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September 29, 2005

Outside the Orchard - 09.29.05

We know you've been missing it (and have got to be saddened by all the Marshall Field's-Macy's news), so once again the Old Orchard Observer presents Outside the Orchard, a brief look at what the online world is saying about Skokie's mall.

Over on Jeni's Musings, a simple observation is made regarding the outdoor beauty of Old Orchard (even if it was posted way back in May) [Saturday, May 28]:

Saturdays are made for shopping

went with tita gina to old orchard mall (out door mall) in skokie - it is so beautiful. should have taken a picture. but too busy shopping

Jasmine writes about the recently-added Sephora store via News From The Flip Front [Monday, July 11]:

Stef and I shop for makeup at the Sephora store in Old Orchard Mall. This is where I find the Paul & Joe mascara which, when applied, makes me look like I could be an extra in a Bollywood musical.

Trey took a trip to Chicago back in June, and stayed at a hotel near the mall. Here are his thoughts posted via his blog, uniquely titled Trey's Blog [Thursday, June 30]:

To snap us back to reality, we trekked back across downtown to where we had parked. We drove back to Old Orchard, where our motel is located and visited the mall there, Westfield at Old Orchard. This mall is very cool because it has a indoor mall layout, but maintains an outdoor architecture. In other words, the stores are side-by-side, the walkways are close, and the roof only exists on top of the stores. A nice cool breeze blew through the entire time. This would be very nice to have in Houston, but the heat could make it a miserable experience. The girls ate a couple of New York style (thin crust) pizza slices. Cheri and I split a gyro and a Vienna Beef hot dog. They were decent, but still considered mall food. We finished out the day sharing a waffle cone of Fat Free Dreamsicle Frozen Yogurt. YUMM.

Andrew writes via md-2-b about leaving his church in Chicago to head to New York and med school! Apparently, he was suprised about what happened after that final Sunday service [Monday, July 25]:

So I figure something is up, but I'm not really sure what. At 6, Tai and I arrive at J&J's place. We're supposed to go to Maggiano's at Old Orchard, but Jeannie has to drop off a book at Tuscany's for a med school friend. I don't think anything of it... but when we get to Tuscany's, John suggests that we *all* go inside so that "we can see what it looks like." Hmm. So I follow, a little warily. Then the hostess greets us and asks, "Won, party of 20?" Haha... so the surprise was up.

I really didn't mean to find out about the dinner, and I really am sorry that it wasn't a surprise. It was very thoughtful and well planned out =c)

Did you know that Old Orchard has 12 movie screens? After that big rennovation a few years back, they doubled the capacity for movies. And bum writes on The Bum Log about seeing one of the summer's better films at the "Double O" (um, that's Old Orchard in can you couldn't figure it out) [Saturday, June 18]:

Just got back from seeing "Batman Begins" at Old Orchard. It was a good movie, commendable acting by Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine et al, but my favorite part? The fantastic job they did turning Chicago into Gotham City!!!

On the other hand, many bad films have been viewed at the mall as well, as Swain describes on The House of Swain [Saturday, June 18]:

I can recall sneaking into Cruel Intentions at Old Orchard in Skokie, Illinois... and many others so forgettable, that they're already out of my head for good. Having said that, I can tell you that I DID catch a free showing of Battlefield: Earth, and I STILL wanted my money back afterward.

The addition of extra theatres does make things rather confusing, however, because the screen locations are split 6 and 6. Screens 1-6 are located near Potbelly's while Screens 7-12 are near Maggiano's. The author of Modern Day Spinster shares in the confusion [Wednesday, August 10]:

In an interesting turn of events I went to the movies with BJ and saw March of Penguins at Old Orchard. I didn't park on the Maggiano's side because I inverted the theater numbers in my head.

The Beyond Retail blog "features opinion on retail, community and local projects and issues in the towns of Framingham and Natick, located in the MetroWest region of Massachusetts." And apparently, the author isn't happy that there aren't more Apple Stores in the area... using the example of Northbook Court and Old Orchard here in the Midwest [Wednesday, July 13]:

Old Orchard, an upscale shopping mall in Skokie, IL, is a mere 8.4 miles and 13 minutes from Northbrook. And not to diss Chicagoland, but I personally think that there are a lot more Apple users in MetroWest and Boston then in Chicago's North Shore and even the city of Chicago, seeing all of the universities and colleges in the area, not to mention the iPod craze that has been huge in this area.

