Mention shopping centers in either Stamford or Hartford, and most people will tell you about one of the two Taubman Centers in Connecticut; Stamford Town Center and Westfarms respectively.
Both centers service the influential communities of Fairfield and Litchfield counties (think movie star central) as well as their surrounding neighbors. Although both owned by the same corporate owner, these centers couldn't be more different in design from each other, Westfarms a suburban center on what used to be farmland and Stamford, built smack dab in the center of the downtown area among the country's highest ranking corporations. Of course their interior elements (elevators, moldings, planters) are similar, and share some stores as most malls today do, both have their roots grounded and both have retailers that are not found everywhere in the state.
Westfarms can be found on the town lines of West Hartford and Farmington CT. In fact, it's on the line so much, that the Macy's store actually is split diagonally down the middle, forcing Macy's to pay taxes in both towns. Built in 1974, its original anchors were JCPenney, Sage-Allen and G. Fox & Company.
After many years of being a destination unto itself, Lord & Taylor was relocated from it's West Hartford's Bishops Corner plaza roots to a new wing in 1983. 1994 brought the change of G.Fox to Filene's due to a MayCo merger. With the closing of Sage-Allen only to be absorbed into Filene's Men's store and furniture departments as part of an expansion. In 1996, the first Nordstrom in New England was added as well adding yet another slew of stores making their debut in a CT mall. Finally in 2006, Filene's was re branded into the current Macy's.
With the opening of the extension of Route 9, Westfarms has grown to be the premier mall in the state, and the surrounding area is now filled with big-box retailers and strip malls.
In the 1980's, Stamford CT was in the middle of a boom and rebirth. Corporate companies from all over the world, due to its close proximity to NYC would move their home offices into the downtown area. GTE, Xerox, Olin, Pitney-Bowes, GE & UBC to name a few, built office parks and changed the skyline from gaudy to glitzy practically overnight. This "Super-city" though home to a freestanding Bloomingdale's since 1954, Lord & Taylor since 1969, and Gimbels since the mid 1950's, lacked a central shopping area. The 3 stores were although along the same thoroughfare, were miles apart from each other. Plans to concentrate the retail space in one area begun and in 1981, the Stamford Town Center opened its' doors to the public. In the 9-story center, a brand new Macy's (the second in the state), Saks Fifth Avenue (another branch was located not far in Greenwich, but the Stamford location would include Men's clothing as well) & J.C. Penney anchors. Parking for the center was provided at the unforeseeable rate of 25 cents for 3hours on the rooftop decks.
Over the next few years, many stores, now common elsewhere opened their first US locations or CT branches in the center. Fendi, Coach, Origins, Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, Black-Starr & Frost, Stueben, F.A.O Schwarz, Bang-Olufsen, Domain, Abercrombie & Fitch (at that time A&F was a high-end sporting goods store, specializing in golf, tennis and safari type activities), Banana Republic (with its' famous jeep-through-the-display-window exterior) Brooks Brothers, Godiva and Sharper Image. I can recall at one time, the 180 store mall filled with the finest in designer sportswear, furnishings and accessory shops. It's fountain which shot the full 9 stories in the air, became a destination unto itself. Today its retail offerings have been reduced to the mundane. Although it is still architecturally stimulating, its shops and services are pretty much standard mall fare.
In 1991, Hollywood came to the Stamford Town Center, bringing with it 2 hall of fame stars, Bette Midler and Woody Allen. "Scenes from a Mall" was filmed partially in Stamford and also in another Taubman Property, Beverly Center in Los Angeles. If you see the movie, look for the blue carpeted center court scene, with the bystanders holding the Bullock's bags. That scene shows the best feature I believe of Stamford Town Center.
Even after the closing of the Bloomingale's & Gimbels down the street, the mall still ran into hard times in the 1990's. The recession forced out some of the higher-end retailers. The JCPenney became a Filene's, only to close 2 years after its conversion. Today, the Filene's location has been demolished to make way for a newer open-aired Lifestyle center addition to include the largest Barnes & Noble between Boston & New York City, new shops and various restaurants.
0 comments:
Post a Comment