Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
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Saturday, February 15
"Someone like Marshall Field or John Wanamaker - or even a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs - all became fabulously rich as a side effect of devoting their lives to creating something really new and unique. The approach of a number-cruncher like Lundgren is much more parasitical. It's less about creating something great than squeezing out value from an existing asset without ever really doing anything to replenish it." If you missed this essay by architecture critic Lynn Becker, read it now. It is simply the best essay I've read on the Marshall Field's debacle and the death of department stores.