THE
AMERICAN Architect
FOUNDED 1876
THE PROBLEM IN DESIGNING MODERN SHOP FRONTS
By Walter F. March
The changes incident to the evolution of retailing in the United States have made imminent the birth of what will be practically a new branch of architecture. In no other field does a responsibility for direct return on investment rest so heavily upon the architect as in the designing of retail store buildings; and in no aspect of this work is the measure of his achievement so obvious and so important as in the facade, with special reference to the display windows at the street level.
This is the considered opinion of one who has supplemented extensive study of store architecture in Europe with several years of practical work in the United States, not alone in the designing of display windows, but also in devising plans for the displays themselves.
The point is less that the architect has a duty to discharge than that circumstances are combining to force the duty upon him. Retailing, ranking now almost as one of the sciences in this country, is in that stage of evolution which implies a radical departure from practically all its standards in the past. Many of the changes are already faits accomplis; others are in course of completion; still others have only begun.
The retail store front, especially as to its display windows, is in the third group. The past year has
brought a remarkable impetus to interest in retail window display and, in the larger cities, has aroused the great merchants to a realization of the fact that fronts and windows designed twenty, even ten, years ago, are either out-of-date or obsolescent for the purposes of modern window decoration. New York, and other centers holding the status of metropolis for their respective districts, have witnessed a period of feverish reconstruction of display window interiors. Investments of immense sums for superlatively beautiful, permanent details
in window construction
have been obscured by new, “smart” fittings as if they were so much junk, in the endeavor to create settings to accord with the novelty of the decorations.
Meanwhile, window dressing, from the level of a half-trade, half-craft, has risen to the status of an art, its practitioners frankly claiming the honors of a profession with leading retail stores gaining prestige from their employment, in the capacity of display directors, of painters and of designers of stage scenery possessing international reputations. A whole literature is appearing on the art and science of window dressing. There are differing schools of thought, disputations as to what is and what is not permissible in display
AU BON MARCHE, PARIS, FRANCE
BOILEAU, ARCHITECT
Copyright, 1928, The Architectural & Building Press, Inc.
Photo by Chevojon
AMERICAN Architect
FOUNDED 1876
THE PROBLEM IN DESIGNING MODERN SHOP FRONTS
By Walter F. March
The changes incident to the evolution of retailing in the United States have made imminent the birth of what will be practically a new branch of architecture. In no other field does a responsibility for direct return on investment rest so heavily upon the architect as in the designing of retail store buildings; and in no aspect of this work is the measure of his achievement so obvious and so important as in the facade, with special reference to the display windows at the street level.
This is the considered opinion of one who has supplemented extensive study of store architecture in Europe with several years of practical work in the United States, not alone in the designing of display windows, but also in devising plans for the displays themselves.
The point is less that the architect has a duty to discharge than that circumstances are combining to force the duty upon him. Retailing, ranking now almost as one of the sciences in this country, is in that stage of evolution which implies a radical departure from practically all its standards in the past. Many of the changes are already faits accomplis; others are in course of completion; still others have only begun.
The retail store front, especially as to its display windows, is in the third group. The past year has
brought a remarkable impetus to interest in retail window display and, in the larger cities, has aroused the great merchants to a realization of the fact that fronts and windows designed twenty, even ten, years ago, are either out-of-date or obsolescent for the purposes of modern window decoration. New York, and other centers holding the status of metropolis for their respective districts, have witnessed a period of feverish reconstruction of display window interiors. Investments of immense sums for superlatively beautiful, permanent details
in window construction
have been obscured by new, “smart” fittings as if they were so much junk, in the endeavor to create settings to accord with the novelty of the decorations.
Meanwhile, window dressing, from the level of a half-trade, half-craft, has risen to the status of an art, its practitioners frankly claiming the honors of a profession with leading retail stores gaining prestige from their employment, in the capacity of display directors, of painters and of designers of stage scenery possessing international reputations. A whole literature is appearing on the art and science of window dressing. There are differing schools of thought, disputations as to what is and what is not permissible in display
AU BON MARCHE, PARIS, FRANCE
BOILEAU, ARCHITECT
Copyright, 1928, The Architectural & Building Press, Inc.
Photo by Chevojon