30 January 31 • 2019
jn

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Benji
Rosenzweig

might only recognize from our
grandmothers’
anecdotes and
the scenes of B. Altman in The
Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.
Over time, the space in the
Park Shelton doubled and moved
into prized, Woodward-facing
storefronts. Frida was born,
another shop featuring colorful,
bohemian clothing and copious
references to artist Frida Kahlo,
who famously lived in the Park
Shelton with Diego Rivera while
he worked on his iconic DIA fres-
coes. Lutz was thrilled and just
beginning to breathe easier.

RETAIL RESURGENCE
That’
s when, in 2017, real estate
agent Benji Rosenzweig was sit-
ting in a retail strategy meeting
in the Fisher Building office of
the Platform, Peter Cumming’
s
real estate group that had recently
purchased the building. They
were talking about their vision
for a creative combination of spe-
cial national retail (like the City
Bakery that opened in 2018 — the
first location for the cult favorite
outside of New York and Tokyo)
and energetic,
community-build-
ing local entre-
preneurs creating
magnets of unique
experiences.
Benji immedi-
ately thought of
Rachel and started
talking about her
and pulling up her store’
s social
media to show Peter and his part-

ner, Dietrich Knoer, who stopped
the meeting and said, “Go talk to
her today and let her know we
want her in the Fisher Building.
”
And so, promptly dispatched,
Rosenzweig drove down to the
Park Shelton to sell Lutz on the
idea. This new, friendly little
Jewish mafia won Lutz over, shar-
ing their conviction that there was
no one better to do justice to the
ground-floor arcade space occu-
pied from the late 1920s-1970s by
“Julie’
s,
” a two-story dress shop.
Lutz says with a sigh, “I didn’
t
want to open another store, but I
really wanted to save that room.
”
The first thing they did, per
usual, was peek under the drop
ceiling. Once again, arches with
intricate moldings were on the
other side. What else? Lutz inven-
tories the architectural details she
painstakingly preserved. “There
were two-story beveled mirrors
with glass rosettes; there was a
fireplace, this gorgeous spiral
staircase, bronze elevator doors
with carvings of ribbons, unlike
anything I’
ve ever seen.
”
Preserved is actually an under-
statement. With the help of artist
Teresa DeRue of Paintworks
Detroit, Lutz transformed the
store into a masterpiece. They
selected a Cinderella-esque color
palette and set about adding intri-
cate details and sourcing the per-
fect chandeliers (which Lutz still
doesn’
t think she got quite right).
“I wanted to take the oppor-
tunity to celebrate beauty for the
sake of beauty,
” she says. “We

don’
t build public spaces like that
anymore.
”
The result is a jaw-dropping,
completely transporting portal
into the early 20th century. One
doesn’
t know where to look first:
the glittering chandeliers, the gold
mirrors, racks of colorful dresses
(ranging from modest workwear
to sparkly, floor-length numbers),
towering stands of top hats, odd-
ities like bejeweled purses shaped
like pagodas, fancy embossed
stationery full of swear words,
anddevotional candles featuring
illustrations of James Baldwin and
Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
Along with the flagship
Peacock Room, Lutz also runs
Yama out of the Fisher Building.
Yama offers streamlined, sleek
and simple women’
s fashions.
The interior design is in step
with the larger setting of the
Fisher Building and New Center.
Built in the early-20th century
around the GM headquarters
in Cadillac Place, across Grand
Boulevard, and with the premise
this was a thriving business cen-
ter, densely packed with offices
and homes for white-collar
employees and executives, the
neighborhood’
s density took a
serious hit when GM moved to
the Renaissance Center in 1996.
Only in the last few years is
New Center starting to look like
its former and future self. But
a chicken-and-egg game keeps
storefronts empty: Will the retail
development and amenities come
first or will their consumers?

“I didn’
t want to
open another store,
but I really wanted
to save that room.
I wanted to take the
opportunity to
celebrate beauty
for the sake of beauty.
We don’
t build public
spaces like that
anymore.”

—
RACHEL LUTZ

arts&life

SYLVIA JARRUS