Between the World Wars, Sears built 10 giant centers around the country. The one-to-three million square foot fortresses served as department store, regional office and fulfillment center for the catalog business. As Sears’ business dwindled in the early 1990s, the centers were closed. Most sat idle for years. Three were eventually demolished. The one in Seattle became the headquarters of Starbucks. Some turned into condos. The one in Memphis turned into the most interesting adapted use project in America.
Driving through Memphis’s Crosstown neighborhood, it’s hard to miss Crosstown Concourse. The former Sears distribution center turned mixed-use development anchors the area with an arts center, shops, school, and public health center. Walk inside and it’s clear that the food is the heart of this place. Most of the restaurants are local, and three of them have made giving back to the community a core part of their mission.
Boston architect and philanthropist Simeon Bruner has spent much of his professional life studying how the designs of urban buildings “manifest” themselves to make their surrounding communities better.
He’s never seen anything like Crosstown Concourse.
“I would say this building is unique in terms of public access and permeability and the multitude of different uses that come together without restriction,” Bruner said while touring the Concourse with The Daily Memphian late Friday afternoon.
The building was the Gold Medal recipient for the 2019 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence.
A client-stylist relationship — even one limited to monthly, 30-minute increments — can be therapeutic for the customer and strengthen customer retention for the stylist.
But the conversation stylist Barbara Barnett had with one of her regulars in 2018 proved to be life-changing for both her and a colleague at the Midtown salon where they had been longtime employees.
As a result of that conversation, Barnett and Whitney Adams on Tuesday, Oct. 1, will open and be co-owners of Hero & Sage, the first hair salon in the massive Crosstown Concourse.
A movie rental shop closing in 2014 was a familiar story. But one opening in 2019?
Welcome to the man-bites-dog tale of Memphis movie culture. After five years of dormancy, four different storage spaces to house a north-of-30,000-title VHS/DVD/Blu-Ray collection, three potential locations that didn’t pan out and two false starts, this countdown has arrived at the return of one of a kind: Black Lodge Video — now just Black Lodge — is back.
On a recent Thursday evening, about 80 people gathered in a room in Crosstown Concourse flanked by dark green curtains and ringed with sofas, love seats and armchairs. Amber light glowed from assorted lamps on side tables.
Standing on a rug in the room’s center, twin brothers Christian Underwood on bass and Christopher Underwood on drums, known as The PRVLG, played with Paul Taylor.
The concert was part of The Groove music series, focused on “funky bands,” at The Green Room, one of four music venues operated by Crosstown Arts. Other sites include Crosstown Theater, the East Atrium and 430 N. Cleveland, across the street from the Concourse.
Crosstown Concourse is among the finalists for an international award that recognizes real estate projects for achieving excellence in design, construction, economics, planning and management.
The renovation and adaptive reuse of the 1.1 million-square-foot Sears building is one of 19 finalists in the Urban Land Institute’s 2019 Global Awards of Excellence competition.
Is there any more American food item than the hot dog? The folks behind The Doghouzz are banking on this country’s love affair with this iconic food.
The Doghouzz will be Memphis’ only hot dog restaurant and bar. At 1349 Autumn in the Crosstown neighborhood, the 4,400-square-foot restaurant that includes an outdoor patio is slated to open in early June.
Crosstown Concourse was one of just nine buildings selected this week by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) for the AIA 2019 Honor Awards.
Seven years ago, Nepal native Indra Sunuwar, now 23, arrived in Memphis, Tenn., with her mom, dad and four siblings.
More than a year after the mixed-use space opened, The Commercial Appeal sent a reporter and photographer to the Crosstown Concourse for a day in an effort to capture the atmosphere.
A name has been selected for the cafe at Crosstown Arts.
Adrian Arcuri and Justin Dorroh are passionate about pizza. And not just any type of pizza, but Neapolitan-style pizza.
The Crosstown Concourse renovation is one of three national winners of the 2018 preservation awards bestowed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the trust announced Monday.
Creative play and kid-friendly activities at Crosstown
An estimated 3,000 people visit Crosstown Concourse each day, most of them working for or a customer, client or patient of one of the building’s tenants.