Of course, Anabel (of Anabel Lee After Dark) likes the fact that Old Orchard has an Apple Store because, well, you can buy stuff there [Friday, August 5]:

Oh, I guess I should mention that tomorrow morning I'm going to Old Orchard to buy my ibook. I know, I know, I have no use for it. But to be honest, I really want it. Plus I have the money for it. Or well, I will in a week. I'll probably stop using my desktop as much. Perhaps only to play the sims. In any case, I'm excited.

Congress approved a transportation bill back in July. The Chicago Tribune had this interesting tidbit [Sunday, July 31]:

In addition to authorizing the CTA's proposed Circle Line, the legislation approves extending the Orange Line from Midway Airport to the Ford City shopping center, extending the Red Line from 95th Street to 130th Street and continuing the Yellow Line from Dempster Street in Skokie to the Old Orchard shopping center.

The Jade, who authors Jaded in Chicago apparently is divorced and has a kid... but has time to shop [Sunday, July 31]:

I got a pretty sweet divorce deal wherein The Ex paid my mortgage and all my bills and childcare costs for a year and a half. So, I just went to school, didn't work, and curbed my shopping tendencies. The limiting my shopping was hard considering that until that point I was like a homing pigeon trained to return to the shoe department at Nordstrom in Old Orchard on a regular basis. But I managed.

On More Nonsense, Nick writes about the worst year of his life, 1997 [Wednesday, July 27]:

The other thing that happened in 97 was that I had quit working at IRI and was now consulting. Consulting meant that I would not get a vacation all year. I worked a forty to fifty hour week every week with out any break. Holidays came and I didn’t even get paid for them. Plus I was no longer working downtown so I had to drive to work every day, which I hated. I missed being in the loop and being able to go to lunch in the big city. Instead I was relegated to going to Old Orchard mall and grabbing some fast food.

Rita describes herself as "a student at the University of Chicago. I'm unfriendly. And I don't like squirrels." I believe she's also Jewish if you take the posts of her Nobody Sasses A Girl In Glasses blog into context. As since Old Orchard is located on Chicago's North Shore, a heavily Jewish area, you are bound to get some overlap in blog postings [Thursday, August 4]:

But there's nothing in itself wrong with recording all the minutia that made up the geography of life for Chicago Jews, and a lot of which makes up my own geography a few generations later--West Roger's Park, Lincolnwood, Hyde Park, Devon Ave., Boone School, Old Orchard Mall, The Bagel, even Jimmy's gets a nod. There's always something personal at stake when your own geography is opened to the public via a book or a movie. You become the kid who sees himself in a family movie and recognizes himself for the first time: "That's me! That's my house!" And you wonder how everyone else watching perceives you and your house. Do they see the same things you see?

The folks at Steve's News Annex plagiarize the Chicago Tribune with info about the previously-discussed (here, here, here, and here) Forth & Towne concept store at Old Orchard. Here are some excerpts from the excerpts [Monday, August 8]:

As for Old Orchard, "it's a mall, but it's an outside mall" with a good tenant mix, Muto said. "It's an affluent area and it's close enough to the city that it draws city residents. We're trying a two-level store there."

Apparently, you will soon be able to get some facial work done at Old Orchard, per the Chicago Tribune [Tuesday, September 13]:

Consumers shopping for shoes at Westfield Old Orchard will soon be able to pick up a shot of Botox, too. Pure Laser, which performs its hair removal, acne treatments and facelifts-in-a-bottle from the sixth floor of a professional building at the Skokie mall, is expected to begin construction soon on a location that will make it neighbors to other tenants Marshall Field's, Lenscrafters, Big Toy Express and Champps Americana. "My guess is it will offer more exposure to customers in the mall and walk-in traffic," said Shannon Ridgeway, Westfield Old Orchard marketing director. The higher-profile site is expected to open before the end of the year. Pure is at the forefront of what could be an explosion of personal-care services popping up in shopping centers as Baby Boomers want to try to turn back the clock, one retail consultant said.

Finally, we have some photos of good old Old Orchard, hosted via that nifty Flickr service (which Yahoo! recently acquired, so you know it's going to turn bad soon... anyone remember Hotmail pre-Microsoft?). Mac(3) shares a photo of the fountain located in the Fountain Court (go figure). Also shot by this photographer was two photos of the lion statue (1 and 2), also found in Fountain Court. And last but not least, two odd photos of a parking sign (1 and 2).

And that pretty much wraps up this edition of Outside the Orchard. Hope you found the postings completely pointless!

Posted by Tannerman at September 29, 2005 04:24 PM | Categories: Anchors | Fountain Court | Old Orchard | Other Malls | Outside the Orchard | Westfield