Mall to Get Second Floor, Roof : Fashion Square in Sherman Oaks to Add 100 Shops
They’re putting a roof on one of the oldest shopping centers in the San Fernando Valley--but passers-by might think the developers are putting up a bridge between two department stores.
In an attempt to preserve the spaciousness of the 26-year-old Sherman Oaks Fashion Square on Riverside Drive in Sherman Oaks, City Freeholds (USA) Inc. is spending $35 million on a 5.6-acre skylighted roof and a second level that will be supported by 17-foot-high trusses that wouldn’t look out of place spanning a river.
The second level will literally hang from the giant trusses, according to Alan Lynn, construction vice president of the American unit of the Sydney, Australia-based City Freeholds, the owner/redeveloper of the mall.
The trusses are supported by columns placed in the public walkways between the two existing mall shop structures running about 800 feet from The Broadway department store near Hazeltine Avenue to Bullock’s, just west of Woodman Avenue. The third anchor department store is I. Magnin--along with Bullock’s, one of the original two anchors. The Broadway was built in 1977.
The interior mall will range from 50 to 85 feet wide, with support columns an average of 70 feet apart, Lynn said. Normal column spans in shopping centers are 30 feet, he said.
When the expansion is completed next October, the center will have 100 more mall shops and a total of 850,000 square feet of leasable space, a 25% increase over the current 682,157 square feet.
With final lengths up to 208 feet, the trusses are too long to be moved in their finished state, Lynn said. They are are being trucked in the early morning hours from the fabricator, Central Industrial Engineering Co., Santa Fe Springs, in half-truss form, he said.
The halves are welded together at the site, hoisted into place with cranes and manually positioned into place on rollers resembling heavy-duty skateboards.
Final truss placement must be done very slowly, like moving a space shuttle into position, to preserve the alignment of the trusses, Lynn said.
Designed by architect Bill Burch of William F. Burch & Associates, Manhattan Beach, the renovation includes a roof featuring skylights and fiberglass roof domes that will preserve the feel of an open mall without the extremes of temperature that the Valley often experiences.
The renovation eliminates existing pedestrian access from Riverside Drive, Lynn said, adding that the Riverside Drive frontage will become a “linear park” with trees, shrubs, hanging trellises and planted screen walls. The landscape architect is Ormenyi & Associates, West Los Angeles.
City Freeholds purchased the shopping mall from Draper & Kramer in November, 1985. The firm also owns Buena Park Mall in Orange County, which was expanded in a similar fashion but without the massive trusses, Lynn added.
