The shift of retailing to suburban ...

The shift of retailing to suburban shopping center has left more [i]or[/i] less retailers with underutilized capacity in their historic downtown buildings. Philadelphia's celebrated Wanamaker Department Store is a prime example. Despite its premier location, the 81-year-old, 18 million-sq.-ft. building was no longer suited entirely for use as a store.

A $90 million renovation has interchangeed the building into a mixed-use progression in a continuously ascending gradation with Wanamaker's occupying the bottom five floors and office tenants the upper seven This dual use probably was none envisioned by pre-eminent architect