City in Sound; Old Orchard

This is Jack Angel with city and sound. These are stories out of Chicago, city of all things. Among them suburban commerce, case in point, the Old Orchard Shopping Center. Well, I suppose you could say the biggest tree in Old Orchard is planted right in the middle. It's called Marshall Field Company and represents a major phase of expansion for that very famous organization. Manager of the Old Orchard Store is Joseph Field, who's a descendant of the founding family. And who must like it here pretty well, Mr. Field? Well, I certainly do. It's been a great star and pleasure to be out here. Could you tell us a little bit about the project and about, say, the idea of expanding what used to be great metropolitan commercial units out to these suburbs? Well, as you know, the suburban areas have expanded a great deal over the last few years. And in order to keep pace with that expansion and bring Marshall Field Company to our

customers, we decided to build in this area to serve the whole north side of Chicago and the northern suburbs. Let me ask you this, sir. Down the mall here, I noticed the fair store and many retailing stores it would be. It seems to me in competition with you here. Is that a part of your plan, too? That is a part of our plan because we find that customers like to shop. They like to shop more than one store and they'll come where there are a lot of stores and they can shop and look for the most attractive buys. How about the construction of a store on one or two levels? Is that really a tremendous advantage in shopping or is that kind of an architect's story? I think it's a great advantage to our customers because they don't have to travel so far to easier to get around. They save a great deal of time. And one thing I'm sure you've

noticed in the suburbs is a tremendous number of children, which is a result of the young families that we have out here. I suppose they've moved to the suburbs in order to have a nice area in which to raise their families and certainly is easier to get around with children in a low -level store than a tall office building. Well, of course, the people who deal in public relations say that this has been a tremendous success, that it's exceeded your expectations by all bounds. Is that actually true? I think that would be a fair statement. Let's feel how big are you here? Well, old archer consists of, at the present time, 49 stores taking a total of about a million square feet of space. We have 95 acres.

That, by the way, includes the 15 acres of additional parking, which is just being added. That will give us a total parking area of 7 ,400 cars when that's completed. 49 commercial establishments here. 49 different stores, and then in addition, of course, there is our professional building. Oh, yes. That's in the north mall, is it? And that is both the land and skymark of Old Archer. It certainly is. That big sign on top of it can be seen a long way. Right out on the prairies of Illinois. That's right. Old Archer is a kind of campus of commerce, handsomely situated north and west of the city, and suburban Skokie. As shopping centers go, it is both the last word and the exclamation point.

Old Archer was conceived by Marshall Field in company, which retains ownership of its own store, but was incorporated and developed by Builder Philip Klutsnik, is managed by Draper and Kramer. On its vast landscape grounds is another department store, The Fair, and set back impressively along its stone malls, are a large office building, and groupings of retail stores that range from five in dime to blue chip and carriage. Mr. Leo W. Martin here would know how money the north mall of Old Archer is, because he's an assistant vice president of the Old Archer Bank and Trust Company. What is a bank doing here, sir? Well, a bank here is doing the same thing that a bank in any other community would do, and that would be to serve its customers for any of their money problems, for anything that needs to be done for them in a financial way. Mr. Martin, who are your

customers? Well, principally, of course, and obviously the people and stores in Old Archer. You mean you pick up customers from the shoppers who come out here, maybe savings accounts? Yes, that's true. From all of these surrounding communities as a matter of fact, is that enough traffic to sustain a big modern bank like you have here? You have a lot of space here. Yes, we have. These quarters were envisioned for a $20 million bank. I hope that someday that we need all of the space that we have near that goal in your first year. Well, in ten and a half months, we've grown from obviously no deposits to about a little over $4 ,100 ,000 in deposits, which makes our total assets $4 ,600 ,000. That's very handsome indeed. Of course, you do a lot of investment work by assuming a commercial area like this. What

are your plans for the future? You mean as far as Old Archer's bank? Yes. Well, we're going to keep serving the needs of the immediate customers, which we have now and we are expanding already the surrounding businesses in the area and the new people, particularly and principally, the customers that we find most ready to start their accounts in Old Archer's bank. That's the traffic that you're interested in. Yes. We're interested in anyone, of course, that wants to come in and start an account in Old Archer's bank and that takes in anyone as far as we're concerned. Mr. Martin, there are a lot of people like myself who find it kind of curious that people would come to a shopping center to make deposits. They're supposed to buy here, not to save here, or is that correct? Well, I think that gets a little away from the basic philosophy of a shopping center, as I understand

