So Long, Old Lion

The life of a journalist is to become educated about a new subject, expert enough to write knowledgeably, before moving on to the next new subject.

As a result, we're constantly dependent on those professionals who are willing to lend their observations and insights.

When I first entered this industry, I began collecting those observations and insights that came to comprise my body of knowledge.

Andy Markopoulos was my mentor, as he was to so many people in this industry.

And through interviews, conversations, during store tours and over drinks, I learned invaluable bits and pieces from Jay Fitzpatrick, Harry Sparks, James Mansour, Jane Shea, Norwood Oliver, Eric Feigenbaum, Jeannette Davis, Jerry Gelsomino, Judith Winchester, Tony Mancini, Paul Wolf and others.

One of those influences – through his experience, opinions, energy and sheer enthusiasm – was Dominick Segrete. So Dominick's passing away in May was a personal loss to me, as it was to so many others.

In the high-flying 1990s, when I started, retail design was increasingly about entertainment and technology. Warner Bros. built its Studio Store in New York. NikeTowns kept raising the bar higher and higher.

Relegated to the dustbin, it seemed, was the heart and soul of this business – the people who had made department stores work. Those who had transposed those huge, vaulted urban spaces, filling them with color and excitement, clarity and precision, sightlines and traffic flows.

Then they had translated those downtown concepts into the smaller, boxier spaces sprouting up around the suburbs. Forget about the interactive Bugs Bunnies and flying Michael Jordans. The real retail magic, I think, was successfully navigating the treacherous waters where store design principles conflicted with the demands of merchandise buyers and the limitations from cfo's, and still creating a mall-based Marshall Field's or Lord & Taylor that retained the integrity of the original brand-name store.

That had been the era of Dominick Segrete. By the 90s, Tucci, Segrete & Rosen may not have been doing the high-profile work or winning all the design awards, but it was continuing to serve the meat and potatoes.

Particularly enjoyable to me was seeing Dominick and Andy Markopoulos get together at industry functions – not to reminisce, but to bring their seasoned, well-tested knowledge to the table; to chuckle ruefully at how retail design had veered from the principles of their day; and occasionally to cross swords with the younger swashbucklers.

Dominick just loved to eat well, drink wine and talk passionately about this industry.

Then the high-flying 90s came down to earth; Warner Bros. closed all its stores and Nike stopped building new Towns; kiosks and all that technology disappointed.

But look at who's doing the interesting, exciting work these days. The department stores! Reinventing, reclaiming, looking to the future. The newest, best retail project so far this year is the fabulous new Bloomingdale's in SoHo, a real urban department store carved out of real urban architecture. Tucci, Segrete & Rosen did the design.

Dominick Segrete lived just long enough to see his career come full-circle. He will be missed.