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   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   The Westfield San Francisco Centre’s fourth-floor atrium was once its   
   crown jewel, a glittering, historic dome hovering above the city’s biggest   
   shopping center. Now the atrium sits empty in a stark sign of the mall’s   
   woes.   
      
   The dome level, as it is known throughout the mall’s marketing and maps,   
   was a centerpiece when the mall opened in 2006. The steel and glass dome   
   had topped the original Emporium department store, built in 1896 and   
   rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake and fire, and looked down upon a   
   bandstand. Westfield preserved the the building’s facade and the 102-foot-   
   wide dome, placing it atop a 98-foot-high columned space surrounded by   
   shops.   
      
   But on a recent weekday afternoon, its underused elevators flashed neon   
   pink and green as the occasional shopper stepped off to take a selfie   
   beneath the rotunda. The storefronts were shuttered, save for a lone   
   entrance to Bloomingdale’s all-but-deserted luxury menswear section.   
      
   Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom were the only stores still apparently   
   operating on the fourth floor. Between the two department store entrances,   
   at least six storefronts stood empty, their windows clad in shades or   
   aluminum shutters.   
      
   A sign was still visible for Tap 415, a burger bistro that shuttered in   
   2019. Across the way was the empty facade of Bespoke Coworking, which   
   opened in 2015 and housed a reception area, library and office space.   
      
   The barren scene was emblematic of Westfield’s ongoing unraveling, as the   
   once popular shopping mall fell victim to pandemic shutdowns, a rapid   
   shift to online shopping and the city’s broader troubles downtown. In   
   June, the company announced it would relinquish its namesake San Francisco   
   mall following Nordstrom’s planned closure.   
      
   On Thursday morning, Cecile Lozano stood beneath the dome, snapping photos   
   with her smartphone as she recalled visiting it as a young child on   
   shopping trips with her parents. The trip, she said, was part nostalgic   
   and part practical, as she had several gift cards to use up.   
      
   “Who knows what is going to happen to this place?” Lozano said, lifting   
   her head to scan the atrium’s Beaux-Arts balustrades and sun-dappled   
   rosettes.   
      
   The San Francisco native had taken Muni to visit the downtown mall once   
   more before its closure. She remembered visiting the Emporium department   
   store — which predated Westfield — and seeing diners eat beneath the dome   
   at a restaurant that once operated in the now quiet rotunda.   
      
   “This is like going back in time,” Lozano said. “I remember seeing this as   
   a kid.”   
      
   Nordstrom, which occupies 312,000 square feet in the mall, will close when   
   its lease expires in August after 35 years. The store’s departure will   
   leave about half of the mall’s 1.2 million square feet of retail space and   
   300,000 square feet of offices empty.   
      
   Mayor London Breed has sought to encourage developers to reimagine the   
   city’s beleaguered downtown, even suggesting that the vacant mall could   
   become a soccer stadium to draw residents to the once vibrant corridor   
   that is struggling to keep offices and storefronts occupied.   
      
   Westfield did not reply to requests for comment.   
      
   Reach Nora Mishanec: nora.mishanec@sfchronicle.com   
      
   https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/westfield-dome-level-mall-   
   18197846.php   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)