Shopping malls paper

From UANotebook

Contents

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Shopping Malls of note

  • Trafford Center in Machester... see Avery refs for a few articles


"Hip urban center, with spectacular waterfront location, offers more than 120 of Boston's favorite stores, specialty boutiques and restaurants. Discover great shopping at Best Buy, Borders, Sears, Macy's, Apple Store and more. Enjoy casual dining at The Cheesecake Factory and California Pizza Kitchen or simply grab a bite on the go at the Waterfront Food Festival." --from website.


  • Geibel, Victoria

Title: A simulated town ... Stamford Town Center [Connecticut] / Source: Metropolis 1988 Oct., v.8, no.3, p.103-113,129-135


From the wiki: The construction of the mall and adjacent office towers had a profound effect on the face of downtown Stamford during the 1970s and 1980's, and was profiled in a May 8, 1988 article in The New York Times headlined "A Town Sells Off Pieces of its Soul." "The mall was a significant part of Stamford's urban renewal efforts, and thus was not without controversy. The mall gutted the heart of Stamford's traditional Main Street retailing and business district, and is widely perceived to be a large fortress-like structure, that even today appears hugely out of scale to the remaining cityscape."

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notes

  • versatile... have tried to look like everythign... have adaptively reused everything (post office, etc.)
  • versatile... people come somewhere for various reasons another instrumental purpose... why not shop? (las vegas)
  • fantasy: Berne, Michael J.

Title: Aladdin cities: regional shopping destinations in New York's inner cities often rival traditional downtowns in the size and scope of their offerings / Source: Urban land 2004 Feb., v.63, n.2, p.57-62


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safety, regulation, and teens


The shift in mall design over the past decade represents a 180-degree shift in thinking. In 1984, HUD assistant secretary Jack R. Stovkis penned an article entitled "Why Can't Downtown Be More Like a Mall?" in which he isolated centralized management as one of the key strengths in the mall's success. Although, on the surface, the unmalling of America flips Stovkis's question to why can't the mall be more like downtown?, his central thesis is still applicable. Despite the appearance of Main Street USA, of course, the new mall remains private property under the control of a single entity. This brings with it a whole host of considerations in this new semi-public/semi-private space.

1984, pp.11: quotes the findings of the American City Corporation: "Fully effective management of retail operations cannot occur without control of property rights by the management entity".


  • "emergent public space" a safe public space due to regulation of space
  • a public space for teens... (see haytko and baker, turkish malls) it is safe and controlled


  • O'Dougherty, Maureen.

Title: Public relations, private security: managing youth and race at the Mall of America / Source: Environment and planning D, society & space 2006 Feb., v.24, n.1, p.131-154 Standard No: ISSN: 0263-7758 Language: In English. Abstract: "In this paper [the author examines] the weekend night curfew imposed on youth under 16 years of age at the Mall of America (MOA)... [The author argues] that MOA security measures are closely linked with public relations (PR) and that a central function of PR as a support for security is to veil the racial dynamics motivating management policies at the mall."


  • Lutz, Warren.

Title: Mall security post-9/11: shopping malls are fighting terror with technology / Source: Urban land 2002 May, v.61, n.5, p.28 Standard No: ISSN: 0042-0891 Details: photos. Language: In English. Abstract: A discussion of current technologies being employed in shopping malls, such as closed-circuit TV, improved alarm systems, and digitized blueprints.

free speech

Pruneyard Shopping Center -- "In the late 1970s, the PruneYard was involved in a free speech dispute with local high school students that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court on June 9, 1980.[1][2] In American constitutional law, the PruneYard is famous for its role in establishing two important rules:"

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nomenclature

*went from being named, like subdivisions, after the natural things they plowed over to things they want to be, town centers.

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enclosed, regional malls

Thomas (2006, pp. 109):"the era of the enclosed mall lasted about half a century. The morphing of the mall into a resort is part of the urban renaissance that is a growing trend around the world."


  • a little history


Scholl & Williams (2005, pp. 89): "Enclosed regional shopping destinations have dominated the retail industry since the 1950s, with more than 1130 such locations across the United States and more under development to meet the needs of burgeoning population. This traditional shopping center format, pioneered by architect Victor Gruen, can be traced back to Southdale in the Minneapolis suburb of Edina. Opened in 1956 and envisioned as the centerpiece of a multi-use development, Southdale was the nation's first fully enclosed, climate-controlled shopping center with anchor tenants. Although Gruen's vision for the surrounding development was never realized, Southdale remains open today just minutes from the country's largest shoppping destination, Mall of America."


<s> Regional shopping centers were different from their downtown counterparts. They catered to the automobile and, more specifically, an increasingly mobile and sprawling suburban clientele. They were typically fashion-store centered (cite?) Cohen & Borko (2002, pp. 104) described them as "islands of commerce, detached physically and economically form the communitities around them."

(pp. 89): "In 1973, Phoenix's Metrocenter took the enclosed mall design to a new level with its five-anchor, dual-floor structure. Strip centers and community centers were introduced to complement large regional shopping destinations, and the 1980s saw the rise of the megamalls.


Thomas (1994, pp.24) described the science to which designers and developers boiled down the manifestation of regional malls. He listed several design principles from which developers rarely deviated:

  1. at least 60 acres of suburban residential area, preferably greenspace
  2. located at the intersection of at least two main arterials
  3. a trade area of 100,000 to 150,000 people within a 20-minute drive
  4. at least two full-line department stores
  5. be laid out in a dumbell, Y, cruciform, or racetrack formation depending on the number of anchors
  6. have grade-level parking surrounding the mall at a ratio of 5 spaces per 1000 sq. ft. of GLA (??)
  7. domination by national chains
  8. anchors occupy 60 percent of space
  9. a fashion-oriented tenant mix
  10. acoustically-live floors and ceiling off which sound will bounce to make the mall noisy and busy

(revisit these later when talking of lifestyle centers)


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death and reinvention

  • constant re-invention due to needing to retain and attract customers (Presumably, too, with the advent of Internet-based shopping) (thus lifestyle centers and opportunities) malls are the las vegas of building types, cuz they re-invent


Of course, the mall as all about the automobile... that's how it started Thomas, I think, has a good list of the standard formula for the old, enclosed mall


Vasquez pp.72: "'In our business, to stand still is to regress,' says Nick Lemasters, general manager of Cherry Creek [Mall, an upscale regional shopping center in Denver]. 'To be successfull, you have to continue to challenge and reinvent yourself.'"


