Hess
Allentown, Pennsylvania

The loss of the Hess department store was a major loss for the city of Allentown. At one point it had been one of it’s great pride and joys and a destination for movie stars and those seeking the extravagant. While making this drawing, people regaled us with this stores grand mythology. Apparently at one point the store used to fly in “one of every kind of flower” from suppliers all over the world. It also had the best strawberry pie in the United States, boasting a thickness of up to 4 inches. The store had long since been boarded up, but the clear outline of the original store windows stayed in tact. We set about creating storefront displays heralding products from the stores beginning and into its hypothetical future. The years we choose to depict, from left to right: 1880, 1900, 1950, 1960, 1980, 1990, 2000, 2010 and 2050. By 2050, everything is a world of intelligent light projections.