THE BRIARWOOD SHOPPING MALL CONRAD KICKERT M.U.D. WINTER 2006 TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION 3 2. HISTORY 4 3. THE BRIARWOOD MALL 9 4. CONCLUSION 13 5. BIBLIOGRAPHY 14

BRIARWOOD MALL - 2 INTRODUCTION

“We want you to get lost.” Tim Magill - designer Mall of America THE DIXIELAND MALL - DESERTED AFTER BLUES BROTHERS RECORDING In this paper I will analyze the prototype of the suburban shop- ping mall. The physical analysis will be performed on the Bri- arwood shopping mall, a few miles south of Ann Arbor. In this case, the actual mall is used only as an example of the Ameri- can suburban mall.

This paper will revolve around two main themes. Firstly, the his- tory of the institutions that created the mall will be analyzed, as the paper will attempt to explain the reasoning behind the mall. Secondly, the mall will be posed as an example of physi- cal determinism. The relation between the physical design and the (desired) human behavior will be researched, using theo- ries explained in the course. The latter part will encompass most of the physical analyses of the Briarwood shopping mall.

Both parts will be connected with a main conclusion, where a final critique is given of the Briarwood suburban mall, and a connection to current developments will be made.

BRIARWOOD MALL - 3 HISTORY

THE GARDEN CITY AND URBAN FLIGHT

In order to understand the birth and life of the suburban Birkenhead Park in Liverpool and its predecessor, Central shopping mall, it is interesting to look at the conception of Park in New York, were conceived as a way to bring nature its ideas, and its position in the social institutions in America. back to the citizen. The natural setting of a park created It is important to divide the suburban shopping mall into two an interesting balance between urban escapism and social notions: engagement.

-it is suburban The balance between city and nature was emphasized in -it is a shopping mall the Garden City, written by Ebenezer Howard. It was a clear response to the crowded conditions of the city, as it offered These two notions are not necessarily interlinked, and each an attractive alternative. The city and the countryside each has its own position in history. The two can exist without each were considered as ‘magnets’, each with their advantages other. Suburbs exist without a shopping mall, and shopping and disadvantages. Through a new mix of city and coun- malls exist not only in suburban settings. Perhaps a layered tryside in Garden Cities, a new balance could be created approach is more appropriate, where the suburban shop- between the crowded but civic city and the natural but ping mall can be seen as one of the physical parts of a savage countryside: the suburb was born. Even though suburb. Howard’s proposal was complex in its attempt to create a subtle balance between city and countryside, it is generally The suburban shopping mall has always been a part of sub- considered as one of the main theories behind suburban- urban theory. From its conception, with the Garden City ization1. model by Ebenezer Howard, all through its renaissance through the Lifestyle Center, the mall and the retail experi- While Howard was reserved in his approach to the physical ence has been engrained in American suburban culture. outcome of his diagrams, some elements are of great im- The notion of the suburban shopping mall however, does portance in the conception of the suburban shopping mall. not originate from the United States, but from England. In His radial city diagram clearly has an urban center, with the context of 19th century industrialization, the popula- main civic functions grouped around a recognizable core. tion of British cities had grown at an explosive rate. As cities became overcrowded places, with a lack of hygiene and Of great importance in the conception of the suburban moral values, the call for an escape became ever greater. shopping mall in this diagram is the ‘Crystal Palace’, that Early movements such as the Park’s movement created circles around the central park. Howard has the following oases in the city through the creation of picturesque parks. description of its function:

BRIARWOOD MALL - 4 “Running all round the Central Park (except where it is inter- sected by the boulevards) is a wide glass arcade called the ‘Crystal Palace’, opening on to the park. This building is in wet weather one of the favourite resorts of the people, whilst the knowledge that its bright shelter is ever close at hand tempts people into Central Park, even in the most doubtful of weath- ers. Here manufactured goods are exposed for sale, and here most of that class of shopping which requires the joy of de- liberation and selection is done. The space enclosed by the Crystal Palace is, however, a good deal larger than is required for these purposes, and a considerable part of it is used as a Winter Garden… “2

1. The simplification of complex and well-balanced theories has created not only the suburb, it also created the suburban shopping mall. More about this later. 2. Ebenezer Howard - the Garden City of tomorrow - p54

BRIARWOOD MALL - 5 The notion of a place, sheltered from the forces of nature, where manufactured goods are exposed, and can be bought, is a strikingly exact desciption of the contemporary suburban shopping mall. However, Howard clearly conceived this pal- ace as a place for public gathering and civic use. This notion connects well to the theories behind shopping mall design, conceived by Victor Gruen, the father of the enclosed shop- ping mall.