Partially changing desires of consumers. Partially criticism of the homogeneity of malls...


  • New lives for old malls: rethinking the nation's first generation shopping centers / 
Source: 	Planning 1999 May, v.65, n.5, p.20-22
Standard No: 	ISSN: 0001-2610
Details: 	photos., drawings, elevations, site plans, aerial photos.
Language: 	In English.
Abstract: 	High vacancy rates are forcing older enclosed malls to shut down or be retrofitted for other uses.


Thomas (1996, pp.24) identified that regional malls started facing problems at the beginning of the 1990s. At the time, it was estimated that 15 percent, or 250 centers, could close by the end of the decade or the middle of the following one. A few mall-killing factors that Thomas enumerated included: mall homogeneity, consumers' growing poverty of free time, and consumers' stagnant incomes and mounting debts. Also factoring into the downturn was the rise of warehouse clubs, outlet malls, big-box retailers, and value-oriented megamalls. As a result, Thomas reported that new mall development virtually stopped mid-decade, with only 6 new malls opening "compared to ten times that humber just a decade ago."

A 2001 PricewaterhouseCoopers study, (Cohen & Borko 2002, pp.100; Sokol 2003, pp.) echoed that 300 to 600 of the nation's 2700 regional malls were failing.


Even some venerable, original, enclosed shopping centers couldn't rely on their historical pedigree to remain economically viable. The story...


Curiously, some of their names are quaint, yet they reflect the fantasy reality that was hoped for back then...


Vasquez pp.73: "Cinderella City was Denver's pride and joy when it was built in Englewood in 1968. But age and changing consumer shopping habits eventually caught up with it. Now nearly vacant, the mall has become a blight on the community."

Sokol pp.64: "When the Dutchess Mall opened in 1974 in Fishkill, New York, it was as beautiful a standard dumbbell-configured mall as you could imagine," with fieldstone cladding and a rustic port cochere. Yet, the population center moved outward, leaving the mall behind. It closed it's doors in 1998.

(insert intermediate forms here)


In another example, Raleigh's (NC) prosaically-named North Hills Mall, one of the South's first fully enclosed malls, hit economic hard times as the suburbs sprawled and spawned newer retail complexes. Jim Parsons (2004, pp.45) writes of the Malls transformation into the "Lassiter", a mixed-use 15-acre site (half the original acreage) with ground-level retail, 300 rental condominiums and an 8-story, 65-unit luxury condominium tower all surrounding a renovated plaza building. Adding to the this neo-downtown core, the remaining acreage would be developed into a "village" consisting of 725,000 square feet of restaurants and retail "oriented around a town square and a pair of shopping streets; a 14-screen cinema; a national chain hotel with banquet facilities; and 300,000 square feet of office space." In short, the new development would serve as a downtown for Raleigh's suburbs near the Interstate 440 Beltline.

Developers chose to adopt a "new midtown" design philosophy, one that went beyond the lifestyle center. In crafting a large-scale collection of spaces that would, essentially, create a new downtown without attempting to look like it was trying too hard, designers desired to "speak to a more urban/local community." They chose to do so by employing nuanced elements "of the 1920s midtown rather than contemporary suburban retail facades." Here we can see the old town main street BLAH BLAH BLAH

It opened in the autumn of 2004.

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crazy experiments

Gen Xers with The Lab.

  • Dead Malls Competition "Discusses the Dead Malls Competition, which sought ways to regenerate shopping centers, and the closing of many malls in the United States. Competition organized by the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design. Detailed look at five of the entries.

Techentin, Warren. Title: Shopping mall: storia di un malessere - retail mallaise [sic.]: resuscitating dead malls / Source: Lotus international 2003, n.118, p.[26]-[45]


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dead malls

Shortly before this, though, so much anxiety was present that, in March of 2003, the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design held a design competition entitled "Dead Malls" in order to engage architects in reviving the building type. One of the more radical designs proposed rebuilding a Hollywood mall as a series of modules organized by product types such a "pants section" while another re-programmed the Dutchess for smaller businesses, artists, and a day care center. This example echoes some of the uses of current lifestyle centers. Additionally, other designs not only programmed uses but also sensed the different clientèle that made up the new demographic. One team created different zones based on consumer behavior, catering to big-box shoppers, "California surfer dudes and Martha Stewart wannabees," as well as teenage loiterers. (Sokol 2003, pp.64)


Although some of these designs may have sounded a tad far-fetched to actually make it to an actual mall --as if super-imposing a nostalgic Main Street facade wasn't far-fetched-- such crazy ideas were not without precedent.


see especially http://www.deadmalls.com/


Pittsburgh, PA -- Sunday December 23, 2007

"Pair visits dead, dying malls" story from http://www.post-gazette.com/businessnews/20020510deadmalls0510p3.asp

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resurrection

New developments, of course, had the benefit of new market research to inform the design well before the first concrete was poured. In Brisbane, Australia, developers of the Robina Town Centre concluded in the early 1990s that "the old ground rules were no longer working and that new thinking was therefore required" (Thomas 1996, pp. 27). While they found no agreement on what this new thinking was, they did observe that several successful regional malls were re-incorporating elements from central business districts that they originally shunned. These elements included theaters, libraries, art galleries, hotels, offices, and even residences. These "urbanizing" elements had the added benefit of producing a round-the-clock "activity cycle" that expanded hours good for business.

(cite perhaps the blurb from Thomas 1996 that customers wanted to shop on "the street" but had to shop "at the mall"... this was a disconnect they reconciled... the disconnect between desirability of street and the functionality of the mall)

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de-malling and un-malling the uniformity and homogeniety

  • Salvesen, David.

Title: The de-malling of America / Source: Urban land 2001 Feb., v.60, n.2, p.72-77 Standard No: ISSN: 0042-0891 Details: photos., drawings, charts, elevations. Language: In English. Abstract: Illustrates a number of dying, first-generation shopping malls which are being transformed into compact, mixed-use centers.


