Westfield Old Orchard
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| Westfield Old Orchard | |
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| Facts and statistics | |
|---|---|
| Location | Skokie, Illinois, USA |
| Opening date | October, 1956 |
| Developer | Philip M. Klutznick |
| Management | The Westfield Group |
| Owner | The Westfield Group |
| No. of stores and services | 140 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 4 |
| Total retail floor area | 1.8 million ft² |
| No. of floors | 1 |
| Website | http://westfield.com/oldorchard |
Westfield Old Orchard, formerly Old Orchard Shopping Center, is an open-air upscale shopping center in Skokie, Illinois. It is the third largest mall by total square footage in Illinois.[1] Its anchor stores are Bloomingdale's, Macy's (formerly Marshall Field's), Lord & Taylor and Nordstrom. It recently underwent a $60 million expansion and reconfiguring that opened in late 2007.[2]
Marshall Field's was officially renamed Macy's on September 9, 2006.
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[edit] History
In response to post-WWII suburban expansion, developer Philip Klutzkick, one of the founders of JMB Realty, commissioned Loebl Schlossman and Bennett (now Loebl Schlossman and Hackl) to design Old Orchard Shopping Center at a site with easy access to the new Edens Expressway, which had been constructed to serve suburban dwellers. Old Orchard Shopping Center was first opened in 1956, with Marshall Field's and the The Fair Department Store. The architect's original design treated the center as a community, creating a series of walkways that turned storefronts inward rather than facing them to the parking areas. The irregular mall plan encouraged shoppers to stroll along a path of new discovery with each turn, reflecting the perception of shopping as a social event. Original anchor stores were Marshall Field's and The Fair Department Store. Since many prospective merchants wanted to be near Marshall Field's, the anchor was placed in the center of the site. The Fair was bought by Montgomery Ward in 1957 and renamed in 1964. The expansion, redevelopment, and remerchandising of Old Orchard Shopping Center, completed September 1, 1995, has completely transformed the mall that North Shore residents have known since 1956. A major portion of the remerchandising was the addition of a Nordstrom department store in 1994 and Bloomingdale's in September 1995. The shopping center remained open-air and did not enclose to form a traditional shopping mall as so many others did.
The Westfield Group acquired the shopping center in 2002, and renamed it "Westfield Shoppingtown Old Orchard", dropping the "Shoppingtown" name in June 2005. In July 2005, Saks Fifth Avenue closed their store. After initially proposing a massive expansion and reconfiguration, Westfield instead began a more scaled-down $60 million project in July 2006, demolishing the former Saks store in the process. The addition opened late in 2007.
[edit] List of Anchors
[edit] List of Former Anchors
- Marshall Field's(renamed Macy's in 2006 after Federated Department Stores,May Department Stores merger)
- Montgomery Ward
- Saks Fifth Avenue
[edit] List of Expansions
- 1959 Saks Fifth Avenue opens
- 1978 Saks Fifth Avenue expands to larger store
- 1979 Lord & Taylor opens
- 1993 Lord & Taylor expands to larger store
- 1994 Nordstrom opens
- 242,000 square feet (22,500 m²) of new specialty retail (including the Cineplex Odeon Theaters)
- Parking deck -- five levels, 1,150 vehicle capacity
- 1995 Bloomingdale's opens
- 154,000 square feet (14,300 m²) of new specialty retail
- 600 seat-food court
- Parking deck -- six levels, 2,200 vehicle capacity
[edit] March 1, 2008 Bomb Threat
On the evening of March 1, 2008, Skokie police shut down and evacuated the Macy's and Nordstrom anchors after a man with a backpack was spotted walking around suspiciously, then leaving without the backpack. Cook County bomb squad was called in to search the mall, but found nothing. [2]
[edit] In popular culture
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Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
A scene from The Weather Man, starring Nicholas Cage, was filmed at the Old Orchard food court.
The mall shown in "Mean Girls" is referred to as "Old Orchard," though according to the film, the mall is located in Evanston. In the deleted scenes of the Mean Girls DVD, one can see the actual mall.
[edit] References
- ^ Illinois: Top 10 Shopping Centers. CoStar Realty. Retrieved on 2006-11-25.
- ^ [1] Chicagobusiness.com
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