Today my coffee break adventure was a short walk over to a new store in downtown DC.
One of the most distinctive buildings in downtown DC - the beautiful and old Woodies building - has a new a new tenant. The West Elm furniture store opened up this week in the old Woodward & Lothrop - AKA Woodies - building.
I walked over to the new West Elm because when I called to see if they had a bookshelf I wanted I was put on perpetual hold while they searched the stock room. When the clearly new and ever-so-lightly trained staffer returned to the phone, he proudly announced that they did in fact have the dresser I was looking for. At that point I said thanks and just walked over. I did eventually get the shelf. But they really didn't make it easy.
West Elm is sharing the Old Woodies with H&M - which moved into an opposite corner several years. I think Madame Tussaud's is coming soon to another corner of the Old Woodies. Ugh. The fact that the one Woodies building is large enough (a full city block squared) to be sliced up for multiple new stores kinda demonstrates just how big a presence the local department store was, at one time, in American cities.
But enough on the death and rebirth of the American inner city. That and my secret passion for urban economies may be the topic for future post.
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