  • Thomas identified as early as 1996 the new trend of urbanizing malls in "town centers". He noted that developers were starting to add office towers, hotels, apartment high-rises, and even civic structures (Thomas 1994). In addition to changing the design of malls, these moves created new customers and increased demand as they ensnared "a captive market on site."


partial de-malling

An intermediate step: see Northshore Mall in Peabody, Mass. in the Cole (article) section below.

Such choices can be seen today, too, among successful, existing, enclosed malls undergoing renovation. At Seattle's Northgate, two of its original structures, the Northgate Theater and the Northgate Medical Building, were demolished to in order to make room for the lifestyle addition. la la la la.

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lifestyle center

"The Mall Goes Undercover: It now looks like a city street."

By Andrew Blum

Posted Wednesday, April 6, 2005, at 6:24 AM ET

retrieved from http://www.slate.com/id/2116246


  • Remaking a mall: The Plaza and The Court at King of Prussia 
Source: 	Urban land 1995 Oct., v.54, n.10, p.71-73,98
ISSN:          0042-0891
Details: 	photos., site plans, aerial photos.
Abstract: 	A six-phase renovation and expansion is transforming a 1960s-era shopping center into the largest regional mall on the East Coast.


  • From mall to Main Street 
Source: 	Urban land 1998 Oct., v.57, n.10, p.22
ISSN: 0042-0891
Details: 	drawings.
Abstract: 	"In Schaumburg [Ill.], a suburb of Chicago, a former 700,000-square-foot, two-story, inward-facing mall is undergoing conversion into an outward-facing retail streetscape." The new center has been named the Streets of Woodfield.
  • Main Street mall [Citrus Park Town Center, Tampa, Fla.] 
Source: 	Texas architect 1999 July-Aug., v.49, n.4, p.23
ISSN:          0040-4179
Details: 	photos., plans.
Abstract: 	The country's first "Main Street, U.S.A." shopping center. Architects: RTKL Assoc.


Scholl & Williams (pp.89): "As the 1990s began, Poag & McEwen's Saddle Creek development of Germantown, a Memphis suburb, gave brith to the modern lifestyle center. Housing a group of carefully selected upscale retailers, the Shops at Saddle Creek reintroduced the small-town nostalgia that had been missing from retail development since the psot-World War II boom."


The 1990s, it seems, ushered in a new era of consumers with different tastes. So much so, in fact, that Thomas in 1994 (pp.24) urged "tired regional centers that seek to survive must embrace the 'town center' concept."


Whereas Borko & Cohen's "islands of commerce" described the traditional mall, these new centers seek to reconnect tot their host communities. In fact, they attempt to make community a part of their business model by offering non-shopping amenities that mimic the town square.


Thomas (2006, pp. 108): "In a state of flux, the mall industry realized that consumers were being turned off by the mind-numbing homogeneity and sterility of most malls and were in search of something new. Several valiant attemptes were made to revise center formats, including "demalling," building urban entertainment centers, and adding an outdoor 'tail' to a traditional enclosed mall. However, the initiative that gained widespread acceptance is the lifestyle center, which adopts the format of a Main Street or town square."


mall life versus new lifestyles


Whereas, previously, enclosed regional malls relied on their anchors to draw customers and on supporting merchants to keep them, Thomas (1996, pp.26) noted that individual stores no longer provided that same draw. Presumably, the Internet and new forms of shopping tempered anchors' powers. Rather, then, it was the lifestyle that became more of the draw. Customers wanted the ability to socialize, say, or TO DO SOMETHING ELSE in addition to purchasing things. Whereas the "mall life" consisted of being herded down the corridor from shop to shop, the street life, albeit crafted, offered visitors the opportunity to plot a less pre-defined course through their shopping visit.


Naturally, this ad-hoc navigation through shopping and OTHER THINGS is most easily facilitated in a town square or central business district. As such, the mall that best approximates this experience should be more successful nowadays.


International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) defines a lifestyle center as an open-air configuration of at least 50,000 square feet. It is typically located near somewhat affluent residential neighborhoods and contains upscale chain specialty stores. Like many things in the retail world, however, even this definition is subject to modification and variation. (Scholl & Williams pp.90).

Scholl & Williams reported that, as of 2005, 17 new lifestyle centers were projected to open, yielding a national total of 147. Although industry experts consider the lifestyle center to be rooted in warm states, they have been appearing in cooler climates as well.


  • took a cue from resorts and their placemaking: developed projects with an intrinsic sense of place.

Thomas: "The lifestyle center has taken any of its cues from resorts to create shopping environments that consumers can connect with once again."

Scholl & Williams (pp. 90): "lifestyle destinations must be designed and developed to accomodate the specific needs of a space and community."


Still, though, they have that main street thing in common. Scholl & Williams: they have curbside parking, fountains, public art, and detached buildings.

Whereas regional centers need to draw upon a 25-mile radius to remain profitable, lifestyle centers can subsist on as little a customer base as a 10-mile radius. (Scholl & Williams pp.91) Also can be worked into a smaller land base.

Scholl & Williams (pp.89): "Modeled after Main Street, USA, lifestyle centers evoke a sense of place that combines a variety of uses to deliver a live/work/shop/play environment. The concept is a modernized version of the traditional marketplace, and a return to the character and ambiance of a small town with enhanced offerings that include in-demand retailers, restaurants, entertainment, and services for a complete shopping 'experience.'"

Scholl & Williams (pp.92): "are not simply a phenomenon of growth; they are a smart approach to land use. They create a sense of place where none exists, or, if one does, lifestyle concepts can reinvigorate it."

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retail resorts


  • the next step up from lifestyle center


Thomas (2006, pp. 109): "The term 'regional mall' is starting to fade into oblivion. The mall-as-resort movement has played a significant role in this trend. A new description has emerged within the retail development lexicon --'regional center'-- the common term used to describe large-scale, mixed-use, and open-air projects. The most successful of these regional centers will provide some of the amenities and experiences of a resort."


Still, though, the enclosed mall is not about the vanish, according to Scholl & Williams. "The two will coexist," they write, "meeting unique needs defined by geographic, economic, and social conditions" (pp.92). They report the ICSC's claim that the format is thriving, with record high occupancy rates, increased visits, and longer stays. Indeed, in the Streets of Woodfield example, we can see that that lifestyle center is located right across the street from the traditional, enclosed Woodfield Mall.


