Burbank Plan : City Mall Will Borrow Image of City Hall

The entrance to the proposed Burbank Gateway shopping center will look like another Burbank landmark--the City Hall building.

The downtown mall will incorporate “civic architecture,” a traditional 1940s design often highlighted by depictions of animals or symbols carved in stone or concrete. The style is evident on several Burbank municipal buildings, said a spokesman for mall developer Alexander Haagen.

Even though the City Hall building and the mall will be less than a mile apart, shoppers won’t accidentally walk into the wrong building, officials said.

The entrance to the two-story city hall building is marked by a clock tower decorated with an ornate grill. The concrete face of the building is dotted with windows.

The mall entrance will resemble the shape of the Burbank City Hall tower but will be made of glass and will not be adorned with a clock. The shopping center will have a special “feel” to distinguish it from the government building, said Fred Bruning, chief of staff for the Haagen firm.

Design Features

The $250-million mall will combine the older architecture with design features similar to those in Haagen’s Crystal Court mall in Costa Mesa, which features marble floors and brass railings, Bruning said.

“The look of this project will make it one of the most attractive and best malls in Southern California,” Bruning said Wednesday.

Bruning said the design had already won a national architecture association award.

Haagen and associates publicly unveiled preliminary plans for the Burbank Gateway during Tuesday’s City Council meeting. Most of the five-member panel voiced enthusiasm for the plan, and authorized city staff to continue negotiating with Haagen on specific details. An environmental review of the project also will be conducted.

The final project would still have to be approved by the council.

“People will be falling over themselves to get to the finest center in America,” Mayor Robert R. Bowne said, expressing his pleasure with the Haagen plan. “We’re going to have the last laugh on everyone.”

Bowne was referring to the city’s long-running attempt to attract a major mall to its downtown redevelopment area. The city has tried unsuccessfully to develop a mall on 41 acres near the Civic Center for almost 20 years, but projects proposed by several developers, including Walt Disney Co., have fallen through.

Councilman Unhappy

Not everyone on the council was happy with the mall plan. Newly elected Councilman Tim Murphy voted not to continue negotiations with Haagen.

“I’m just not comfortable with it yet,” Murphy said. “I support a shopping center, but I want to see a lot more.” He said that details about the mall were still too vague, and that he wanted to know more facts and figures.

Haagen has offered to build a 1.5-million-square-foot project to include a two-level mall, offices, hotels and restaurants. The center will be anchored by the Ikea furniture store, Buffums, Mervyn’s, Sears, Roebuck and another store still to be determined. The site is at Magnolia and Burbank boulevards near the Golden State Freeway.

The mall will be divided into a series of galleries and each section will have about 20 stores, Bruning said. “Shoppers will have a good feeling going from one gallery to the next,” he said.