{"id":473,"date":"2024-09-05T09:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-05T09:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/?p=473"},"modified":"2024-09-06T02:07:44","modified_gmt":"2024-09-06T02:07:44","slug":"jordan-marsh-department-store","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/2024\/09\/05\/jordan-marsh-department-store\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Marsh Department Store"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Framingham, MA, 1951 by George L. Ely<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

No modern building looms larger in the memories of Metro West than the original Shoppers’ World. The shadow it casts over not just Massachusetts but the national development scene is too large to be contained in only one building. So we wanted to take a deep dive into some of its key buildings individually – separate from the complex itself – starting with the largest unsupported dome in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dome at Shoppers\u2019 World housed the complex\u2019s flagship department store Jordan Marsh. Since it\u2019s opening, the department store had resisted expansion outside of its flagship Downtown Crossing location but the experimental shopping mall had given the company outsized freedom to design a landmark destination. Architect George Ely described the massive flat dome as a \u2018flying saucer\u2019 upon its opening. It had a 685 ft circumference and spanned 220 ft. At the time, it was a feat of engineering, representing the largest unsupported dome structure in the United States and the largest of steel construction on earth. Sited on the south end of the complex facing route 9, the dome became an icon of Shoppers World.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s unique shape allowed for a completely open store, with no columns or obstructions. A ring of display windows around half the the first floor made the space feel not only completely open under the dome but like the store extended into the outdoors. It retained much of its futuristic charm for the almost half decade Shoppers\u2019 World stood, though it did add a Basement in 1964. Even still, the dome was torn down with most of the surrounding complex in 1994.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sources:<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJordan\u2019s Opens New Huge \u2018Dome\u2019 Store\u201d, Daily Boston Globe, 30 September 1951.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShoppers\u2019 World Opens Today\u201d Daily Boston Globe, 4 October 1951.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broomer, Kathleen Kelly \u201cShoppers World and the Regional Shopping Center in Greater Boston\u201d, Society for Commercial Archeology, 1994-1995.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShoppers World\u201d Framingham History Center.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Shoppers World\u2019 at Framingham Applies New Ideas\u201d Architectural Record, November 1951.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Framingham, MA, 1951 by George L. Ely No modern building looms larger in the memories of Metro West than the original Shoppers’ World. The shadow it casts over not just Massachusetts but the national development scene is too large to be contained in only one building. So we wanted to take a deep dive into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[40,100],"tags":[3,98,8,9,10,11,97],"class_list":["post-473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-framingham","category-george-ely","tag-architecture","tag-mall","tag-massachusetts","tag-metrowest","tag-modern","tag-modernism","tag-shopping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=473"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":481,"href":"https:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473\/revisions\/481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/johnbranagan.com\/Metrowestmodern\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}