In further fact, the two models can coexist in the same Mall. Northgate Mall in Seattle, a traditional enclosed mall, recently added a new "lifestyle addition"...

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digital intersections

  • dead and dying malls talk in the 1990s (coincides to internet???) metaphor: enclosed boxes as a sarcophagus

One cannot, of course, discuss social changes, as well as their attendant effects on the physical world, in the mid-1990s without speaking of the Internet. What with the Internet exploding into the shopping realm, how did retailers feel the burden of the encroaching online realm? In 1996, Ian Thomas (pp.25) wrote that

"the information era is changing the way consumers live, shop, and play. More people are turning to the Internet, television, and telephone shopping. As a result, there will be less demand for traditional retail floor space and more for purchase-fulfillment centers."

It seems almost trite to report such statements today; however, these were great unknowns years ago (much as the future of the press and copyright remain unknown today). Back then, there were serious concerns about the fate of "bricks and mortar" retailers both as the Web's euphoria spread and as telecommunications in general entered the wild, deregulated frontier mid-decade. In addition to the dawning of Amazon.com, for example, existing outlets like television shopping giant QVC Inc. were acquired by broadcast giant ComCast (http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/QVC-Inc-Company-History.html) and augmented its offerings through an online store. Many retailers, and many malls, felt the repercussions.

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ambiguity, time-management, and quality of life

  • Nobel, Philip.

Title: Good malls and bad cities: new quasi-urban shopping centers and the digital public sphere call into question traditional hatred of malls / Source: Metropolis 2007 Mar., v.26, n.7, p.72,74 Abstract: On the ambiguity of civic life and the contemporary shopping mall, as evidenced in such mixed-use developments as Santana Row in San Jose, Calif., and Easton Town Center in Columbus, Ohio.

  • Vasquez pp.73: "Cinderella City was Denver's pride and joy when it was built in Englewood in 1968. "The mall's layout is too big, she says, and it's W design is inconvenient for shoppers. 'Consumers are too pressed for time,' [Eileen Byrne of Eileen Byrne Associates, a Denver firm] says. 'They want to see where they're going. They don't like dead-end corridors.' "
  • "time starved lifestyles that involve juggling family responsibilities and work." Scholl & Williams pp.90
  • Thomas (2006, pp.108): "The key to attracting new and repeat customers lies in the creation of these organic, multipurpose environments where the trip visitation time gets substantially extended, a phenomenon that emerges today from the blurring of leisure, recreation, entertainment, and dining pursuits that are integral to the magnetic appeal of shopping. IN essence, people embrace such blurring of uses in multipurpose environments that provide diverse opportunities, and offer activities for each member of the family."
    • people have less time these days, so, logically, they are more likely to spend more time at a mall if they can take care of more errands while they are there. Further, if they live nearby --or even on the property itself-- they are even more likely to spend time there and shop. Scholl & Williams (2005, pp.89) agree: "consumers harried by ever-increasing responsibilities tend to seek destinations that deliver the next level of service and products... These consumers are also seeking destinations that are integrated with their communities."
    • University Village even has a children's play area on the roof of Bartell's

experience

  • goes beyond just the retail business transaction

Scholl & Williams (pp.90): "Retail developers are adapting their projects to provide a more complete experience... that connects emotionally, not just tangibly, with the consumer... Ultimately, when consumers shop nowadays, they seek an escape --an experience that is as much recreational as it is functional."

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resort-like qualities

Thomas (2006) enumerates several key principles that mall owners have realized as part of malls' continuing evolution:

