You know it now as the Nordstrom flagship space in the downtown retail core. The building was originally built, however, for Frederick & Nelson in 1916 with an addition coming in the late 1940′s / early 1950′s. Below find one study from John Graham & Company illustrating one possible route.
Also check out
this post from last year with actual photos of the upper floors coming online. Click for higher res.
Architectural study of Frederick & Nelson department store addition. February 1949. Frederick & Nelson was originally built in 1916 in the terra cotta clad steel frame structure typical of the sort done in Chicago at the turn of the century.
It was later altered vertically and lost its original cornice. John Graham, Jr.
was assisted by the architectural firm of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in the redesign of the Frederick & Nelson department store starting in 1946.
John Graham, Jr. had taken over the firm upon his father’s retirement that same year. During the remodel three storeys were added to the existing five-storey structure, shipping and receiving concourse was removed from the street level to basement, and new elevators and a natural day-like lighting system on the main floor was installed. Image courtesy U.W. University Libraries Digital Collection.
Now this is one where I like the “real world” result much better. That looks like the old Nordstrom, which was ugly, ugly, UGLY! Especially when you consider how it looked before that particular remuddle (suggestion: a picture of the old Best Appareal store would be dandy!)
I never have understood how Nordstrom – which is a fine store – could have such awful taste in architecture. I wanted to cry when I saw what they did to the interior of Fredericks. It looks like a oversized hotel gift shop. No pizzaz whatsoever.
It kind of reminds me of a movie I saw on the KOMO Morning Movie in about 1963: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm4232551424/tt0050610
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