City Under Glass

20 CITE 65 : WINTER 2 0 0 5 [he Galleria. Weslhoimei Boulevard, circa 19/1, HAiulh. Oboto + Kassnbuum, architects, with Neuham and Tovlor. Below: Ihe lour stages Galleria 111971), Galleria II (19/7), Gollcmi III (1994). and Gallena IV (2007). STREETLEVEl ram. RINK LEVEL CITY UNDER GLASS The Galleria offers consumers a look at nearly everything, including its own version of sprawl BY BRUCE C. W E B B IN MANY WAYS, MODERN HOUSTON and the Galleria grew up together. It was in 1969 that then-tyro developer Gerald D. Mines began to reinvent the shopping center as a street under glass (with apologies to the magnificent |9 l h century Galleria Vittorio Kmanuele in Mil.mi. Paired with the Harris County Domed Stadium built in 1965, another exem- plar of the architecture ol technical defiance, the Galleria helped make Houston the air conditioning capital of the world, a city with self-satisfied buildings, closed systems of the well-tempered environment thai were suitable for anywhere and perfect lur inhospi- table climates, be they along the Inner Loop or in the vacuum of outer space. It was the age of the astronauts—Houston was transformed overnight into Space City with the arrival of the manned space program—but it was the builders and developers and their projects who were becoming local legends. CITE 65 : WINTER 2005 21 Out of this Zeitgeist, developer bars, restaurants, even a b o w l i n g alley different precincts w i t h different charac- Stretched as it was, the Galleria Kenneth Schnirzcr began to build (long gone) and lour movie theaters. In teristics, much like the properties on a quickly lost some of the simple elegance Greenway Plaza, a 127-acre master a private c l u b there were exercise r o o m s , Monopoly board. You can get a feel for that was present in the original diagram. planned business and residential devel- a s w i m m i n g p o o l , and r o o f t o p tennis how this zoning w o r k s by l o o k i n g at the In particular, the w a y the mall and park- opment that resembled Greater L o n d o n courts. There was also a jogging track on stratified interior elevation of Galleria I. ing garage in the original paralleled Council developments of the same the r o o f that circumnavigated the barrel The g r o u n d floor, a k i n d of proletarian one another, connected b\ bridges that period. A n d George R. B r o w n announced skylight, w h i c h allowed runners to look food court collection, reads like a fast spanned across rhe delivery service circuit plans for the infamous Texas Eastern down on the skating r i nk while shoppers food hall of fame: Sbarro Italian Buffet, located in the slot between, was admirably Transmission C o m p a n y H o u s t o n Center watched them f r o m below. In .1 cily lack McDonalds, Taco Bell, R o m a n Delight, neat. It was a marvelous cross section, project, an urban design proposal to turn ing in dramatic natural features or exten- Ninfa's, Sonic. R i d i n g above on the p i a n o with a near perfect systems design. But as T.I blocks d o w n t o w n east of M a i n Street sive, splendid, intact historic districts to noble are places w i t h more elan, such the Galleria grew, p a r k i n g became more into a vast, elevated mall that w o u l d have show off to visitors, the Galleria and the as T o u m e a u and Versace. Finally, in the problematic; garages had to be folded in hovered over the layer of carbon m o n o x - Dome served as proxies. third floor " a t t i c " : Eddie Bauer and the willy-nilly. Today there are some 13,900 ide issuing I r o m vehicles [rapped beneath Architect Victor G r u e n , w h o designed Original Levi Stores. parking spaces in seven different garages, o n the city's street g r i d . Southgate Center near Minneapoli s in The socio-economic milieu of the and getting lost, or rather losing one's Times change and yesterday's attrac- 1956 for the D a y t o n H u d s o n C o m p a n y , Galleria has little in c o m m o n w i t h the car in the vast p a r k i n g bowels, is a c o m - tions ,ne mcrcb targets f<>i todaj 's com- is generally credited w i t h inventing the more middle-bro w malls that have p r o - mon experience. petitors. In his entry on the Galleria in the first totally enclosed and temperature liferated in America's suburbs. It's not Galleria IV, the latest a d d i t i o n Houston Architectural iiuide, historian controlled modern in.ill, I In- W J \ ( i i e u n exacdy a slice of Houston's demograph- designed by Atlanta architects t a m p e r Stephen Fox credits its influence as "a Carry, opened in 2 0 0 2 , adds to the archi- typological development of n a t i o n a l , tectural r a m b l i n g . Projecting south f r o m even international, consequence," bur Mall space is controlled space, Galleria 11, this a d d i t i o n spans West concludes by w o n d e r i n g " w h e t h e r it Alabama w i t h a 125-foot-long by 20(1 will outlive the set of circumstances that compressed so there are almost no gaps looi wide second level span. I ined v\ ith brought it into being and survive to attain shops, it is more mall than bridge-like. To [he historic distinction that w i l l eventu- where the mind can wander off. assemble the land necessary for the proj- ally accrue to i t . " Houston's attitudes are ect, the plan shifted H i l d a g o Street 2 7 5 ruthlessly D a r w i n i a n and easily distracted, feet to the south. A n o t h er real estate prob- .iiul survival otten depends u p on renew- saw it, the mall was the m o d e r n successor ics; it's m o r e Rodeo D r i ve than M a i n lem was internal: Since the Westin Galleria al—not just maintenance and restoration, ro traditional social spaces. It was a place, Street. The original 6 0 0 , 0 0 0 square foot I lotel was in the w a y of expansion plans, but a real magnification of the spectacle. he w r o t e , " f o r participation in modern Galleria, designed by 1 lellniiuli , t l b . u a + one floor of the hotel was dismantled and And spectacle has come to mean community life that the Greek A g o r a , the Kassabaum w i t h local architects Ncuhaus its functions redistributed, w i t h the lobby super malls like the M a l l ot America in medieval market place and o u r o w n t o w n and T a y l o r and opened in 1 9 7 1 , was and the b a l l r o o m located on opposite sides Minneapolis (configured Iik<- .1 Parchcsi squares provided in the past." A l o n g the anchored by N i e m a n M a r c u s at one end of the public concourse. Houston's first board, w i t h a C a m p Snoopy amusement way, Walt Disney, w i t h his C a l i f o r n i a and open at the other. Over the interven- Nordstrom's department store a n d local park at the center) or the truly colos- theme p a r k, had shown h o w you could ing is years the Galleria has g r o w n in standby, Foley's, anchor rhe a d d i t i o n , the sal West E d m o n t o n M a l l in E d m o n t o n , chop and channel many of the more four distinct segments. latter located on .1 spur. Because West Canada, w i t h its giant water park and compelling features of t o w ns and cities Alabama passes t h r o u g h , it splits the mall indoor beach and wave machine—the sub while leaving out the bad stuff, and create Growing Pains into t w o segments on the g r o u n d level, arctic equivalent to puttin g an ice-skating America's n u m b er one tourist attraction with the bridge p r o v i d i n g circumstance for rink under glass canopy in H o u s t o n , As in the process.

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