Galleria Remodels in Effort to Lure ‘More Mature Customer’ : Sherman Oaks: An official says the mall must change with ‘the retail scene.’ Its image as a teen-agers’ habitat was spread by the song ‘Valley Girl.’
The Sherman Oaks Galleria, a symbol of youthful consumerism in the 1980s, is updating its image with renovations “that cater to the values of the ‘90s,” according to its proprietors.
“The ‘Valley Girl’ is now married and has two children and a station wagon,” General Manager Carrol Beals said. “Along with everything else, we have to change.”
Plans for the mall include marble floors and seasonal flower boxes. The remodeling is the first extensive renovation since it opened at Ventura and Sepulveda boulevards in October, 1980, Beals said. She declined to reveal the cost of the make-over, which is expected to be completed by November.
The Galleria has been affected by the poor economy but has been hit no worse than other retail centers, Beals said. It is the latest of several San Fernando Valley malls to undergo a modernizing face lift.
In September, Topanga Plaza unveiled plans for a $45-million renovation that includes a glass elevator, a play area designed by children, and “family” restrooms with changing tables and child-size features. In 1990, 28-year-old Sherman Oaks Fashion Square completed a $20-million expansion and renovation.
It is hoped that the redone Galleria will attract the “more mature customer,” Beals said. “We’re looking at . . . layering on an additional customer who may currently view the Galleria as solely dealing with the younger customer.”
The mall became widely known outside Southern California in 1982 because it was mentioned in the song “Valley Girl” by Moon Unit Zappa. The song described the Galleria as the habitat of teen-agers who talked oddly and were fixated on goods.
The lyrics included: “Like ohmigod like totally Encino is like so bitchen. There’s like the Galleria and like all those like really great shoe stores. . . . I like buy the neatest miniskirts and stuff. It’s so bitchen.”
The song--and a subsequent movie, “Valley Girl,” that was filmed at the Galleria--caused foot traffic in the 100-store mall to increase by 30%, Galleria officials said in 1983. Now, Beals said, “the property is 12 years old, and it’s time to make it look like part of today’s retail scene.”
The Galleria will make a number of changes, including replacing dark gray and burgundy carpets with cream-colored marble flooring accented in green and terra cotta. Four little-used flights of stairs will be removed.
The floor plan of the food court, which is under demolition, will change. “Instead of having corners and alleys to walk around, there will be one main corridor with restaurants on either side,” she said.
Some nearby homeowners think that part of the plan is, as the songwriter might have put it, grody to the max.
They oppose the mall’s request for an exception to sign regulations set forth in the Ventura Boulevard Specific Plan, which was adopted by the Los Angeles City Council in January, 1991, to curb development on the thoroughfare.
“They don’t want to follow the same rules as other businesses on the boulevard,” said Richard Close, president of the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. Close said his group will reconsider its stance if the mall donates money to ease traffic problems at Ventura and Sepulveda boulevards.
Beals said the number and size of signs are still being decided and had no comment on the opposition. But an application filed with the city for an exemption to the Specific Plan proposes erecting signs larger than those permitted by the plan and argues that such signs are needed for the mall to remain profitable.
The application also contends that the Specific Plan was tailored to monitor the design of small businesses, not a huge retail center.
For his part, Close remains skeptical that the mall should get its new signs but agrees that the Galleria needs a make-over.
“The ‘Valley Girl’ is part of the ‘80s,” he said.