  1. Provide high-amenity environments. "Malls are recognizing that people will pay more for an experience that transcends the dutiful shopping trip to accomplish their chores." (again a quality of life and time-management issue) One can get key copies made at a little stand in U Village. Of course, one can also go shopping for regular groceries at the QFC or fill prescriptions at Bartell's in addition to getting dinner or browsing for books at the Barnes and Noble. Also, valet parking during the holiday season obviates the frustration of circling for a space during the buy shopping season.
  2. Capitalize on the Natural and Historic Setting. "create immersive environments that reflect the unique natural and historic aspects of the local setting."
  3. Extend the Offering to Nightlife and Entertainment. Do so in a more inclusive manner than the narrowly-targetted one of early 1990s "urban entertainment center concept." Today, retail centers "[attempt] to provide a more mature destination for recreation and entertainment... Restaurants, brew pubs, piano bars... The added benefit is that retail centers can avoid the seasonality of traditional resorts and become year-round destinations." UVillage: Being located so near the University of Washington, UVillage offers an interesting, albeit bookish, choice of evening and late-night destinations for nearby students. Students needing to study in a caffeinated environment have their choice of two Starbuck's --one OR BOTH? of which stay open until 1AM-- or a Barnes and Noble or even the Seattle's Best (check this) cafe section of the 24-hour QFC. Additionally, banking on the popularity of craft brewing in the Northwest, the center dutifully retains a brewpub on its premises RTC: In addition to the expected multiplex movie theater, RTC offers a somewhat upscale wine bar in the Marriot's lobby. Northgate: "Some of the best options, she said, are in the form of restaurants. "We have six brand new restaurants that are part of the lifestyle addition. So it's not just shopping, which is a wonderful addition to the retail perspective, but there are also new choices in terms of dining." (The Journal, pp.24)
  4. Offer and Indoor/Outdoor Experience. UVillage: This can be tricky and perhaps risky in the misty Northwest; however, both study sites seem to have responded to the challenge with aplomb. At UVillage, amply-placed bins offer visitors free use of ostentatious yellow umbrellas should the weather ever turn for the worse. Additionally, wide awnings projecting from numerous stores offer pedestrians shelter from the elements. In fact, even during inclement weather (it started snowing) during our visit of December 1st, we witnessed several individuals sitting at the covered, outdoor patio at Starbucks. Curiously, running from awning to awning simulates the very urban experience of people stuck outdoors trying to find shelter in bad weather. Whether intentional or not, the relative scarcity of such shelters --namely, in the lack of their uniform availability throughout the center-- may also lead to unrelated people huddling together under the same shelter and striking up conversations. Again, this mimics behavior on the public street. RTC: RTC, being more uniformaly architecturally design, features arcaded walks in the center of the complex. Both sidewalks at grade and above are covered to provide shelter. Both: large stores like Macy's or BandN provide a large interior shopping space to take respite from the outside
  5. Focus on Health, Wellness, and Longevity. "The concept of malls as resorts increasingly is capitalizing on this trend in the mall's merchandise mix --which can include day spas, medical/wellness facilities, yoga studios, yoga clothing and accesories, and specialty organic food and restaurants. Such uses resonate with today's market, and increase the sense that the retail center reflects its lifestyle." UVillage: Additionally, the QFC food store features a relatively large organic foods section, larger than most other QFC locations in Seattle. It's updated decor is on par with more upscale organic supermarkets such as Whole Foods and Metropolitan Markets. Northgate: the new lifestyle addition includes "a larger Gene Juarez Salon and Spa" which grabbed 1000 more square feet, bumping its total to 7500 sq. ft. It was "artfully recreated" by a Scottsdale AZ designer to "exude contemporary Northwest character with warm, residential elements such as fireplaces in waiting areas." (The Journal, pp.24)
  6. Target Affluent Markets. "the atmosphere they try to create is 'upscale but not exclusive.' Visitors want to see a diversity of people and feel they are part of a community that is an authentic gathering place."
  7. Increase the Identity of the Center. "providing a strong theme and cohesive image through the extensive use of landscaping, art, icons, water features, and attractive storefronts. Lifestyle centers were pioneers... but regional malls also have taken a page from this trend. Similarly, traditional enclosed malls are being influenced by the mall as resort and are making efforts to relate to their environments and the wider urban fabric. Northgate: has a new lifstyle addition RTC and UVillage: accomplishes this through a much more uniform architecture. There is a defining and similar style throughout the center of the complex, with the variation occurring toward the fringes. University Village, on the other hand, features a less visually cohesive architectural program. Facades span numerous styles that seem almost incongruous with one another. Yet it strangely works; it mimics that natural evolution of the real streetscape in which buildings change randomly over time. The result is a fragmentary historical landscape showing buildings of various eras. Truly, it seemed like a "village" in the sense that it looked like it had been there for some time and, as a result, showed a diversity of styles from the various eras of its existence.
  8. Focus on the sequence of experiences. "choreographing visitors' experience in order to maximize the feeling of discovery and sense of immersion on their shopping trip. This concept recognizes that the experience is as important as the goods or services purchased in terms of encouraging repeat visits... Furthermore, it is not just the buildings and their juxtaposition but rather the articulation and animation of the spaces between buildings that become the backbone of public spaces. The ultimate objective is that the visitor connect emotionally to the place," RTC: The attempt to simulate a street grid (see street signs) and thoroughfare activity leads a visitor to not only shop but to simply walk down the street to discover, as we did, an Apple Store "around the corner" on 164th (check) or the intersection where the cinema was located "kitty corner" from the hotel. UVillage: We discovered several sheltered arcades, a pedestrian mall within the larger mall, beckoning us inside. Rather than assert themselves, like the busy storefronts facing the parking areas, these more interior shops introspectively appealed to us as we sought to temporarily escape the bustle of the loud shops.
  9. Provide a Great Public Space. "With the decline of traditional anchors such as department stores, malls have had to rethink their anchoring functions. ...[park]... Such public spaces provide a kind of miniature resort, where visitors are not pressured to buy anything, although ultimately they likely will. Retail developments recognize that to provide bustling environments with numerous opportunities to people watch simply helps attract more people." Both: For us, of course, the main draw was the space as it pretended to be a public street. As we walked around and took photographs, we paused to reflect on the buildings as well as to watch other visitors. It was a cheerful scene to see chatty people walking from here to there. In an enclosed mall, we feel somewhat captive; the people are moreso "consumers". Yet in the unenclosed space, we somehow see people as more autonomous agents, dressed for the weather instead of laboriously juggling their coats and purchase (as in an enclosed mall), walking randomly as on a street instead of being corralled as in an enclosed mall."
  10. Introduce non-traditional uses. "incorporating non-retail uses... ...part of resort village's charm also stems from its pedestrian scale and proportion, with a retail armature at grade and office, residential, and hotel uses above (pp. 109)." It should be obvious that such proportion and layout is not peculiar to resort villages; it is a staple of the pedestrian street. For example, the stretch of University Way NE as it skirts the UW campus consists largely of mixed-use, two to three story structures in which the grade level contains retail and restaurants with apartments above. Doorways, then, are a mix of business entrances and stairway access to residential walk-ups. Although we see residences at neither RTC or UVillage, RTC does have second floor shops among which small offices are interspersed (CHECK). Furthermore, we would venture to wager that visitors would not be surprised to find a second story office at UVillage. Check if there are libraries or other civic facilities in either mall.
[edit]

shopping is still primary

In pursuing mixed used, there is perhaps a danger in diluting the uses so much that the mall loses all sense of cohesiveness. At the logical extreme, it may develop to the point of truly integrating, assimilating, and disappearing into the urban environment. However, a few concepts keep these new malls tethered to reality and their original purpose. First is the notion that, try as they may to seem otherwise, these places are not part of the public Main Street. They remain distinct districts of private property, allowing their owners to set rules for visitors and tenants alike.

Secondly, and more importantly, however, their primary function remains, as always: shopping. Retail activity is their entire reason for existence; every other use must ultimately contribute to this bottom line. In pure economic terms, then, they remain retail centers. On the other hand, Thomas hints at the sociological purpose of retail. Despite all of the mixed uses found in these emerging shopping center models, he rightly identifies that "the cornerstone of what they have is retail, which plays a vital role in creating the mystical 'sense of place.' It is the glue that holds together all the separate uses. (2006, pp. 107)"

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random

  • "Unused shopping malls may provide "an opportunity to rethink our land-use patterns and to envision a post-suburban landscape." "The Dead mall" Metropolis 1993, Nov., v.13, n.4, p.[44]-47, 61
  • "While overall mall patronage in the United States has been declining for several years, patronage among U.S. adolescents (especially girls) has risen sharply. We describe a qualitative study that examines in-depth the young girl’s mall experience." Haytko adn Baker, 2004
  • Duemling, Robert W.

Title: A tale of two malls [editorial] / Source: Blueprints 1993 Summer, v.11, n.3, p.1 Standard No: ISSN: 0742-0552 Language: In English. Abstract: Observations on saving small town America prompted by a visit to the Mall of America and to Winona, Minn.