it. It seems to me that when you start a shopping center of the dimensions of Old Archer, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful and obviously one of the largest ones, not only in the Midwest, but the United States, that you have a new community, it's a new concept. We are a complete thing in itself. Therefore, a bank is required and necessary. There's an independent bank, of course. Yes, it is. The directors and officers are, they live out in this neighborhood. Yes, to the man, every officer and director lives in the immediate area. Well, it's kind of a strange sight to me to walk down one of the malls here and see an agency selling cars. And Mr. Bill Ferguson here sells them, he tells me, and there are fours and edsels, aren't they? That's correct, yes. Well, how did you ever come to locate in the shopping center? Well, at the beginning, we had quite a time getting in here. I first approached the owners of Old Archer or the people that were leasing out the space and requested permission for

an agency to sell automobiles. And at that time, they said that that wasn't an accepted business in a shopping center. But then they became a little intrigued with the idea of trying it out. And I certainly was, and I'm very happy that we are here at Old Archer. Well, is this primarily that display function, Mr. Ferguson, he actually sells people cars here? Both. We actually sell from here, and of course, the display, because of the traffic, gets our name before many people in the North Shore of Chicago. And it's a little hard to account for just how many are closed here and how many come down to our main showroom and buy from there. I do think it's well worth while. Sure. The auto business has had it pretty rough lately. Has that been reflected in traffic here, say, at Old Archer? I'm afraid that's been reflected in the traffic every place. But you do feel that your facility is here quite worthwhile? Yes, I do. I'm quite convinced that the number of

people that come in here, and of course, today it seems that everyone shops for their car. And it's no different with us than with anyone else, except that we get a shot, I believe, with more people from other communities coming in and comparing allowances here against the ones that they can get in their own towns. You kind of pick up the shopping traffic as it comes through and around. We try to, and then we feel that a lot of the men that come here with their wives would rather look at automobiles than lingerie department. That's a mighty wise phase of merchandising. It's pretty intriguing to me that we can pick up things from a peanut down here at the Morrow Nut Shop to automobiles and find automobiles right here. Yes, it is. Quite a arrangement here. Be a nice day to go for a drive, wouldn't it? Right. Thank you. Quite a pastoral scene here at Old Archer. I guess this must be the orchard part of it. I've never seen a shopping center landscape before, but here's a man who maintains it, Mr. Doug Carmichael, who's ground superintendent.

The world is a ground superintendent doing a shopping center. Well, I'd have to have more time to enumerate all the duties of the ground superintendent. I'll say that. We can see part of it. Well, yes, you can see a good deal of it from here. This side, I do think, is the largest opening or open area we have in the center inside the malls. And it certainly is a beautiful scene. We're looking out here, looking east now, where we can see the lagoon, which I would say is about 150 feet in length, varies in width from 5 to 20 feet. And it's painted a beautiful blue. We have running water in it, giving us sound effects. And it's surrounded by the character planning, which is built up by the use of various types of trees or varieties of trees. Of course, we wouldn't have a complete

landscape scheme if we didn't have a weeping will over the water, which we have over there to the south. Indeed you do. Also, some Japanese -type bridges that span it. That's right. They're the smack of the Orient very strongly, but of the more modern design, rather than the ancient rustic design that the Japanese gardens did take on up to this time. Mr. Carmichael, does it seem in Congress to many people that you have such a beautiful garden of landscaping here in the midst of such a large and commercial shopping area? Well, there's no question, but what the people are very much surprised to find the extent to which we've gone in this landscaping of the Old Archery Shopping Center, but they certainly enjoy it. When they hired you here, did they tell you what the purpose of all this landscaping was? Did they tell you what they had in mind here? Well, the original plans weren't quite as elaborate

as those we've followed in the last year and a half. So, naturally, I wasn't told everything. Some parts of this, especially when it came to the bulbs, we had 21 ,000 flowering bulbs here this spring, about 15 ,000 of those, 21 ,000 were tulips, and the balance were in high -sense daffodils, crocus, silver, and similar types of bulbs. Now, those were not included in the original plans. Neither were the 11 ,000 annuals that we now use in bringing things to life with the color arrangement that we have at the present time. Mr. Carmichael, it's certainly been a pleasure to talk to perhaps the only landscape superintendent of a major shopping center that I know of, and I'd certainly like to be a seed salesman around here. Well, thank you very much, it's been a pleasure.

