A
alklay
Guest
This story definately points the way as to what may (will) happen to the Sears in the Eaton Centre:
City-building done right
In Chicago, a troubled downtown landmark gets a second chance
Sep. 3, 2006. 09:12 PM
Wham, then nothing.
In the 20th century, the closing of flagship department stores had the effect, in dozens of big American cities, of a neutron bomb going off.
The buildings remained — derelict — but the people were gone to the suburbs, where in fact the middle class had been fleeing to the miracle miles of malls, gas stations, fast-food joints, tract housing and free parking for years.
Nobody in downtown Chicago was celebrating last week when mayor Richard Daley received a letter from the parent company of Carson Pirie Scott & Co. saying the department-store chain would exit its historic flagship in the Loop district next spring.
In case you don't know Chicago, Carson's is like The Bay, the Loop is like Yonge St. — i.e. fundamental — and the store is on State St., "that great street" in Sinatra's song.
Carson's is the department store in all the architecture books. It was designed by Louis Sullivan, so good he was once Frank Lloyd Wright's boss. Theodore Dreiser immortalized the emporium's 1900 modernity in his novel Sister Carrie. And to this day believers in subliminal advertising think Sullivan's lush, leafy ironwork — framing the entrance and display windows — seduces women, enticing them through the doors.
Not enough women, or men, lately. Receipts have been sinking at the store; Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. of York, Pa., which bought the Carson Pirie Scott chain from Saks Inc. in March, is looking for smaller, cheaper digs in downtown Chicago.
But they may have to look hard, a fact that hints at a happy ending for the iconic American landmark building the store will leave behind.
Since the 1980s, condominiums have flourished in and around the Loop, and a huge student population has also appeared, commuting to classes in large spaces (many in the old department stores; there were once seven) now rented by organizations such as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
As the department-store model has grown tired, more youthful demographics have upped demand for specialty stores like Old Navy, Urban Outfitters, and Crate and Barrel. The building's owner, Palatine, Ill.-based shopping-centre developer Joseph Freed & Associates, LLC, is chomping at the bit to convert 250,000 of the 1 million square feet in the Carson building into those kinds of retail spaces, and use the rest for office, entertainment, and especially education uses.
Freed & Associates bought the famous structure from Carson's some years ago and leased it back to them while restoring important architectural features. Unlike Toronto, Chicago has preservation laws with teeth, and the 1970 designation of the store as a historic landmark reportedly means it can't be torn down.
But that wasn't in the cards, anyway. Such is the configuration of Sullivan's masterpiece — he pioneered the use of steel frames and so-called "curtain" walls, within which almost anything could be arranged — that the century-old building's value is greater for modern uses.
As Business Week reported, Bon Ton in fact had to be paid to leave State St., so booming, finally, is Chicago's Loop (named for all the subways and elevated trains that converge there).
"There's just more people down here," Freed's managing director, Paul Fitzpatrick, told Chicago's Daily Herald. "There are 60,000 students going to classes in the Loop... we'll be looking to add amenities to serve that student population base."
So is the closing of Carson Pirie Scott & Co. an ending or a beginning for Chicago?
"Carson's exit opens new doors," read a headline in the Sun-Times last Wednesday, giving a tentative answer.
Revolving doors, surely, in the never-ending cycle of city-building. Doors which, in this case, untypically lead somewhere in an American metropolis that has bucked the trend toward emptiness in the heart.
City-building done right
In Chicago, a troubled downtown landmark gets a second chance
Sep. 3, 2006. 09:12 PM
Wham, then nothing.
In the 20th century, the closing of flagship department stores had the effect, in dozens of big American cities, of a neutron bomb going off.
The buildings remained — derelict — but the people were gone to the suburbs, where in fact the middle class had been fleeing to the miracle miles of malls, gas stations, fast-food joints, tract housing and free parking for years.
Nobody in downtown Chicago was celebrating last week when mayor Richard Daley received a letter from the parent company of Carson Pirie Scott & Co. saying the department-store chain would exit its historic flagship in the Loop district next spring.
In case you don't know Chicago, Carson's is like The Bay, the Loop is like Yonge St. — i.e. fundamental — and the store is on State St., "that great street" in Sinatra's song.
Carson's is the department store in all the architecture books. It was designed by Louis Sullivan, so good he was once Frank Lloyd Wright's boss. Theodore Dreiser immortalized the emporium's 1900 modernity in his novel Sister Carrie. And to this day believers in subliminal advertising think Sullivan's lush, leafy ironwork — framing the entrance and display windows — seduces women, enticing them through the doors.
Not enough women, or men, lately. Receipts have been sinking at the store; Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. of York, Pa., which bought the Carson Pirie Scott chain from Saks Inc. in March, is looking for smaller, cheaper digs in downtown Chicago.
But they may have to look hard, a fact that hints at a happy ending for the iconic American landmark building the store will leave behind.
Since the 1980s, condominiums have flourished in and around the Loop, and a huge student population has also appeared, commuting to classes in large spaces (many in the old department stores; there were once seven) now rented by organizations such as the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
As the department-store model has grown tired, more youthful demographics have upped demand for specialty stores like Old Navy, Urban Outfitters, and Crate and Barrel. The building's owner, Palatine, Ill.-based shopping-centre developer Joseph Freed & Associates, LLC, is chomping at the bit to convert 250,000 of the 1 million square feet in the Carson building into those kinds of retail spaces, and use the rest for office, entertainment, and especially education uses.
Freed & Associates bought the famous structure from Carson's some years ago and leased it back to them while restoring important architectural features. Unlike Toronto, Chicago has preservation laws with teeth, and the 1970 designation of the store as a historic landmark reportedly means it can't be torn down.
But that wasn't in the cards, anyway. Such is the configuration of Sullivan's masterpiece — he pioneered the use of steel frames and so-called "curtain" walls, within which almost anything could be arranged — that the century-old building's value is greater for modern uses.
As Business Week reported, Bon Ton in fact had to be paid to leave State St., so booming, finally, is Chicago's Loop (named for all the subways and elevated trains that converge there).
"There's just more people down here," Freed's managing director, Paul Fitzpatrick, told Chicago's Daily Herald. "There are 60,000 students going to classes in the Loop... we'll be looking to add amenities to serve that student population base."
So is the closing of Carson Pirie Scott & Co. an ending or a beginning for Chicago?
"Carson's exit opens new doors," read a headline in the Sun-Times last Wednesday, giving a tentative answer.
Revolving doors, surely, in the never-ending cycle of city-building. Doors which, in this case, untypically lead somewhere in an American metropolis that has bucked the trend toward emptiness in the heart.