Phoebe Chase

HISTART 244
10/1/2020

Nickel’s Arcade: The Land of the Lotus Eaters

Walking down South State Street in the year nineteen thirteen, an architecture

enthusiast may have come across Nickel’s Arcade and speculated that it was a revival of

Neoclassical style amidst the craziness of the Modernist movement. They may have thought it

odd that the architect Herman Pipp used an ivory colored terracotta material and incorporated

tall pillars with distinct botanic details, as these features did not feel modern. However, to an

unsuspecting passerby, these features simply instilled a sense of grand importance and

sparked curiosity. As one strolled between the Arcade pillars and through the narrow, lofty

passageway, they became encapsulated by the enticing shop windows and stayed longer than

intended. ​Nickel’s Arcade created a mystifying atmosphere for shoppers by blurring the lines

between indoor and outdoor while simultaneously hooking them into spending money, therefore

contributing to the growing commercialism in American society at the time.

Upon entry, the Maynard Street side of the building makes one feel as though they are

indoors, whereas the State Street side makes one feel as though they are still outdoors. The

Maynard Street facade is covered in yellow brick with three long, tiled windows above three

individual swinging doors. It is hard to tell what kind of structure this may be initially, but

because one must walk through a common swinging glass door to enter, they feel as though

they should be indoors. For this reason, it is not surprising that they may be entering a

commercial area. However, the busy State Street facade has an ivory color, seemingly made of

terracotta with four large classic looking pillars that have elegant botanic details where they

meet the top of the general entryway. Pipp intentionally placed this unusual yet grand entrance
on State Street in an effort to bring in more shoppers, because there is much more hustle and

bustle on this street compared to Maynard Street. There are no physical doors that one must

walk through to enter Nickel’s Arcade on this side, giving the impression of still being outdoors,

possibly just passing through an alleyway. For an everyday walker this may be deceiving.

The line between outdoor and indoor becomes increasingly blurred as one advances

through the passageway and observes what is ahead, next to, and below them. Stepping in

from the Maynard side, one notices the walls are made of the same yellow brick as the outside,

and looking forward one notices the light and sound coming from State Street, creating a sense

of outdoors. However, from the State Street side, one becomes convinced that they may in fact

be indoors as they look down to see the red and black tiles, which is not a common

sidewalk-like feature of any outdoor setting. Whether one enters through Maynard Street or

State Street, they will have a disorienting experience as they heedlessly notice more of Hipps

carefully placed details indicating where they may be.

Light and sound are also significant clues that present themselves when walking through

Nickel’s Arcade, as they often indicate one’s current setting. The entire passageway is

separated into three sections by two arches on either side, inviting walkers into the rest of the

Arcade, and bringing their eye to the roof above. There is a narrow glass skylight roof letting

light flood through, making the mood of the Arcade reliant on both the weather and time of

day--both aspects of the outdoors. The lights perched above the store fronts and windows bring

a more superficial, indoor feeling. The sounds of music, laughter and voices easily bounce off of

the narrow walls, and there is not much space to distance oneself from others, so the eye is

drawn to the people who are bustling in and out of the shops on either side of the yellow brick

walls. The concept and structure of stores being inside this Arcade brings the outdoors in,
creating a smaller-scale replica of any busy, commercially dominated--outdoor--street in

America.

Whether one feels more like they are indoors than outdoors or vice versa, it is evident

that the structure, materials and design of Nickel’s Arcade make the perfect atmosphere for a

commercial marketplace. The ambiguity of Nickel’s Arcade is the perfect way to encapsulate the

modern consumer as they may feel swept up or in an alternate reality, so they feel it’s

acceptable to continue to shop. The normal shopping experience for American people at the

time may have involved going in and out of stores on an open street, consciously separating

time spent inside one store from time spent in another because of the fresh feel of outdoor air

between, and possibly the more common store experience. The idea that various stores could

exist under the same roof and in close proximity changed the entire experience, especially in

the cold winters of Ann Arbor. The structure of this building may have caused people to continue

shopping for longer periods of time and spend more money because it was all one continuous

experience, and they weren’t being thwacked in the face with the reality of the outside world to

remind them to stop.

The dramatic change in atmosphere is palpable when one walks down the loud, busy,

stressful State Street, past the unusual marvellous, towering columns and into this quiet,

lowkey, safe space in Nickel’s Arcade. This almost meditative experience, along with the

surprisingly Neoclassical entrance and the ambiguous sense of reality fabricated by Herman

Pipp traps passersby in hopes of eating up their money. While upon first glance this building

may either seem like a revival of old classical style or just plain confusing, Nickel’s Arcade was

very modern, and some may even say it was ahead of its time.