London and New York top world's best department stores

The Global Department Store Summit(GDSS) was held in New York this year from 10-11 June. Participants included top executives from over 280 stores worldwide with Selfridges in London taking the title of world's best department store followed by Bloomingdales in New York City. Lane Crawford in Hong Kong came in third. Criteria which were assessed included strength of brand, innovation, in store experience, customer service and financial results.

Selfridges

Harry Gordon Selfridge founded Selfridges and is widely credited with coining the expression "the customer is always right". Techniques for marketing at Selfridges are techniques that were adopted by department stores all over the world such as placing the highly profitable perfume counters at the front of the store in the middle. Unusual and interesting exhibits were also features which attracted shoppers to come back to the shop. In 1909, Louis Bleriot's monoplane was exhibited in Selfridges after it's first cross channel flight. Innovation in bold marketing is epitomised by Selfridges world famous window displays which have been pored over by photographers for generations and published in many magazines worldwide including Vogue, Design Week, Harpers Bazaar and the New York Times. 1-27 April 1925 saw the first public demonstration of the television which was given from the first floor of Selfridges by John Logie Baird. Selfridges stores are also known for their architectural excellence and the London flagship store was designed by Chicago architect Daniel Burnham who also designed the Marshall Fields department store in Chicago.

Bloomingdales

Window displays also became a trademark of Bloomingdales with many imported European products used as a centrepiece to elaborate theatrical backgrounds. Another trademark is the small medium and large brown bags which have became a part of a shopping trip to Bloomingdales from 1973. Bloomingdales target market became the affluent young professional classes in New York and around the same time as the brown bag was brought into use, many expensive designers were supplying the store. Famously, in 1976 traffic was reversed on Lexington Avenue so that Queen Elizabeth II could exit her vehicle on the right hand side and enter the store through the main entrance.

Photo of the day: 1 World Trade Center under construction in New York City

Night shot of 1 World Trade Center under construction in New York City

11 Times Square, New York City

Statistics

• Completed 2010
• Height 600ft (183metres)
• 40 floors
• Architect
• 1.1 million sqft

The construction process of 11 Times Square was the first time in New York's history that a core was completed before the steel superstructure. The design features a sculptural composition of forms sheathed in various combinations of sheer glass curtain wall and unique "silk glass"panels. In keeping with the Times Square streetscape there are large-scale illuminated features including a 40' diameter iconic globe at the corner. 11 Times Square is LEED certified and is a state-of-the-art, environmentally responsible building with high performance glazed curtain walls which facilitate ample penetration of daylight, optimize views and provide excellent environmental control.

This compilation of stills shows the time lapse of the building's construction.

Photo of the day: Shard under construction in London

A wonderful angle of the Shard under construction from the end of October

Top Architectural Practices: Foster & Partners

Sir Norman Foster is arguably the closest anyone has ever come to achieving celebrity status in the world of modern architecture. Foster & Partners is a practice that was only founded in 1967 and has since been the lead architect on many world famous commissions with Sir Norman Foster himself being the spearhead of the PR campaign behind the firm. Foster gained a masters at the Yale School of Architecture before setting up an outfit called Team 4 with Richard Rogers, which quickly earned a reputation for high tech industrial design although by 1967, Team 4 dissolved and Foster went on to set up Foster Associates. The firm was kick started by the commission of The Willis Faber & Dumas building in Ipswich and today, many of the world's most famous buildings can be credited to the Foster portfolio. Similar to KPF, there are not many commissions in the world where Foster & Partners have not been considered for the design.

Completed in 2003, 30 St.Mary Axe, The Gherkin, is perhaps the most recognised work by Foster in London, being the first tall building in The City with ecological credentials using around half the power that a similar tower would typically use. London City Hall was a precursor to the Gherkin, sitting on the River Thames it's offset domes appearance might suggest it is related to The Gherkin, it's reduced surface area, simlar to the Gherkin, increasing it's energy efficiency.

In New York City, Foster's 597ft Hearst Tower was the voted the best skyscraper built in the world the year after the September 11th attacks on the city and was also the first new skyscraper to break ground after the event (click here for separate article on this tower). The Hearst Tower along with 200 Greenwich Street (click here for separate article on this tower), part of the redevelopment of the World Trade Center, both aimed to achieve the gold standard under the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Programme (LEED) and being involved in the World Trade Center project served to further cement Foster's position as one of the leading architects in the world today.

The Foster portfolio spans many different sectors and environments but outside of the realm of commercial office architecture, Foster & Partners design of the new Wembley Stadium in London reassured football fans across the world that no chances were being taken in turning the world's most famous football stadium into the best stadium in the world, at a record breaking cost of £798million ($1.26billion). For this money Foster & Partners delivered a stadium in which all 90,000 seats had more more leg room than there was in the royal box of the old stadium. For this, no one can deny Lord Foster the Knighthood he received from the Queen in 1990.

The love affair with Concorde

Concorde flew regular transatlantic flights from London Heathrow to New York JFK, operated by British Airways, between 1977 and 2003 when the aircraft was retired. This enabled passengers to travel between the two cities in less than three and a half hours, travelling at over mach 2, or twice the speed of sound.

Concorde was the aircraft of choice for the rich and famous between London and New York and amongst the celebrities that used the aircraft were Diana Ross, Phil Collins, Mick Jagger, Joan Collins, Sean Connery, Elton John and Rod Stewart. This video, which shows the farewell and very last departure of Concorde from JFK, always puts a lump in my throat from the loss of a baby which Londoners and New Yorkers had fallen in love with and which offered the best way to have breakfast between London and New York.