Reinventing Shopping Centers to End Isolation

The 1990 Census confirmed what many Southern Californians already knew: In the 1980s, greater Los Angeles grew far faster in size than in population. Its population jumped from 11.5 million to 14.1 million, a 23% increase. But its size more than doubled during the 1980s, engulfing once-remote communities in suburban sprawl.

Of course, greater Los Angeles’ explosive growth has contributed to a familiar litany of problems: Traffic congestion along once-rural roads, one- or two-hour commutes between outlying “bedroom communities” and jobs, and persistent smog, to name a few.

But the growth has created another important problem: A sense of social isolation among residents of outlying suburbs.

Of course, these Southern Californians are connected to the rest of the metropolitan area by freeways, telephones and fax machines. But they are often disconnected from one another and their communities in human terms.

Southern California’s suburbs lack inviting public places for people on foot. To be specific, they do not offer a contemporary equivalent of the traditional Main Street where people walk, windowshop, and casually meet friends as they carry out their day-to-day activities.

In recent years, shopping centers have been pressed into service as Southern California’s modern-day Main Streets, because they are the only places where all kinds of people come together on foot. But shopping centers are not intended to perform the traditional Main Street’s wide-ranging functions; they are designed to sell merchandise.

However, with the cooperation of enlightened retailers, civic leaders and community residents, shopping centers can be “re-invented.” Our shopping centers can become modern-day Main Streets and alleviate the sense of social isolation by being distinctive community focal points that encourage human interaction and offer a reassuring sense of place.

How? Let me recommend three strategies, which should be followed in the renovation of existing shopping centers and the planning of new ones.

First, design the shopping center for people on foot, not just automobiles. Don’t isolate the shopping center behind acres of surface parking lots, where it is cut off from the ebb and flow of other activities in everyday life.

Make the shopping center an integral part of the surrounding community by creating close pedestrian linkages to nearby office buildings, hotels and residential areas.

Second, introduce these mixed uses directly into the shopping center itself, along with civic offices, libraries, museums and other cultural facilities.

With this variety of uses, the shopping center will be a modern-day Main Street where Southern Californians can carry out everyday errands as well as shop.

Shopping centers will also become civic landmarks and create town centers amid Southern California’s often-anonymous suburban sprawl.

Be sure to add housing--specifically apartments for singles, young couples and the elderly--above the shops or adjacent to the center. These apartments should range in price from subsidized to “market rate” to encourage social and economic diversity.

Of course, all these uses can be added to new shopping centers relatively easily. But we can renovate existing centers along these lines, too. Think of the surface parking lots as “land banks.” By building multistory parking structures, we free acres of land for these additional uses, immediately adjacent to the existing shopping center.

Third, give the re-invented shopping centers a people-satisfying scale and distinctive architectural personality. Regarding scale, plan four- to five-story buildings, which are tall enough to nurture people and create an urban space, yet not so tall that people can’t enjoy the sun and air. This is the scale of the European towns that Southern Californians find so pleasing in their travels.

Regarding architecture, avoid the anonymous could-be-anywhere styles and the linear gallerias with identical rows of the same shops. The typical shopping center is a visual pablum that is a disservice to shoppers and retailers alike.

Instead, evoke each location’s indigenous architectural style or favorite landmark as a way of fitting the shopping center into its context and strengthening that community’s sense of place.

Rather than building an enclosed temperature-controlled box, celebrate Southern California’s climate, and leave most pedestrian areas open to the temperate and sunny weather.

Then, create pathways and courtyards that are lined by a variety of shops and are embellished with tree-shaded areas and attractive cafes. Arrange these pathways and courtyards to encourage casual meetings between friends and to strengthen retailing by keeping people in the shopping center longer.

Of course, planning shopping centers in this new way, or renovating existing properties along these recommendations, will stir up controversies. In many suburbs, residents cling to a “no change” attitude in the futile hope that as the world changes around them, it will not touch home--sort of the Peter Pan-as-city-planner.

But Southern Californians must consider these strategies for re-inventing the shopping center. Greater Los Angeles’ population is projected to rise from 14.1 million in 1990, to 16.8 million in 2000, to 18.3 million in 2010.

If Southern Californians don’t want to experience greater social isolation and watch more of the natural landscape vanish beneath a sea of anonymous subdivisions, they have no choice but to make places out of nowhere.