flatiron District ticked those boxes. The location is right next to one of the most iconic buildings in New York, and our building is a 21,000 square foot store over three floors, built in about 1816. So, it has beautiful architecture and rich history – it really fits in with the aesthetics of the Wizarding World.”
A Drink to Remember.
Butterbeer Bar at Harry Potter New York
Harry Potter New York includes fifteen themed areas, including a Personalization Station, a sweet shop themed like Honeydukes, a Butterbeer Bar, the very first permanent House of Mina Lima in the U.S., and, of course, a Wand Shop. The store also incorporates interactive experiences, including a space where you can step into Hagrid’s shoes and see how tall you are compared to Hogwarts’ loveable gamekeeper. The store also features a London telephone box for photo opportunities with a hinge to ensure wheelchair users are also able to enjoy the experience.
The Famous House of Mina Lina
Harry Potter New York
Magic is incorporated throughout the store, from spells taking place on enchanted windows, to the Griffin seen at the entrance to Dumbledore’s office placed at the Centre of a circular staircase within the store – a space called the Atrium of Awe. The store also features an interactive Forbidden Forest wall, showing magical creatures, Patronuses and a Dementor attack, with appearances from fan favorite characters.
For those hoping to pick up a wand at the store, Harry Potter New York features an entire Wand Shop complete with an interactive wand table where you can test out wands as a display shows hidden content, videos and information about central characters from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films when you pick up their wands. The Wand Shop also includes wands not available elsewhere, including the Golden Snitch wand, created especially for the New York flagship store.
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Having a Wanderful Time.
Harry Potter New York
One of the most exciting parts of the store for fans is the Butterbeer Bar, where fans can pick up a Butterbeer either bottled or on draught. Surrounded by giant barrels of Butterbeer and a cascade of almost one thousand “floating” bottles (with labels designed by graphic designers Mina Lima), fans can spot Butterbeer flowing through pipes above them.
On the design of the store, Siu-Lan Choi, creative director at Household a U.K. and U.S. based brand experience agency who helped bring the Harry Potter New York store to life, said:
“From a visual perspective – it’s the movies – the wonderful sets created by Stuart Craig – the famed production designer and Warner Bros. Studio Tour London, and the interpretation around the visual language in the movies. We were inspired by these details and references and cast a modern lens on the design to consider what fans today and in the future want to see. It’s not about replication but about celebration and exciting new ways to experience Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts. We explored ways for digital interactions and mechanical ones too, to capture attention, spark imagination and create our ‘did that just happen?’ moments. To develop these experiences, we looked beyond to art installations, museums and the gaming world.”
Mark Pyrah, Development Director at Cod Steaks, the company in charge of theming, modelmaking and props for Harry Potter New York, shared the influences their team were looking to when helping bring the store to life:
“When we started the project two years ago Household Design gave us some of the most exciting designs we have ever seen. Also, it also had the challenges of being one of the most well-known and well-known brands in the World. Harry Potter and the Wizarding World holds a special place in the hearts of so many… no pressure then! Our job at Cod Steaks is to turn the designer’s and Warner Bros. vision into reality. On many projects you must carefully calm down the concept to make something realistically buildable but in this case our challenge was to make it exactly like it was on paper and on film. What the team at Household had designed was brilliant and our role was to faithfully replicate the design, adhering to the brand in its fullness, whilst at the same time create an attraction that could cope with millions of visitors and the punishment this type of site will take from the public. We had to research materials and finishes to faithfully replicate the concept and I’m delighted with the outcome – a huge team effort!”
House of Mina Lima at Harry Potter New York
Harry Potter New York
The very first House of MinaLima in the U.S. will display and sell graphic art and merchandise from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films, all designed by Miraphora Mina and Eduardo Lima, known as graphic design duo MinaLima. From issues of the Daily Prophet written and designed by the duo, to the Marauder’s Map and the Hogwarts acceptance letter each hand-written by Miraphora Mina, MinaLima helped create the magical look and feel of the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films with their talents in telling story through design.
Durrant explained the choice to give House of Mina Lima a different feel to the rest of the store, as though visitors are stepping into a portal to MinaLima’s London gallery:
“The House of Mina Lima deliberately has a very different look and feel from the rest of the store. We wanted them to recreate as much as they could from their store in London. It has its own entrance, its own window – you really feel like you’re stepping over the threshold into the artistic world of Mina Lima. Photographs don’t do it justice – Mira and Eduardo were given artistic license to design their part of the store themselves. We also asked them to lend their design talents to elements throughout the store, like the second design for the Butterbeer labels, designed by Mina Lima exclusively for the New York store.”
Describing the House of Mina Lima at the New York store as a “miniature facsimile” of their London gallery, Eduardo Lima explained that the replication of key design elements from their London store, including a sign-written glass fascia and distinctive concertina display units, were included to help fans feel “instantly at home”. The duo also helped design the street graphics for The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley, including shop fronts, signage, advertisements and graphic design elements. Miraphora Mina explained how helping design for the New York flagship store compared to that experience:
“It was our first adventure transposing our experience of designing for the film world into the real world! But the essence is the same – how best to tell a story visually through design.”
Lima continued:
“There we were retelling the Harry Potter story but here we have extended the narrative: we’ve crafted our Mina Lima space to create the feeling of being part of a magical world. The experiential House of Mina Lima gallery-shop is unlike a traditional retail space and aims to celebrate the idiosyncrasies of our ideas and our passion for storytelling through design.”
Harry Potter New York
Harry Potter New York
Helping to incorporate the Harry Potter Fan Club app into the store are nine hidden enchanted keys. The keys are stationed next to some of the 12 authentic props from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts films, and when scanned by users of the app, the keys will unlock hidden content. Once visitors scan all the nine keys, they will receive a password which will let them collect a gift at the POS.
Beyond the experiences offered at the new store, Harry Potter New York plans to host events and offer virtual reality immersive experiences. Set to be announced soon, fans will experience Chaos at Hogwarts, giving fans an experience at Hogwarts Castle, plus a second VR experience, Wizards Take Flight, which will incorporate the use of a broomstick to give fans the experience of flying across the river Thames in London.
Harry Potter New York is now open at 935 Broadway. Covid-19 measures are in place, including a virtual line system allowing visitors to scan into the line when they arrive and return when they are called back, allowing those hopefuls to visit the store to explore the Flatiron District whilst they wait. Find out more and see all the store has to offer at the stores official website.
The project should be considered a success when the store opens and there are lines wrapped around the corner of the store. As for the billboards, we are anticipating the use of the ones at Time Square, and others. We are also in communication with the NY Port Authority in getting our message on all incoming and outgoing buslines, trains and rail that they will allow us to use. We even plan to use the stores around the store to promote the soft/hard grand opening.
James R Lilith Foundation 