  • Scholl, David C. ; Williams, Robert B.

Title: A choice of lifestyles: though the mall is here to stay, lifestyle retail centers are catering to consumers who want a complete 'experience' / Source: Urban land 2005 Oct., v.64, n.10, p.88-93


The urbanization of the mall has increased its "curb appeal". In reversing the focus from sterile, internal-facing boxes to charming, external approximations of Main Street, developers needed to diversify their offerings in order to attract a wider customer base. Thomas (1996, pp. 25) speculates that these uplifting and stimulating facelifts may have even increased impulse buying. Indeed, what with time-impoverished consumers seeking more one stop shopping to take care of all their needs, the contemporary mall, with its banks, drug stores, salons, and even locksmiths (UVillage) provides to everyone, or attempts to.

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case studies

  • both malls visited for detailed spatial survey in the autumn of 2007, during the christmas shopping season
  • RTC visited on November 24th (check), although visited informally on a few previous occasions
  • UV visited on December 1st, although visited on informally on innumerable occasions due to proximity of shopping center to personal residence.
  • in addition to examining just the mall property proper, additional pedestrian-based explorations were made into the surrounding areas. In Redmond, this consisted of crossing the railroad tracks and walking into the old, original downtown of Redmond. (include trackmap).
  • in both places, people weren't using the benches so much but this could be entirely due to the weather.
  • curiously, the surrounding areas, not just the mall properties became an interesting study. after all, the malls are not as insulated as their property managers would like.


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Redmond Town Center


  • initial euphoria about being in Disneyland wore off
  • after wandering off the mall property and seeing downtown redmond, the town center felt hollow and depressing
  • lack of leaves, letter boxes, newspaper boxes, as well as urban grit
  • the urban soundtrack of traffic at intersections, people un/loading stuff from stores into parked trucks was missing,too
  • still separated by railroad tracks from rest of downtown... (see picture with dead-end street, maybe map it)
  • had a man playing live music, mostly Christmas tunes, on an electronic organ in the central plaza.
  • hot dog stand
  • parking relagated toward the periphery of the main streets... a combination of multi-story and grade-level.
  • For a Saturday afternoon, RTC, when I visited felt more like a lazy Sunday afternoon

RTC has a Mariott (SP?), not unlike the hotel in San Jose's Santana Row, which Nobel (YEAR, pp.72) describes as "a very good one-- right on the main drag, and walking out the huge stone portal of the front door at night, seeing the sidewalk cafes packed under the brick arches and the lovers all atangle at the glass-and-steel tables, shopping bags at their feet, you might be drawn in for a second, overlooking the uniform signage, the uniformed gaurds, the too feeble stream of traffic in the well-controlled quasi-public street, and the way everything conspires to keep the experience free of distracting surprise."

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beyond the mall

  • a real small town that was once its own place on the railroad line passing through on the way to Seattle (?). it has become subsumed by the growing Seattle metro area and is now considered a suburb of Seattle
  • a typical "one-way, separated" strip partially defined by a highway that bifurcates into two, one-way streets as it passes through downtown.
  • a vertable museum of mall types... from old auto-court style mall to more recent soul-less strip malls. one interesting block, running perpendicular to the street, featured slanted facades that were angled to visually intercept drivers along the one-way thoroughfare.
  • bus route pass through property
  • served by nearby route 520
  • outside the central streets, it felt somewhat office park-y what with its multi-story parking structures, as well as business/office buildings oriented just outside the central core of stores. nice attempt at mixed use, if a little contrived.
  • tracks, hemispherical ring road make it a little more isolated from surrounding downtown, especially with the "right/wrong side of the tracks" metaphor. it is shoehorned into a space in between 520 and the tracks.
  • nicely, though, a bike path seems to pass into the property along a perimeter.
  • residential areas are not as close (as in UVillage, for example)
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University Village

  • "streets" seemed much busier than Redmond.
  • less unified architectural style... almost as if it sprang up more organically over a longer period of time. ironically, even though it is contrived, it seems more organic/natural... in much the same way that Las Vegas evolves "naturally".
  • had valet parking
  • had more, pedestrian-only plazas that were tucked away
  • for the NW climate, had free ostentatious yellow umbrellas located in bins to be used by people while shopping
  • dogs seem to be OK, as observed, this mimics real stretscape
  • rather than a sea of parking an interconnected series of lakes
  • it, too, had a singular "street vendor"... also a hot dog stand. maybe this is part of the new formula.


[edit]

beyond the mall

  • a real urban area
  • residential areas, warehousing, auto shops, garden centers, a university, playing fields, other shops and retail outlets
  • surrounded by bus routes, although buses don't pass through the property
  • very accessible to pedestrians from the south, west, and north. in fact, observed many undergraduates walking from the campus to the mall. conveniently, a large concentration of high-rise student dormitories is located on the corner of campus closest to the mall.
  • also close to 520 and montlake blvd (from the south).
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critiques

  • Furthermore, the soundtrack is all wrong. no car horns, no revving motors, not even scooter/cycles. no sound of changing directions of traffic patterns with the light, no heavy metal sound of people banging the button at crosswalks
[edit]

Bibliography


[edit]

Bailey, Richard. "Mall over", Urban land 1998 July, v.57, n.7, p.46-49,84-85


  • revitalization of 35-year-old Eastgate Mall, beyond downtown Chattanooga in the inner suburban ring in Brainerd, into Brainerd Town Square.
  • long range planning of a "retail hybrid (pp.46) to transform a tradition large box surrounded by a parking lot into a smaller "town square" like setting. Eventually this is to become infilled with condos and a mix of building types housing retail, office, civic, and residential
  • pps. 46-47 have excellent plan diagram


"Now 'urban' redevelopment is following in the aftermath of suburban sprawl" (pp.47)


  • "designing in public" , a public design charrette held by the regional planning agency


"The new plan calls for 'creating a town center by turning the mall literally inside out and embedding it in a street grid with new office, retail, and residential construction. The mall's exterior will be refaced with new outward-facing storefronts in one- and two-story ubranistic designs. Much of the 50 acres of parking will be used for new housing, parks, civic buildings, and a town square. The plan also reshapes Brainerd Road, the pedestrian-hostile arterial street on which the mall fronts, which currently has seven lanes and no sidewalks." (pp.48)


"[Robert] Gibbs [of Gibbs Planning Group] sees the planned conversion of Eastgate from a mall to part of a mixed use town center as an example of a new category of shopping center --a hybrid of a main street and a mall-- that is beginning to be built in significant numbers. 'There is a huge movement right now in retailing to go back to main street. Today all the national chains are looking for space on main street. The shopping centers are learning from the cities.'" (pp. 49)

  • pp49: Gibbs: at the tip of a wave, tenants are demanding this layout from developers, although the brokers seem unconvinced that people will shop there. however, tenants and developers are moving ahead anyway.


