At the turn of the 20th century, Paris’s Champs-Elysées transformed from an avenue of mansions into a center of luxury shopping: Renault opened a showroom there in 1910, Guerlain arrived in 1913, Louis Vuitton in 1914, and Citroën in 1928, to name just four. So it’s not surprising to learn that in 1927, Théophile Bader, cofounder of the retail emporium Galeries Lafayette, bought up the site at numbers 52–60 avenue des Champs-Elysées with a view to building a new store there. But the 1929 stock-market crash forced him to abandon his plans, and the National City Bank of New York established its headquarters there in an Art Deco palace completed by architect André Arfvidson in 1931. The bank would remain until the 1980s, when its premises were taken over by Virgin Megastore, which occupied the building for 25 years until 2013. Now, 92 years later, things have come full circle: in late March Bader’s direct descendants, the Houzé family, inaugurated a new-concept Galeries Lafayette in Arfvidson’s building, reenvisioned by the Danish firm BIG—Bjarke Ingels Group.