Victor Gruen was born in Vienna, in 1938. He grew up in the medieval core of Vienna, a part of the city cited and praised by Camillo Sitte, and enjoyed education at the Academy of Fine Arts. Even though he was mainly a retail architect, Gruen was known as a socialist. In most of his professional career in Vienna, he designed storefronts and interiors for the city’s most prestigious department and specialty stores. With the upcom- Parma - drawing by Camillo Sitte ing of the nazi empire, Gruen decided to fled from Austria, and arrived in New York with ‘eight dollars, an architecture degree, and no English.”

Soon after his arrival he continued his work as a retail designer, creating new shop types for prestigious stores on Fifth Avenue. His tradition of breaking with the past, and a strong belief in progress led to his contributions at the World’s Fair in 1939. He participated in GM’s famous Futurama model that was a big hit at the fair. Later Gruen commented on the model as ‘selling the 1950s interstate highway plan’, as it displayed the American public a modern world of the Automobile. This world revolved around the new order of the private car, as it contrasted this compelling image to the chaotic landscape of the US in the late 1930s.3

The most important accomplishment of Victor Gruen however, is the invention of the enclosed shopping mall. With a prelude Futurama - Bell Geddes and General Motors corp. of his model at the Nortland mall near Detroit, the Southdale mall near Minneapolis opened in 1956. A fully enclosed mall,

BRIARWOOD MALL - 6 with 72 stores in a double storey structure, with ample parking located at what was then the outer fringe of the city.

Even though his work was profoundly modern, his theories and concepts were derived from his history in Vienna. Gruen saw the modern shopping mall as a community center, a center for civic gathering. His notion of the mall had close ties with Howard’s model of the shopping mall. Another importance in- fluence in his work was Camillo Sitte. The architectural expres- sion of irregularity and a small human scale was closely woven into the work of Gruen. The most important element he derived from Sitte’s theories was the notion of a civic square, with cen- tral functions and a landmark element. Gruen supported the notion of an esthetically pleasing public space that would re- inforce civic culture.4 Northland Mall - Detroit - drawing by Victor Gruen He basically inserted a romanticized model of the central Eu- ropean downtown into the increasingly car-dominated land- scape of the US. As he acknowledged the importance of small scaled variety, the interesting spatial forms of organic urban models, he felt that mall design should incorporate the ““study [of] the anatomy of the organically or sensitively planned old urban pattern which consists of a rich vocabulary of clearly defined urban spaces.”5

A truly traditional notion, merged with the modern ideal of the shopping mall. Most of his early shopping mall designs incor- porated a central square with an important non-commercial function, such as a children’s playground, indoor tropical gar- dens and even animal exhibits. Southdale Mall - Minneapolis - image by Maitland

3. Hardwick - Mall Maker-Victor Gruen, architect of an american dream - p18 4. “John Peter interviews Victor Gruen”, Library of Congress John Peter Collection, Transcripts, Box 3, Title 32-33, Folder “Gruen, Victor” 5 Gruen - Centers for the urban environment - p83

BRIARWOOD MALL - 7 It is interesting to research the romantic escapism that was developers over-simplified his originall mall model and opti- an important part in Gruen’s conception of the enclosed mized it for profit, he retired in 1968 as a disillusioned man. shopping mall. As he recognized the growing importance of the automobile, but also the destructive effects on ur- Currently, retail design is a very important part of the shop- ban space, Gruen created the Northland mall. It removed ping experience. The model of the enclosed mall has been the large automobile from the public realm, and created a optimized by generations of architects and developers, such small-scaled pedestrian environment. Slowly external vari- as Alfred Taubman. The mall has proven to be the optimal ables were removed from the shopping mall experience, enclosed environment, to fully focus on the shopping experi- as Gruen removed climate in his enclosed Southdale mall, ence. The elimination of external variables has transformed and in later designs even direct sunlight was removed from the contemporary shopping mall from a romantic medieval the mall. model to an excellent example of physical determinism.