  • pp84: "a new hotel with an attached conference center" --see Redmond Town Center


But the move may not be as easy as originally envisioned. Cohen & Borko reported in 2002 (pp. 105) that the mall was having some trouble attracting retail tenants. Apparently, the lack of transit and parking was an obstacle.


[edit]

Cohen, Andrew P. & Borko, Marty, "The Community Mall" Urban Land 2002 Nov./Dec., v.61, n.11-12, p.100-105.

notes interspersed


[edit]

Cole, John W. "Remaking Northshore Mall" Urban land 1995 Mar., v.54, n.3, p.36-39

The remaking of Northshore Mall represented perhaps an intermediate step in the evolution from regional malls to lifestyle centers. This regional center in Peabody, Massachusetts was refurbished in the early 1990s by Arrowstreet Inc., the author's firm. The mall dated back to 1958, when its 830,000 sq. foot, 2 anchor location near the ring highway surrounding Boston was hailed the "most modern in the nation." Curiously, it started life as an outdoor mall; it was enclosed only in 1976 with the addition of a new wing anchored by Sears. By the mid 1980s; however, the its market share dropped due to nearby competition.

Rather than wholesale demolition, developers and owners chose to redesign the interior in order to create a streetside feel, albeit still enclosed. Storefronts were brought forward by about 10 feet on each side and skylights were added in order to approximate a busy sidewalk with natural light. Additionally, the mall adopted more flexible guidelines for tenants. Cole (pp.39) writes that "the object was not to enforce uniformity, but rather to create a harmonious streetscape, lined with distinctive shops." In pursuing this course, mall owners addressed perhaps the most damning criticism leveled against enclosed malls at the time: that they were soul-less, stultifyingly uniform, and looked like every other mall everywhere else.

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McCaffery, Dan. "From mall to Main Street", Urban land 1998 Oct., v.57, n.10, p.22

  • a $100 million redevelopment
  • expected completion in time for 1999 Christmas season

"While major cities have decades of history invested in the creation of authentic downtowns, many suburbs have no center; they simply are aggolomerations of residential developments, strip shopping plazas, and malls. In answer to suburbanites' longing for a 'sense of place,' suburban America is witnessing a move toward streetside development that captures the energy and offerings of the city while creating a community focal point.

"In Schaumburg, a suburb of Chicago, a former 700,000 square-foot, two-story, inward-facing mall is undergoing conversion into an outward-facing retail streetscape. to a more urban feel, the center --renamed Streets of Woodfield-- will feature shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues, creating a downtown streetscape visible from nearby expressways and frontage roads. Developers envision a place that entices area residents with colorful awning, banners, tree-lined sidewalks, and even built-in chessboards.

"Creating the Streets of Woodfield involves the 'unmalling' of a failed, single-loaded mall. The previous mall, located just south of Woodfield Mall, hit upon bad luck in the early 1990s with the bankruptcy of several key anchors... The unmalling process, curretnly underway, includes stripping off the front of the center --which is more than 1000 feet in length-- and creating a series of different brick and glass storefront facades.

"...

"Set amid a maze of malls and offices... the 650,000 square-foot center plans to create the atmosphere of a town square, with benches and gazebos for sitting, visiting, and people-watching. Crescent Plaze, the central point of arrival, will feature a circular drive and walkway complete with a valet parking area, trellis-covered cafes, boutique retailers, fountains, and gardens. A former parking lot access road will become a ministreet for outdoor summer events, such as art fairs and a farmers' market."


[edit]

Nobel, Philip. "Good malls and bad cities: new quasi-urban shopping centers and the digital public sphere call into question traditional hatred of malls" Metropolis 2007 Mar., v.26, n.7, p.72,74

implications of these new forms on civic life

  • Santana Row, San Jose California: "the mall does away with interiority, offering shoppers an artfully paved and fountained plaza, arcaded sidewalks, live music, 'street food,' and oversize chess in a shaded square" (pp.72)

(hmmm, joke: interiority complex)

Nobel (pp.72) asks "what could be more hateful than a mall masquerading as a chic, vaguely European town?" He asks this of San Jose's (California) Santana Row. In years past, he admitted to lamenting about the loss of public space and its replacement by mall space. The digital revolution has ameliorated his sadness, though, as he believes that protest moving to the digital realm has empowered it. As a result, he now basks in a new-found appreciation for mall spaces that have gotten "better, more like cities (even if toy cities)" and that have become "rehearsal spaces for future urbanites."

On the one hand, one can share his appreciation for these toy cities. To an extent, I do. What he calls toy cities I have called Disneyland Main Streets. To the extent of deliberately and self-consciously pulling the wool over my own eyes, I do appreciate them. On the one hand, it is good to see malls evolving into something beyond the soul-crushing, inward-facing, isolated islands of consumption surrounded by large continental shelves of parking lots. The new malls provide some connection to the larger civic contexts in which they reside. However, a quick jaunt into those adjoining messy, urban landscapes beyond their boundaries rather quickly brings on sobriety. If such new malls are, indeed, rehearsal spaces, what exactly are we rehearsing for? Aside, from consumption, of course.

The literature tells us that today's mall "visitors", or sometimes "guests" are a new breed --so much so that they are no longer mere shoppers. This re-classification of consumers implies a sort of gentility, as if malls provide not only goods but also hospitality as well as needed social services. Indeed, we can see valet parking at UVillage, for example. Perhaps malls, as benefactors of this new public trust, they are better able to provide the basic services that our cash-strapped municipalities can no longer afford.

