Macy’s NYC flagship store to get a $400M makeover

Associated Press

NEW YORK

A $400 million makeover is giving New York’s iconic Macy’s store a sleek, new, 21st- century style.

And some preservationists aren’t happy about it. They see the overhaul of America’s biggest department store as scrapping classic Beaux Arts and Art Deco touches in favor of the latest trend in retail design — something like an Apple computer store.

“Macy’s has Apple fever,” said Theodore Grunewald, a New York preservation activist. “Everyone is jealous of Apple and thinks the secret to the company’s success is this beautiful, elegant minimalist design vocabulary they have. But this is about protection of our heritage.”

Macy’s reconstruction, to be completed in 2015, will add 100,000 square feet to its 1.1 million square feet of retail space. Floor-to-ceiling fabric shrouds areas under renovation. But some sections already have been finished, including the world’s largest women’s shoe department, which offers 280,000 pairs of shoes — several thousand displayed in white settings.

Macy’s spokeswoman Elina Kazan gushes that the store will be a “spectacular place to shop at an iconic New York City destination.”

About 20 million shoppers a year visit Ohio-based Macy’s flagship store. The building has nine floors of retail space and covers nearly an entire city block, from West 34th Street to West 35th Street, between Seventh Avenue and Broadway.

It is best known as home of the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and as the setting that inspired the beloved 1947 Christmas film, “Miracle on 34th Street.”

Originally constructed in 1902 in the Beaux Arts style, it was expanded in the 1930s with plenty of Art Deco details. Most noticeable was a jazzy, geometric coating of marble, encasing more than 100 columns that soar to the ceilings.

While Macy’s has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1978, it has not been given landmark designation, allowing its owners to make architectural changes.