Park Avenue South: Case Study in Retail Carnage

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

[Park Avenue South between 28th and 29th; click to enlarge. Photo by Femia.]

Not that Park Avenue South, especially the upper stretch, has ever been anything remotely resembling a shopping Mecca. Still, it's eerie to see an entire block's worth of stores close down—a reminder, perhaps, of the fleeting moments retail outlets enjoy upon this earth. After Curbed reported on the retail carnage that has shuttered the block of Park Avenue South between East 28th and East 29th Streets, we dispatched photographer Will Femia to survey the scene. Above, his panorama of the destruction.

Ah, bank branches. Like cockroaches, certain to survive an apocalypse of any type. Godspeed.

Oh, why all the closings? Leases weren't renewed. Seems they're getting set to raze the block to build either new condos or some new iteration of the Gansevoort Hotel. Mighty fabulous.
· Rumblings and Bumblings: Special Death of Retail Edition [Curbed]