Shopping Mall Chic : Design: Renovations such as those at Topanga Plaza are intended to make centers seem breezy and open, and to entice customers to stay longer.

Attention shoppers: As Topanga Plaza begins a $45-million renovation, architects are updating the standards of shopping mall chic.

Mirrors and carpet are out. So are cloth banners and the color brown.

Italian marble is in, as are skylights, “family” restrooms and play areas for the kids.

Plans for the renovation, unveiled Thursday, aim to make the 27-year-old mall seem more breezy and open. The work is expected to be completed next October.

Mall officials say business is no worse there than anywhere else, but they hope the upgrade will attract new stores and entice more shoppers to stick around after they have made their purchases.

“Shopping doesn’t have the appeal it used to,” said Robert L. Ferguson, president of May Centers, the St. Louis company that operates the mall. “When we get the shopper to the center, we want them to stay as long as possible.”

That means more than just tossing a jumble of stores together along an air-conditioned center strip.

Amenities in the renovated mall will include a glass elevator and a play area designed by kids--conveniently located near a toy store and shop that sells video games. There will also be unisex “family” restrooms with changing tables and child-sized fixtures. The intent is to avoid potentially uncomfortable situations, such as a father taking his daughter into the men’s room.

“Every smart shopping center developer is going to make his mall a more desirable place for shoppers,” architect William Engle said, explaining that suburban malls have evolved into air-conditioned town squares.

In addition to Topanga Plaza, other malls around the San Fernando Valley are undergoing or have recently completed multimillion-dollar face lifts to make them more modern and attractive.

Sherman Oaks Fashion Square last year finished a $20-million expansion and renovation that put a roof on the 28-year-old mall that was once alfresco. To retain the open feeling of the shopping center, huge skylights were built.

Topanga and the neighboring Promenade Mall will also get skylights. “In Southern California, especially,” Engle said, “we want to enjoy the outdoors.”

But apparently without the hassle of actually being outside.

Improvements at the Promenade Mall are expected to be largely completed by Christmas. Although Promenade is only a block away from Topanga Plaza, development Director John Lyda said the two do not compete for customers.

Promenade, with stores such as I. Magnin and Sak’s Fifth Avenue, caters to shoppers with more chichi appetites, he said. Topanga Plaza, with a Nordstrom across from a Montgomery Ward is more for what Lyda calls “upper moderates,” suburbanites with upscale tastes, but who aren’t above wearing blends now and then.

Marion Schlingensiepen is the type of person architects had in mind when they drafted plans for the renovation of Topanga Plaza. As she sat on a hard wooden bench spooning beef-and-vegetable baby food to her 11-month-old son, Tobias, Schlingensiepen said the mall needs more comfortable places to sit.

“It would be nice if there were more seating areas,” she said, “more like a little cafe, or European-style tables with umbrellas.”

More user-friendly seating is planned. The old thinking was to make mall benches as uncomfortable as possible to keep shoppers up and shopping, Ferguson said.

The current philosophy calls for comfortable benches to encourage shoppers to stick around if they get tired. The longer shoppers stay in the mall, the more they are likely to buy.