ABSTRACT
“Downtown remodeling: implementing new conversations” focuses on how the increasing rigor of interior design played out at the practical and visual levels in major department stores across the United States, especially after World War II. Influenced by a mounting push toward “modernization,” stores either updated pre-existing interiors or built from scratch in accordance with trending specifications. The renovation leader during this period, Raymond Loewy Associates, is profiled here in great detail, especially with regard to its work on Foley Brothers department store in Houston, Texas, and Gimbels. Ongoing research suggested that conversion to more modern interiors would have a dramatic and positive effect on sales. Thus, functionality and aesthetics came together in unprecedented ways as department stores became a fixture of everyday life for middle-class families.
