PEOPLE'S GAS. Maximized Gross Leaseable Area

"Retail" in the Eighties was HOT.. And the name of the game was maximizing Gross Leaseable Area. (GLA to the insiders). Strip Centers sprouted in the Suburbs. And Lobbies, across the Loop were converted to "Retail Use." Even the first floor of the (then) venerable Continental Bank was "mall-ized." Bay windows (like People's) were added and "punched out" between columns. Space that didn't return cash was "wasted."

There was just one problem. We retail architects knew, even in the 80's, that Retail Architecture was not real Architecture. And with the perfect hindsight of 20 years later, we can see that even some of our best attempts ended in caricature.

Look at the diminished Heart of Peoples' Gas. Elegant wood, nicely detailed storefronts. Considered patterns of terrazzo. Reuse of Peirce Anderson's light fixtures. Columns that recall the original. And a fairly accurate echo of the original skylight -- lowered to the scale of the newly down-sized "court.". And to satisfy "retail users" a forty- five degree angle clip to maximize frontage.
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The result, however, is a cartoon of the original. A suburban mall. A Disney recreation at three quarter scale. With the final irony being that the destruction of the original interior space, the carefully rendered Heart of the People's Gas Building, has ended in empty storefronts and wasted space. And the conceptual denigration of the entire building.

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Only hints remain of Peirce Anderson's original (below).

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Credits are due to author Kristen Schaffer and photographer Paul Rocheleau for the excellent resource "Daniel H. Burnham, Visionary Architect and Planner. It is highly recommended.