La Самаритен: История и Возрождение Парижского Универмага

Department store in France

La Samaritaine (French pronunciation: [la samaʁitɛn]) is a large department store in Paris owned by LVMH. It is located in the first arrondissement; the nearest métro station is Pont Neuf, directly in front at the quai du Louvre and the rue de la Monnaie. It has been a member of the International Association of Department Stores from 1985 to 1992. The store, which had been operating at a loss since the 1970s, was closed in 2005 purportedly because the building did not meet safety codes. Plans for redeveloping the building were delayed by complications, as the representatives of the store's founders argued with new owners LVMH over the building's future as a department store or a mixed use development. Its retail and restaurant offerings now target more upmarket customers. The redevelopment has also added a boutique hotel that includes a penthouse suite with its own private swimming pool. Since 1990 the building has been listed as a monument historique by the French Ministry of Culture.

Architect Frantz Jourdain was originally hired to assist in the remodeling and expansion of the existing store building, known as Magasin 1. At the end of construction, the Samaritaine eventually consisted of four different Magasins of department stores reaching eleven stories in total. In June 2015, one of the Rivoli building permit is finalized and in September of the same year construction began. This modern construction of the Samaritaine is designed to feature a hotel, restaurant, a brewery, cafes, offices, and housing and was projected to be complete in 2019. However, the renovated building did not actually reopen until June 2021.

Jourdain's membership in multiple societies heavily influenced his personal architectural theory and design choices for the Samaritaine. The building's exterior has two domes made of glass brick that light up in the nighttime. The facade of the building consists of ceramic panels in brightly colored hues of yellow, white, green, and gold. The word "Samaritaine", as well as some of the available merchandise and ware, are displayed around the facade of the building in colorful enamel using an elaborate lettering. Dispersed around these signs are colorful naturalistic flower motifs, which continue to the interior design of the building as well. The interior features decorative iron staircases, glass tile floors, and frescoes using the repeated floral motif. These elements encompass both ornament and functionality which are core principles of the Art Nouveau movement. The foundational ideas of Art Nouveau, and the Samaritaine, led the way to the modern movements of the 1920s.

The main fundamental difference that distinguishes the department store from other stores is its offering of low priced, mass produced goods of a wide variety. Prices were able to be placed just slightly above wholesale as the volume of sales was able to compensate for the small margin. Typically, department stores are located centrally within a city and are in close proximity to transportation. Different department stores targeted people of different class distinctions. However, their main audience is the middle class city dwellers who were highly conscious of their status. The Samaritaine, in particular, targeted the working class who constantly traveled through the first arrondissement for work. The goal of the department store is to move the consumer through the building and to its upper floors in order to maximize the number of counters an individual has to pass. This posed as a bit of a challenge as their target audience was so used to shopping along the street level at various small boutiques. Architects had to entice these shoppers by utilizing grand and decorative elements to allure consumers to explore the building.

The department store is constantly changing to keep up with the architectural trends, yet remains somewhat constant in its appearance as a building type. The design and decor of the building played a major role in enticing the human desire for the consumption of material goods. The common use of iron allowed for minimal skeletal structure and therefore maximized the amount of light that could flow through the interior and allowed more room for the circulation of customers. Many of the structural elements utilized reference to the international exhibition halls built a few years before the original department stores. Another common feature is the monumental stair design, a design element of the first department store, Bon Marche. It was later installed in the Samaritaine as well as other department stores constructed at the turn of the century. The Samaritaine also had the common department store design feature: the light court. The skeletal steel structure allowed for a maximum square footage of glass windows which was intentionally located at the center of the building to bring in ample natural light. The glazed corner rotunda became another crucial element of Parisian department store architecture. It served as a large space for display cases that could be seen by many pedestrians waiting on the street corner. The corner rotunda was also utilized as the entrance of the building, leaving the consumer with two options of vastly stretching display windows upon entering the building. Finally, the use of a dome structure, and their strategic placement, was useful in identifying the department store as a type. The two domes of the Samaritaine create a sight line between the Seine and the left bank.

The organization of each individual department within the stores is based on consumption patterns. For example, impulse items, such as jewelry and cosmetics, were placed on the street floor. This would encourage consumers to make quick impulse buys upon entering or right before leaving the store. Also, demand items, such as children's clothing or household goods, were located on the upper levels. This would force consumers to move past all of the lower level departments before they reached their desired location, maximizing the opportunity for the individual to make an unplanned purchase. Once the Samaritaine consisted of four Magasins, the first was dedicated as a department store solely for women's clothing while the other three were for items such as supplies and tools.