The Interior of Southdale at its birth
The shopping mall is a controversial topic in urban centers; most people generally view them as being a major contributor to the rise of suburbs and sprawl. As part of our Historical Discourse series here at Urban Neighbourhood, we are going to look at the trajectory of this truly American institution through the urban landscape, both here in North America and abroad. An interesting factoid about shopping malls here in North America is that they are on the decline here and in the country that gave birth to them but still on the rise in other countries.
To start our history of the mall one can only start at its birthplace, Southdale Centre. Southdale center opened in Edina, Minnesota in 1956. The complex was the first climate controlled shopping complex, fully enclosed and featuring rival department stores. Minneapolis has an interesting relationship with the mall being the first city to house one, and the home to the largest mall in America, the aptly named Mall of America, which is just four miles away from its progenitor.
The Southdale mall was the brain child of Victor Gruen. He was a refugee from Vienna during world war two and got his start designing shops for other immigrants in New York City. He quickly became known and decried for his shop design utilizing eye displays, and arcades to pull customers into the stores he designed. It is reported that one critic complained that his stores were like mousetraps, once you got in, rarely did you leave without buying something. It was a comparison that would later be used on his shopping malls. It was partially the climate of Minnesota that gave Gruen his masterpiece. A number of what would later be termed strip malls had been built in California in the 1940s but none of these outdoor strips were really all that great for the Minnesotan climate. Gruen’s solution was to put in two rows of shops that faced each other and throw a roof on top, add in an air conditioning system that kept the whole thing at a comfortable 24C (75F) and the shopping mall was born.
Interestingly enough Gruen’s original plan for the shopping mall was a lot more community centered then malls have become today. He proposed that the center would become a central gathering place for the surrounding community. He also designed the plan in a manner similar to the type of infill developments that are being suggested to ‘fix’ these developments. The original plan called for the shopping center to be the centre piece of a 463 acre development that included houses, schools, medical facilities, parks and even a lake. However the original plan was never completed and the mall sits currently like so many other malls isolated in acres of parking lot. When the mall first opened it was designed to be complementary to downtown and most of the shops inside were satellite stores of downtown merchants. He envisioned the mall as a complement for downtown business to reach customers outside the city center.
Southdale today
In light of his original plan it is also interesting to note how many of Gruen’s original design idea’s he got right the first time. The mall is on a sloped site so people who enter on one side of the structure enter on a lower floor that those who enter on the other, thus ensuring better circulation, plus the balconies within the mall were all built low so that shoppers could easily see the stores on other levels. Gruen also detested cars, if you can believe it which is why he left them outside. He sought to recreate the feel of a European Town center which is why he added an Atrium where he envisioned that shoppers would stop and discuss issues over their coffees like they do in European Piazzas.
Stay tuned for our next chapter when we discuss mall culture. Its like ohmigod!
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