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Macy's Department Store (Jordan Marsh Department Store)

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Jordan Marsh Department Store
1948–1951, Perry, Shaw and Hepburn. 450 Washington St.
  • Macy's Department Store (Jordan Marsh Department Store) (Keith Morgan)

Local architects complained when Edward Filene chose a Chicago architect to design his store, but his major competitor, Jordan Marsh and Company (now Macy's), selected the Boston firm of Perry, Shaw and Hepburn to create their flagship store across Summer Street, a brick Federal Revival design with modernist simplification. Built during the glory days of international modernism, Jordan Marsh is either a survival of traditional design from the firm noted for its work at Colonial Williamsburg or an early revival of historical forms predicting what would become the postmodern movement. However positioned in this debate, the handsome building is finely detailed and powerfully massed, especially the play of convex and concave forms at the corners.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Keith N. Morgan
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Citation

Keith N. Morgan, "Macy's Department Store (Jordan Marsh Department Store)", [Boston, Massachusetts], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MA-01-BD19.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Massachusetts

Buildings of Massachusetts: Metropolitan Boston, Keith N. Morgan, with Richard M. Candee, Naomi Miller, Roger G. Reed, and contributors. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2009, 63-63.

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