Hackensack, NJ Community Message Boards

General Category => Hackensack Discussion => Topic started by: BLeafe on May 22, 2011, 04:07:09 PM

Title: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: BLeafe on May 22, 2011, 04:07:09 PM
This occurred early this morning. My guess is that it's time to repaint the letters. You can see that this procedure removed a lot of the blue paint and that the cherry-picker sports a painting company's website address.

The last time I saw them paint the letters was when they changed them from red to blue 17 years ago, as you can see in the second image (taken from my site).

Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: BLeafe on May 23, 2011, 10:40:20 AM
Here's what it looked like at 8:30 this morning. They must have done this work super-early and just stopped at a certain time with an unfinished wall and only 5 letters painted.

Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: irons35 on May 23, 2011, 01:37:26 PM
too bad they dont put the neon tubes back in.
Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: Homer Jones on May 23, 2011, 03:54:06 PM
The Wall Street Journal must be wrong. They said that SEARS is buried under red ink!
Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: Editor on May 23, 2011, 05:31:46 PM
I wish they hadn't painted it.  The raw stone looked much better.
Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: BLeafe on May 23, 2011, 06:14:10 PM
Here's how the sign will look tomorrow:

(BTW - I corrected the subject)
Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: BLeafe on June 12, 2011, 06:13:27 PM
I wish they hadn't painted it.

It's worse than you think!

Here's what I saw this afternoon. It just doesn't look right.........something's missing.

Oh, I know!

It needs barbed-wire-topped fencing and a turret with machine guns and a searchlight instead of that annoying flag that has to be lowered and raised at inconvenient times.

It's the Sears maximum security facility! (shoplifters, beware!)

Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: just watching on June 12, 2011, 09:37:42 PM
I agree, the painting is tacky.  The raw stone had some historic quality. 

What are they doing with what looks like black windows in the photo.
Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: BLeafe on June 25, 2011, 01:33:04 PM
"...and Co" is no more, but the replacement is worse. It looks like a first-grader couldn't color within the lines. OR it could be an adult who is overly-enamored of Staffordshire flow blue.

From here, it also appears that Sears street-level work is going on at Main and Anderson.


Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: Homer Jones on June 25, 2011, 02:34:33 PM
Hopefully the paint job will look better after they remove the masking tape.

The building went to hell when they covered up the street level windows. It looks more like a jail than the Couty jail a mile south.
Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: BLeafe on June 25, 2011, 09:39:08 PM
Masking tape?

It looks like they forgot that minor detail.

Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: Homer Jones on June 25, 2011, 09:55:06 PM
Not even SEARS would leave it like that.
Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: BLeafe on June 26, 2011, 09:22:26 PM
Lots of stuff going on at Sears today.

I stopped by when I was out this morning and asked about the smudgy painting of the letters on the west side of the tower. A worker said that they paint the wall, then the letters and then repaint around the letters. He also said that his company has done lots of these types of jobs for K-Mart, so I guess we know who's in charge there. Maybe they should be asked about the flag problems.

The work on the tower's south (Anderson St) side went from start to finish: blast the wall, paint it, add the messy blue letter painting, then repaint over the "outside the lines" stuff, which is pretty much the picture sequence below. The Main St side remains smudgy.

I think the interesting shot is the third from the last where both sides are smudgy. It's just something you don't ever expect to see from Sears. In the last shot, the painter appears to be admiring his handiwork.

Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: Homer Jones on June 26, 2011, 09:37:17 PM
However they are doing it seems to be working. I wonder if they do art restoration on the side.
Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: BLeafe on June 26, 2011, 11:03:09 PM
I wonder if they do art restoration on the side.

http://www.arkanoffpainting.com/about_us

Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: Homer Jones on June 27, 2011, 07:36:20 AM
Guess not.
Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: BLeafe on June 27, 2011, 06:52:47 PM
1. Tower's all unsmudged as of early this morning (before I got up).

2. Here's a look at the old and new Sears as it looks today. As prison-like as it may look from the back, this is a definite upgrade. I thought the old building looked just fine, but it really looks like crap next to the new part.

Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: Editor on June 27, 2011, 07:56:44 PM
Personally, I think their money would have been better spent if they cleaned the stone, re-installed the windows at the street level, hung awings and put the lights back in SEARS.  This is an improvement over what had been but I doubt very much the paint is going to hold up for long.  Can anyone think of any other natural stone building that was painted? Is that granite?

I wish this was in color, but I imagine the awnings being red:

(http://www.hackensacknow.org/images/Sears.jpg)

A very classic look. 
Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: Homer Jones on June 27, 2011, 08:36:08 PM
That's the best this building has looked in about 30 years since they covered up the windows to prevent the smash and grabs that were taking place by customers who pereferred midnight shopping without the hassle of using their Sears credit card.
Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: BLeafe on June 27, 2011, 08:55:15 PM
I think the big question is: will all this really make more people want to shop there? It's still SEARS.

Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: Homer Jones on June 27, 2011, 09:43:54 PM
Love the cartoon and what it is saying. The store looks good until you walk in the front door. At least the building shows some signs of life. The improvements will put to rest that the store is closing down for good.
Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: BLeafe on June 29, 2011, 07:18:51 PM
Is that granite?

I doubt it. Not that I looked THAT close for flecks, but you'd think you would have heard SOME reference to the building over the years that included "granite" in its description.

The main reason I don't think it's granite is because it opened in 1932 - a year after the George Washington Bridge, which was originally supposed to be clad in granite. The Great Depression nixed that idea, so I doubt Mr Sears had the Roebucks to spring for a granite building during that period.

Title: Re: Sears gets a facelift
Post by: BLeafe on July 14, 2011, 03:48:12 PM
Workers complete the finishing touches on the tower's color accents - not bad.