Certainly, all of this has some troubling implications for civic life. Indeed, Nobel himself admits,

"I still like it's the end of the world when I see a shopping center replace the exterior life of a city --the beautiful, well-heeled streets of Providence, Rhode Island, may never recover from the vampire of Providence Place-- but in San Jose and exurban Ohio, there is scarcely a center to mourn, and the malliers should be credited for responding to a human urge."

Nobel's painful self-awareness in seeing both sides of the issue is clearly manifest. Perhaps, then, this phenomenon is neither positive nor negative, just different. Depending on the context, an exurban Ohio lacking social centers for example, maybe such places are actually performing a service. On the other hand, it may set up false expectations of how streets and cities actually work. Easton Town Center, a mega-mall in Columbus Ohio that "has been modeled after an ideal American courthouse square".... "It's a true Midwestern civic typology, missing only the civic, but there's an Apple store and a place for the kids to play outside." (pp.74) It is easy to overlook the lack of real, gritty civic STUFF, especially when we can be distract by pretty toys to buy; however, at some point we can longer distract ourselves from the weight social issues facing our cities. After experiencing the controlled, sanitized, and neatly upkept facade of the Shoppes of Main Street will we find value in the actual main street?

To use a benign, culinary analogy, it is much like the preponderance of artificial flavors in much of our foods today. Most consumers are so used to artificially flavored maple syrup, for example, or "grape" that the nuanced and subtler natural versions are often rejected by consumers. (CITE) Turning this back toward serious urban planning, how will this affect our appreciation of, to use Jane Jacobs's word, the "messy" world or real cities?

[edit]

Ruiz, Carol. 2002. "Creating a Physical and Symbolic Heart", Urban Land v.22, n. 10, p.106-107

  • about the development of Lakewood Towne Center into the literal town center
[edit]

Salvesan 2001

Salvesen, David. "The de-malling of America" Urban land 2001 Feb., v.60, n.2, p.72-77.


[edit]

Scholl & Williams 2005

Scholl, David C. and Robert B. Williams. "A choice of lifestyles: though the mall is here to stay, lifestyle retail centers are catering to consumers who want a complete 'experience'" Urban land 2005 Oct., v.64, n.10, p.88-93.

[edit]

Sokol 2003

Sokol, David. "Longer Live the Mall" Metropolis 2003 Jun. v.22, n.10, p.64.

[edit]

Stovkis 1984 

Stovkis, Jack R. "Why can't a downtown be more lika a mall?" Urban Land 1984 Sept., v.43, n.9, p.10-15.

notes interspersed above


[edit]

Taylor 1994 

Taylor, John D. 1994. "Pause: a new 'Laid-back' mall for a laid-back generation". Metropolis v.14, n.5, p.73,118.


"The Lab", and "anti-mall" in Orange County, CA.

[edit]

Thomas, Ian. "Reinventing the Regional Mall" Urban land 1994 Feb., v.53, n.2, p.24-27.

notes interspersed above

[edit]

Thomas, Ian. "New Thinking on Regional Shopping Centers" Urban land 1996 May, v.55 n.5, p.24-26,57.

notes interspersed above

[edit]

Thomas, Ian. "The Mall as Resort" Urban land 2006 Aug., v.65, n.8, p.107-109.


In perhaps the very latest development in the evolution of the mall, Thomas writes about the addition of the resort concept into mall discourse. Many malls, he says, have realized opportunities for diversification and densification (pp. 107). The former quality certain addresses the old criticism, back in the mid-1980s (CITE), that malls were uniform --one mall looked exactly as another and offered the same mix of retailers. The latter quality indicates a view that looks beyond the old, single-purpose of shopping. It represents a yearning for malls to be more. Further, it aligns malls with other other urban districts and entities that are currently embroiled in the discourse of density.

Specifically, Thomas mentions the now typical modus operandi of adding hotels as well as residential uses in addition to creating external streetscapes in order to emotionally connect visitors to the mall. These emotional connections extend "dwell time" (pp. 107), a phenomenon widely experienced in resorts.

He mentions Bellevue Square in suburban Bellevue, WA, which bills itself "the Northwest's Best Shopping Resort Destination --the Bellevue Collection." To this day, the mall's website still asserts this claim, offering "250 of the finest shops, 18 sit-down restaurants, a 16-screen premier cinema, 700 luxury hotel rooms and 10,000 free retail parking spaces, all in one location" and all available at an upscale rate starting at $199 per night. (http://www.bellevuesquare.com/collection_home.php)


[edit]

learning from Las Vegas, again

The connection between resort recreation and shopping is only natural, Thomas argues, in that not only have resorts long realized the value of placemaking, but they have also realized that the biggest pastime in resort is shopping (2006, pp. 107). The Forum Shops [at Caeser's Palace], with their "casual, alfresco... amenity-rich village" feel, draw visitors with grade level retail space that is "seamlessly linked to the casino with a hotel above" (2006, pp. 108). Again, echoing THAT HAL GUY (CITE) these places "transform shopping into an experience."

[edit]

Vásquez, Beverly. "Denver's mature retail market evolves" Urban land 1998 Apr., v.57, n.4, p.71-75


  • pp.72: "'In our business, to stand still is to regress,' says Nick Lemasters, general manager of Cherry Creek [Mall, an upscale regional shopping center in Denver]. 'To be successfull, you have to continue to challenge and reinvent yourself.'"
  • pp.73: "Cinderella City was Denver's pride and joy when it was built in Englewood in 1968. But age and changing consumer shopping habits eventually caught up with it. Now nearly vacant, the mall has become a blight on the community.

"The mall's layout is too big, she says, and it's W design is inconvenient for shoppers. 'Consumers are too pressed for time,' [Eileen Byrne of Eileen Byrne Associates, a Denver firm] says. 'They want to see where they're going. They don't like dead-end corridors.' "

[edit]

additional citations

  • cite Jakle's "sense of pastness" from Visual Elements of Landscape
  • Ray Oldenburg third place... The Great Good Place
  • Techentin, Warren. Title: Shopping mall: storia di un malessere - retail mallaise [sic.]: resuscitating dead malls / Source: Lotus international 2003, n.118, p.[26]-[45]
  • Scholl & Williams 2005
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people

Ian Thomas is chairman of Thomas Consultants Inc., in Vancouver, British Columbia, which specializes in planning regional centers and resorts around the world.

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