This spring’s liquidation and closure of 355-year-old Canadian retailer Hudson’s Bay was the latest sign that, perhaps, North American department stores have gone out of style. On the other hand, The Bay in its final years was far from operating at the top of its game, and there is a growing wave of nostalgia for the glory days of its peers. Case in point: The creative team behind Gossip Girl and The O.C. is currently planning a TV show set in former Manhattan institution Barneys New York. The challenge, for the businesses that remain, is recapturing that bygone magic.
To really restore your faith in the future of large-scale urban retail, head to the NYC location of Printemps, the 5,110-square-metre fashion wonderland designed by...
This content is available exclusively to My AZURE+ members.
To subscribe to My AZURE+, choose your preferred option below and get immediate access to the full magazine experience.
Thank you for supporting AZURE.
Choose your preferred delivery option from below and get access to groundbreaking architecture, vibrant interiors, inspiring ideas, exciting new furniture and products.
All subscription options include access to exclusive web content including the latest edition.
- #312
- Sept/Oct 2025
- Throughout this edition of Azure, there are inspiring ways we might attune our cities — and our homes, and ourselves — to a rapidly changing, increasingly mystifying world.
- Get the Issue
- #311
- Jul/Aug 2025
- Our AZ Awards 2025 edition praises excellence across the many disciplines of design, as awarded by the renowned members of our jury and recognized by the People’s Choice vote.
- Subscribe today
- #311
- May/June 2025
- Azure’s 40th anniversary offers us an occasion to pause and evaluate the major moments that have brought us here.
- Read the Issue
- #310
- Mar/Apr 2025
- Five conversations about community changemaking, plus vibrant design news from Miami, a stunning home in Toronto and a dispatch from Iqaluit.
- Read the Issue
- #308
- Jan/Feb 2025
- From standout homes like Patkau Architects' latest Vancouver gem to the groundbreaking residential neighbourhood of East Bayfront in Toronto and new approaches for densifying the single-family house, the Jan/Feb 2025 issue celebrates the exciting directions that home design and housing are moving in.
- Read the Issue
- #308
- Nov/Dec 2024
- Good design is synonymous with climate-conscious design in our Nov/Dec edition, which coincides with our inaugural Human/Nature conference.
- Read the Issue
- #307
- Sept/Oct 2024
- In the projects we feature throughout this edition, we hope to expand the definition of culture as it’s normally viewed in the realm of institutional architecture — and to hone in on works that stretch design’s possibilities in housing these new expressions.
- Read the Issue
- #306
- Jul/Aug 2024
- Our AZ Awards 2024 edition praises excellence across the many disciplines of design, as awarded by the renowned members of our jury and recognized by the People’s Choice vote.
- Get the Issue
- #304
- May/June 2024
- If two realms of work can be said to occupy opposite sides of the spectrum, they might be the industrial factory and the A.I. company. Standout examples of both types of workplace are featured in our latest issue.
- Get the Issue
- #303
- Mar/Apr 2024
- Simply put, this issue argues that we need more options, in everything from housing to healthcare to education. Can we create more options for how we house ourselves? For how we approach the housing and care needs of our aging populations who are especially fragile? For how we teach architecture to begin with?
- Read the Issue
- #302
- Jan/Feb 2024
- In this issue, we highlight homes that encourage personal expression and communal engagement — all of them specific to their particular contexts.
- Read the Issue
- #301
- Nov/Dec 2023
- In the magazine world, there is always the temptation to identify “emerging talents” or “change agents,” to seek people at the tipping point of their careers, before they are known entities. With AZURE’s Nov/Dec 2023 issue, we tried to move past these marketing hooks to shine a light on people doing great work that we wanted to tip our hats to.
- Read the Issue
Printemps Gives Department Stores an Elegant Makeover
In the wake of Hudson’s Bay’s closure, we tour an NYC department store where the prognosis seems more promising.