Retail Value: Culture, Consumerism and the Architectural Diagram

RETAIL VALUE 35 Retail Value: Culture, Consumerism and the Architectural Diagram JASON E. NGUYEN Drexel University The deepest problems of modern life fl ow from the An exploration into the architecture of retail insti- attempt of the individual to maintain the indepen- tutions, if fact, reveals the magnitude to which the dence and individuality of his existence against the sovereign powers of society, against the weight of operations of buildings, and not the formal qualities the historical heritage and the external culture and of them, consistently provide the most cogent ex- technique of life…When one inquires about the prod- pressions of an era’s cultural values. For retail, as ucts of the specifi cally modern aspects of contempo- an autotelic enterprise, concerns itself not with the rary life with reference to their inner meaning…the answer will require the investigation of the relation- culturally symbolic attributes of its physical struc- ship which such a social structure promotes be- tures but with the maximized and immediate effi ca- tween the individual aspects of life and those which cy of its operations.2 Further, the cultural values as transcend the existence of the single individuals. It propagated through these architectural operations, will require the investigation of the adaptations by the personality in its adjustments to the forces that through the architectural diagram, fi nd themselves lie outside of it. independent from—and often in dialectical opposi- tion to—the self-serving promotions of consumer- Georg Simmel, “The Metropolis and Mental Life”1 ism itself. Such realizations expose the tense and often reciprocal relationship between culture, con- So stands the architectural construct, situated at sumerism and the architectural diagram.3 the confl uence of culture, the metropolis and the individuals who populate it. It has been over one The rise of modern mass consumerism in West- hundred years since Simmel’s seminal decry re- ern culture was rooted in the formation of a newly garding the over-stimulated, commodifi ed metrop- emergent middle class produced by the Industrial olis at the turn of the century, and yet, today, we Revolution in the nineteenth century. With this rise, fi nd ourselves pondering many of these same, ir- along with the proliferation of advanced technolo- reconcilable issues. gies—mechanical production, steel construction, el- evators and ventilation systems among them—came Perhaps no contemporary issue borne of Simmel’s the establishment of several new building types, re- Modernity has had greater impact on the development sponding to the purchasing power of this growing of architecture, as an equally cultural and economic unprecedented population. It is during this era that enterprise, than commodity-driven consumption. Paris gave birth to the fi rst department store, Au And while it is easy to castigate this consumption, Bon Marché (1852), replacing the now infamous ar- especially the rampant consumption of today, for all cades with newly minted palaces of retail. Socially, of its societal detriments, it is through the process this new paradigm effectively replaced the Benja- of it, through its dynamic and diagrammatical act minian fl âneur—that conscious, critical and dis- as facilitated by the architectural construct, that tanced Parisian stroller—with an actively engaged signs of cultural values—values typically considered consumer, embracing a new participatory life of lei- outside the bounds of consumption—begin to sure and consumption.4 It took little time for this express themselves. model to reach the shores of the United States, cul- minating in the early twentieth century’s downtown 36 THE VALUE OF DESIGN department store boom in the industrial centers of driven consumerist values, can paradoxically mani- New York, Chicago and Philadelphia. fest themselves through the act of consumption. Architecturally, the ramifi cations of this new sup- JOHN WANAMAKER’S BY DANIEL BURNHAM, ply-side consumerism resulted in a new architec- PHILADELPHIA 1902-1911 tural diagram, a temporally dynamic framework, enabling the social and economic operations of this new type of retail institution. Within this framework emerged architectural elements, each signaling subject-based “events” within the act of consumption.5 These elements, and their associative events, considered comprehensively, expose the continuously active engagement of the consumer (philosophically, the subject) with both the retail institution and the merchandise that it contains. In retailing, these architectural elements, as well as their subject-based “events,” are as follows: 1. The decorated shop window, signaling the The nineteenth century naissance of the downtown relationship between the projected identity department store signaled the beginning of a Mod- of the retail institution and the consumer, ern consumer cultural paradigm in the West. New construction and production technologies, along 2. The circulation system, signaling the re- with a new consumer society, fused in the creation lationship between the consumer and the of this new building type. With this fusion, and retail institution, through the operations of these new structures, emerged a new social reality, a new lifestyle plac- 3. The product display, signaling the relation- ing value on leisure and engagement as expressed ship between the projected image of mer- by cultural sociologist Roberta Sassatelli: chandise and the consumer and It was thanks to the development of places which 4. The counter, signaling the consumer’s ac- made a large quantity of goods visible to the whole quisition of merchandise from the retail in- population that the connection between personal stitution. identity, commerce and objects became central to a growing number of people, and it was thanks to a thematization of consumption as a meaningful social It is through these collective elements and events— activity that the changing patterns of consumption understood as the architectural diagram of the re- gave way to consumer society as such…This should tail institution—that the cultural values of an era not surprise us, as shopping in the department store fi nd their clearest expression. At its best, this was indeed often portrayed as the quintessentially urban and civilized leisure activity.6 framework, as conceived by the architect, allows for a clear expression not of the values of consum- Perhaps no structure better embodied this new par- erism itself but of the overarching cultural values adigm than Philadelphia’s John Wanamaker store of the era. of 1911 by Daniel Burnham. Burnham, having recently completed Chicago’s impressive Marshall This inquiry seeks an historical and theoretical un- Field store (1902-1911), combined this new spirit derstanding of the relationship between cultural of urbane leisured shopping with the very Modern values, consumerism and the architectural dia- value of social construction to create this cosmo- gram. By analyzing the architectural framework politan retail emporium. Beyond Burnham’s talent, (as well as the operations allowed by it) of three ar- the Wanamaker store remains a prime example of chitecturally prolifi c retail institutions, representing this outlook because of its established ethos, as the three dominant consumer culture paradigms of formally published by founder John Wanamaker. the past one hundred years, this essay hopes to re- The ethos reads: veal how the expression and cultivation of socially signifi cant cultural values, and not economically- RETAIL VALUE 37 1. That a store should not be a trap to catch Through this component, as fi rst established in the something from each who enters it. late nineteenth century, a dynamic relationship is thus forged between an identifying “image” and a 2. That advertising must say exactly what the consuming “observer.”9 store is and what it does. The decorated shop window functioned less as a 3. That all goods sold are called back again if method of product advertisement and more as a the buyer is not pleased to retain them. valuable, “interactive” method of social engineer- ing. The window displays offered the potential 4. Fair prices for everything to everybody consumer an idealized life, a purchasable Utopia. alike, without hidden reservations or con- These luscious and carefully crafted vignettes, cessions. draped in velvet, promised freedom—a socially engineered freedom—from the bustling industrial 5. That justice and honor require the exclu- metropolis. At the Wanamaker store, in particu- sion of baits or even trifl ing deceptions; lar, stately, attractive and well-considered displays that customers whose confi dences is invit- were consciously developed over congested ones ed and given are entitled to have their con- concerned with individual product advertisement.10 fi dence respected and protected at every It must be noted that these windows served this point. sole function only; they did not admit daylight in the interior, nor did they did allow the potential 6. That patient and persistent training must consumer a view into the store. They were social be given to all the employees, to undo the apparatuses, expressing the Modern value of com- education in the old long-time prevailing prehensive social construction. methods, to grow a new crop of business- men and women to administer a new broad, The store’s circulation system is what facilitated more enlightened and equitable system.7 the acquisition of Utopia as advertised by the decorated shop window. Wide, grand entrances

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