Well, this is the Lamanois, which is one of the fanciest addresses on the whole North Shore, I dare say. The quality restaurant here, which happens to have its quarters here in the shopping center, and with me is Mr. Charles Wells, its manager, and I guess I should ask him what the purpose of a real quality restaurant out here is. Well, our companies felt that we needed a restaurant of this type out here, and we felt too that we wanted to have a restaurant of very high repute, such as our 28 shop, and some of our other leading shops within the store. What does a Lamanois mean for those of us who are non -French speaking? Well, it means a country home or a country mansion, which is where

much entertaining is done in the old French veille type thing, but really more than that, it's very fine country home, that's what it would mean. Mr. Wells, you don't confine your operation to the hours of the shopping center, or it's what might be its commercial limitations, do you? No, we don't. We look upon ourselves as being a North Shore restaurant, and we're open for dinners and Sundays every day that a restaurant would be open. How about your clientele here at Lamanois? You find that you draw it from the shopping groups, or are you building up kind of a regular carriage trade? Well, I think we are. I don't believe we get too many shoppers as cherry in the Lamanois. I think it's more a group of people who

enjoy very fine food and classical French food, what we have. Of course, sir, you'll have a job here whether Lamanois takes or not. How's it going over? Very well, we're real proud of it, and we feel now that we're settling down into we hope an institution type of a thing that everybody out here will always feel proud that there is a restaurant out this way like that. We're treading very lightly and comfortably on the fine carpet of CDPcock jewelers here at Old Archard. One of the fine and austere and class names of all merchandising, and what you could call a truly fine shop with me is its manager, Mr. Ed Irian, and I guess I'd ask him how the jewelry business is out here. The jewelry business has been very good and is definitely on the increase month after month. It must have been

quite an executive decision to make to take a store like PCOX, which deals in priceless gems and fine crystal, China, all types of expensive silver, and move them out here. Yes, I think it was on the planning board for over three years. Mr. Irian, of course, you can deal in items as a retail for hundreds of dollars, and in some cases thousands, your presence here in indication that the money is moving out north or out suburban, or is this just a normal metropolitan growth? Well, I would say that it's a normal metropolitan growth, and our reason for moving out here is to give much better service to the people out in this area, so that it's convenient for them to come shopping here just casually. What is the highest priced

item that you sell here? No samples. All right, sir, thank you very much. It's a pleasure. Well, you're Mr. Don Verlench, and I know you are because Mr. Harold Nero, the project manager here with Draper and Kramer, told me you were, and I'm very happy to meet you, sir. Glad to meet you too, Mr. Angel. And you manage the Kresge store here? That's right. Is this one of several Kresge stores that you've managed? Yes, sir. Is it polite to call it dime store merchandise? Yes, sir. Well, it's not only polite but profitable too, isn't it? You're right. You're in the South Mall here, and it looks from the size of it as if you do business with an awful lot of people. We do business with everyone who wants to do business with us. Uh -huh. How does this compare with the downtown stores and the other places that you've been for Kresge? There isn't any recession here. Well, it doesn't appear as if there is. Don, I notice you have an awful large infants 'ware department. We're standing between 13 and 14 here, both which counters are devoted to

infants 'ware. Does that mean they're an awful lot of children? Yes, sir. It's an awful lot of children out in this area. How is Zorro merchandise? Pretty big? Zorro was big. But he went down the creek with David Crockett right now. He did. Yes, sir. Who we got next? Well, I can't. I wish I could guess that. Well, maybe you had Sullivan or somebody out of it. It's Sullivan. Swimming pools. Yeah. Esther Williams. Yeah. Esther Williams. Is this a completely different operation out in the shopping center for a dime store manager done? Is the same thing just more or less amplified, made bigger, or is it the same type of retail operation? Well, this is different than your downtown location because there are certain items that we have to carry that the downtown locations impossible for them to carry. What's such as what? Well, you take your grills and lawn furniture

and items like that because people don't just impossible for them to carry it out of the store, although we have delivery service. You've got a number of fancy places here at Old Orchard. Not that this isn't. It certainly is, but you find the same type of shoppers sort of coursing the malls here from the Cresguis to the Peacocks and the Lamanwars, down to the Cresguis again there. We have the same type of customer. Everybody senses it in a dime store. Well, that's pretty true. Of course, you say you have no recession and that is certainly obvious here as we stand and look at all these people moving in and out. Do you find that people who shop in a dime store here just come in and buy? They come in and buy a browse around. They stop for a soda, hamburger, or frankfurter, and maybe a plate lunch and they browse in and out. But your argument here is that people who shop in dime stores know no economic stratum or

level of income that they shop with everyone. Such is the story of Old Orchard. It is both symbolic and special. Symbolic because it denotes the trend in modern retailing to meet the consumer a good bit more than halfway. Special because Old Orchard is a place of such special beauty and utility. To those who buy and sell, its meaning is clear and significant. The merchandise of those who sell moves ever closer in these days to those who buy. Mecca has been moved. This is Jack Angel with George Wilson, an engineer, whose recordings here have imprinted city and sound.