An architectural jewel, repolished

By RICK NELSON, Star Tribune

February 6, 2008

When maverick retailer Elizabeth Quinlan built her downtown Minneapolis emporium in 1926, she immodestly declared it her "perfect gem." Which is why there's a sweet grace note associated with the Young Quinlan building's latest tenant: J.B. Hudson. The jeweler, another Minneapolis classic, opened in its new home on Tuesday.

"I've always loved this building," said Jeannie Joas, J.B. Hudson president and chief executive officer. "I think this entire community has always had a love affair with it. I knew we could take the elements that speak to the tradition of J.B. Hudson and marry it to this building. We want everyone who walks in here to have a 'wow' experience."

That won't be difficult. The Minneapolis design firm Shea Inc. has deftly mixed old and new to forge a past-meets-present shopping experience unlike any other in the state.

"It's easy when you start with what has to be, without question, the classiest building in town," said architect David Shea. "I mean, where else do you see 18-foot ceilings, or travertine staircases? Talk about perfect bones. These details can never be replicated."

Joas has been involved with the store since 1992, when it was plucked from bankruptcy by James Cargill. When Cargill died in 2006, Joas teamed up with new and similarly deep-pocketed partners bearing yet another fabled Minnesota name: the Pohlad family.

Changes of ownership and address aren't the only transformations. The new store's roomier footprint allows space for additional inventory, including in-store boutiques for Cartier, H. Stern, Omega and Steuben. The watch selection has tripled in size (it's displayed in a contemporary racetrack-shaped case that rests on a terrazzo floor fashioned to suggest a clock's face). The cozy mezzanine is now filled with giftware and collectibles, and sidewalk strollers can peek in on two other fascinating additions: a custom goldsmith and a watchmaker laboring behind big display windows on the building's 9th Street side.

"We didn't have the space in our old location, so it's exciting for people to be able to see these incredible craftsmen at work," said Joas.

A YQ/JBH union might be viewed as predestined, as the businesses have shared a long if tenuous connection. Josiah Bell Hudson opened his store at 3rd and Nicollet in 1885, and by 1894 he'd relocated a few blocks uptown to the Syndicate Building (now the site of Neiman Marcus), where a pair of upstart fashion entrepreneurs by the name of Fred Young and Elizabeth Quinlan had just set up shop. By 1929, both stores boasted new settings that were easily the most opulent in town. Quinlan's refined Italianate palace was at 9th and Nicollet and J.B. Hudson's dramatic new Spanish Renaissance digs, located inside Dayton's, were a block to the north; both featured ornate decorative details created by the same iron craftsman, Josef Bernasek.

That parallel history eased the way for a sympathetic reinstallation of fixtures from the former J.B. Hudson store into their elegant new YQ residence. Spectacularly intricate chandeliers, a pair of torchieres straight out of an Errol Flynn swashbuckler and walnut-and-bronze display cases look as if they were born to adorn their new digs, their decades-old glow untouched. "You don't strip and refinish 80 years of patina," said Shea.

After Young Quinlan closed in 1985, the building's main floor was eventually subdivided into several retail spaces, including a Polo/Ralph Lauren outlet. Polo's not-unsympathetic makeover preserved much of YQ's grandeur but carved up the sweeping space into smaller showrooms. For J.B. Hudson, Shea operated in reverse, reopening the grand hall into a series of subtle progressions that culminate in that one-of-a-kind travertine staircase. "You celebrate the historic and you remove everything else," he said.

Another improvement, perhaps best of all: Sunlight once again pours through windows that had been covered for nearly two decades. Even when all the precious gems are locked safely inside the store's big new safe, the place literally sparkles.

The old J.B. Hudson store "had been claustrophobic, so it's such a treat to have so much natural daylight," said Joas. "To really admire the beauty of a diamond, you have to see it in natural daylight."

It's easy to imagine the hard-to-please Miss Quinlan looking down with approval.

"I can almost feel her spirit," said Joas. "So many times I look at her picture and I think she must be very concerned about her baby. But it's in good hands, and its future is very bright."

Rick Nelson • 612-673-4757

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