It can be argued that was an essentially utopian move, as Gruen attempted to recreate the perfect (pedestrian) shopping experience. One can also argue the other way around, and state that modern mall design was an attempt to remove the shopper away from the outside world and place him/her into a retail machine. Both of these argumen- tations however, recognize that Gruen’s design of the shop- ping mall did not encompass the environment in which the mall existed. The a-contextuality seems Modern in a sense.

Interestingly enough, Gruen did base his design on a the- oretical framework that encompassed the urban environ- ment, and the suburban crisis it endured in the 1950s and 1960s. Gruen created the mall as a ‘community center’, and placed the model not only in the suburban automobile context, but also integrated his vision of the pedestrian mall into urban cores, as he did in downtown Kalamazoo, Michi- gan. He originally conceived the mall as an effort to revital- ize the American city. In later decades, as his model was picked up by developers, and further rationalized, Gruen Burdick street mall - Kalamazoo - postcard acknowledged that the suburban shopping mall did just the reverse, as it further weakened the American downtown, and increased car dependence. While he argued that

BRIARWOOD MALL - 8 THE BRIARWOOD MALL MALLS AND PHYSICAL DETERMINISM

As described in the last chapter, the mall has shifted from a romanticized utopia to an optimized model for retail profit. The mall is an excellent example of physical determinism, where human behavior is manipulated by physical surroundings. All senses are served: sight, sound, smell and touch have been extensively researched. The modern shopping mall is a labora- tory, where the shopper is subject to a wide variety of psycho- logical influences, all aimed at a maximum amount of money spent in a shopping trip.

The Briarwood shopping mall has been built in the 1970s by the Taubman mall development firm. The mall design is based on a model that has been used for hundreds of mall all over the United States, making it an excellent research subject. The Briarwood overview - image by Conrad Kickert mall will be ‘reverse-engineered’: mall design strategies will be projected on the actual mall layout, as the mall layout will be uncovered. The approach is somewhat similar to Hillier’s the- ory of discovering social patterns behind physical spaces. In contrast to his theories, where social patterns had to be un- covered from a certain space pattern, this research already knows some of the social patterns. Others will be uncovered as several aspects of the mall will be analyzed. (Certain elements of the mall analysis are taken from an analysis made by me in September 2005. )

The strategies used to maximize the expenditure of mall visi- Design parti - image by Conrad Kickert tors are not easy to retrieve. They are generally considered as trade secrets, and mall design associations do not give their secrets too much exposure. However, most of these strategies have been based on research performed in the field of behav-

BRIARWOOD MALL - 9 ioral sciences. The psychological effects of physical environ- ments have been researched, and results have been used in strategies for profit maximization.

A very important element in psychological influencing is called the ‘Gruen Transfer’, after Victor himself. It is “…the moment a person senses the size the mall – their jaws may open, their eyes may glaze over for a just a second. And they are trans- formed from a person who came to the mall for a purpose, into a shopping drone. Ripe for the next battery of psychologi- cal assaults.”6 Interesting research has been done by Douglas Rushkoff on the varied vocabulary of types of psychological pressure that is exerted on mall visitors.7

The strategies can be divided into three main themes: -attract the visitor -keep in the visitor -make the visitor spend money

Since malls are mainly along large car infrastructure, signage is an important way of attracting potential visitors. An interest- ing comparison can be made between signage of shopping malls, and the signs explained in Venturi’s famous book Learn- ing from Las Vegas.8 Even through its banality it attracts the visitor, giving the mall a strong overall image with an easy to read logo. The attention span of the potential visitor is short due to the high speed and the external variables, so a large and simple logo has to leave a permanent impression.

Another way of attracting visitors is through anchoring the mall with large department stores. These stores are magnets for mall trips, since malls are usually a car trip away from the customer base. Examples of anchor stores are grocery stores, clothing stores and general department stores. The existence of an- chors are very important for the profitability of all shops in a

BRIARWOOD MALL - 10 mall. So important that in some cases rents have been waived for anchor stores, in order to attract them to a mall.9 Suburban malls are basically set up with anchors at the ends of a route. The anchors will act as the bait, and once the mall visitor is captured, the actual game can begin.

