100,000 Square Feet of Style & Taste
Not every ReDo project involves cleaning out a dusty cobweb-filled basement, or finding ways to add new life to a tired room. Sometimes, we are forced to think bigger. Much bigger. Here’s the latest example:
The grand 1901 Marshall Fields on Chicago’s State Street (now Macy’s) is a Louis Sullivan masterpiece in The Loop. The building occupies an entire city block, and its twelve floors are filled with every manner of retail goods and services under ornate mosaic ceilings, bathed in the light of glorious atriums. On the eighth floor is the furniture department: 100,000 square feet of all of the latest trends and styles… something for everyone. And soon I get to help “stage” the furniture sales there! Oh. My. God.
This relationship began in the summer of 2009, when I started helping arrange dozens of furniture vignettes for sales at Macy’s Galleria and West County stores in St. Louis. Jim White, the District Visual Manager for Macy’s Midwest Big Ticket, granted me the opportunity to get the name and concept of ReDo out to the local community, and I’ve had a blast doing it.
But earlier this month, he mentioned that his counterpart in Chicago was loosing one of his staging freelancers, and trying to find a replacement. A series of e-mails went back and forth, and a few weeks later I was in the Windy City having coffee with Wade Sheriff (Jim’s counterpart there), showing him the photos of my previous Macy’s and ReDo projects. Going through my portfolio, I was pleased when he observed that I knew how to tell a ‘color story’ with my furniture set-ups. Next came an in-depth tour of the vast furniture department (front and back) and, along the way, he filled my head with fantastic stories of his twenty-plus years in this field for Marshall Fields. In the meantime, there was so much to see all around that my wee brain was flooded with ideas and possibilities! The time flew by, though we spent about ninety minutes chatting and touring in all.
It was then that he checked his watch and he had to run, and (oh, by the way) how would I like to be on his team for the next furniture sale? Of course I said I’d love to, and though I tried to sound cool and composed, I may have betrayed my casual manners and conveyed my excitement for this opportunity by beaming from ear to ear a little too wide…
I thanked him again for his time and for asking me to be a part of his team. I then stepped into a waiting elevator and rode the twelve floors down, flushed with an excitement that comes from recognizing a great opportunity when it’s presented. By the time the elevator reached the first floor again, I was ready for my next design challenge, whatever it may be!
Break open the champage; ReDo is on the move!
