I grew up in Richmond and thought the Best location there was an anomaly. It was so cool though. The picture doesn't do it justice. When you walk between the gap from the front of the building to the entrance it felt like you were in a terrarium. Because of the gap there was such a distinctive earthy, peaty smell to the whole thing. I did not understand how rare a design was at the time.
Interesting fact: Sydney (who ran the company) and his wife Francis Lewis (an art collector) from what I understand had an unfathomably large amount of modern art located somewhere under Richmond, Va. They have a wing of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts named after them and donated quite a bit of art to the museum.
I also grew up in Richmond, and in fact my dad worked at Best. The corporate headquarters up in Ashland had a really impressive collection of modern art.
Interesting fact: Sydney (who ran the company) and his wife Francis Lewis (an art collector) from what I understand had an unfathomably large amount of modern art located somewhere under Richmond, Va. They have a wing of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts named after them and donated quite a bit of art to the museum.