The most important goal of mall design is to keep visitors in as long as possible. Once they are attracted to the mall, a large vocabulary of strategies is used to retain visitors. A very impor- tant aspect is to disorient and confuse the mall user. At least three turns are made between the car and the actual inside of the mall, so visitors do not directly find their way out. Inside the mall, ‘anchor realms’ are created. Each anchor has its own un- obstructed space with shops, connected through bends with other anchor realms. Inside a mall, one cannot see one anchor entrance from another entrance. A lack of daylight and clocks will take away the notion of time in the mind of the visitor. Any outdoor views are obstructed, exits are carefully concealed. Research has proven that the distance traveled between an- chors cannot be longer than 600 feet, so malls have a differ- ent anchor points at this distance. Circular routes instead of anchor connectors are another way of keeping visitors inside, as there is no end to their walk. The latter strategy is also often used in urban settings.

One thing is to keep in the visitor, another is to make him/her actually spend money. Again all senses are used to create a shopping impulse. Vista terminations are often used to draw the sight and attention of passersby to billboards and shop- fronts. The result is often a winding shopping passage, remark-

6. Douglass Rushkoff - CBS Sunday Morning Transcript 2002 7. www.rushkoff.com 8. Venturi et al. - Learning from Las Vegas - 1972 9. Robert Gibbs - Ann Arbor public library lecture transcript - 2005

BRIARWOOD MALL - 11 ably similar to a medieval organic road pattern. Eye contact must be made with as much retail space as possible. Sense is used: the touch of a hardwood floor and a soft carpet: each have their own effect on the mood of the customer. Sound is an important aspect. The unremarkable Muzak™ is actually a highly engineered beat optimized for shopping experience. Smell is used as bakeries and department stores spread the smell of their products through their stores, as to appeal to the hunger of the customer.

The Briarwood shopping mall is no exception: the suburban shopping mall strategies are all used to lure, please and empty the pockets of the mall visitor. Truth must be said that the mall is not necessarily oppressive place. The Briarwood mall actually a Muzak stimulus progression chart from the 1950s does function as a space for civic gathering in the southern suburbs of Ann Arbor, as for instance elderly aerobic groups gather in the mall to perform their exercises in an air-condi- tioned atmosphere. Even though the mall is geared towards one function, multi-faceted urban life takes place inside it. An interesting example is the right of free speech in an essentially privatized space as the shopping mall. In the case of the Prune- yard shopping center in California, the California court has ruled that “under the California Constitution, individuals may peacefully exercise their right to free speech in parts of private shopping centers regularly held open to the public, subject to reasonable regulations adopted by the shopping centers.10

Shop entrances are more sparse around the exit corridors.

BRIARWOOD MALL - 12 CONCLUSION DEAD OR ALIVE

The suburban shopping mall can be seen as an example of physical determinism. Derived from a romanticized model of the central European downtown, the mall is a highly optimized model. Essentially a modern retail principle, neglecting its con- text, combined with the postmodern eclecticism and quest for simulation. It is arguable that with good intentions, Gruen created the seed to sew for generations of developers. His romantic Viennese model was combined with psychological research on every sense of the mall visitor. The mall as a lab- oratory for ongoing psychological research, hidden from the outside world.

Public opinion about the shopping mall is shifting, as the origi- nal psychological mall model is slowly replaced. The most re- cent development in mall evolution is undoubtedly the Life- style Center. As current indoor malls are deemed dark and obsolete, the mall is opened up, and recreated as an original Main Street. The circle is now closed. From the original model to ‘enhance Main Streets’ to a suburban typology of the Euro- pean main streets, to a highly researched laboratory for retail Rampart Commons Lifestyle Center - images courtesy AIA optimalization, back to an exact replacement for the Ameri- can Main Street. The best of American urbanism is collaged to- gether inside a themed setting, with a dense mix of (profitable) uses, while still a strictly private property.11 Would the real Main Street please stand up?

11. www.slate.com/id/2116246

BRIARWOOD MALL - 13 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ebenezer Howard - the Garden City of to-morrow, 1902

Hardwick - Mall Maker , 2004

Barry Maitland - Shopping Malls, planning and design, 1985

Venturi et al. - Learning from Las Vegas - 1972

Gruen - Centers for the urban environment, 1973

Rowe, Koetter - Collage City, 1984

“John Peter interviews Victor Gruen”, Library of Congress John Peter Col- lection, Transcripts, Box 3, Title 32-33, Folder “Gruen, Victor”

Douglass Rushkoff - CBS Sunday Morning, transcript 2002

Robert Gibbs - Ann Arbor public library lecture, transcript - 2005

www.rushkoff.com

www.slate.com/id/2116246

“The’ve got everything here!” - Elwood Blues about Dixie Square Mall

BRIARWOOD MALL - 14