The new boutique brings together fashion, watches and jewelry, and fragrance and beauty in a setting that reflects both the heritage of Chanel and its Southern California surroundings.

Chanel on Thursday will open its newest boutique in the Westfield University Town Center in San Diego.

The 16,000-square-foot, freestanding boutique was designed by Peter Marino, a longtime Chanel collaborator. The new boutique brings together fashion, watches and jewelry, and fragrance and beauty in a setting that reflects both the heritage of Chanel and its Southern California surroundings.

“This is a ground-up building, so we were able to really respond to San Diego and the Southern California environment,” Marino told WWD. “I was very inspired by the Case Study Houses and the relationship between architecture and landscape.”

The Case Study Houses were experiments in American residential architecture sponsored by Arts & Architecture magazine, which commissioned major architects of the day to design and build contemporary single-family homes within a specified budget for the U.S. residential housing boom at the end of World War II.

“Then we created a central courtyard at the heart of the building, and the rooms circulate around it. Large expanses of glass and sliding doors bring in an enormous amount of natural light and allow the interiors to open directly on the landscape. There’s a real indoor-outdoor quality to it that is very specific to California,” said Marino.

This is Chanel’s fifth freestanding boutique in California. Other boutiques are in Beverly Hills, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, San Francisco, and Palo Alto.

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