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Shopping Centers Today -> July 2003
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CENTERS AROUND WORLD WIN ICSC DESIGN AWARDS
They are truly international. The seven top winners of ICSC’s 2003 International Design and Development Awards Program, announced at the Spring Convention in May, come from four different countries — France, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and, of course, the United States.
On top of that, the 15 Certificate of Merit winners are from seven different countries. This international competition has, for nearly three decades, honored top shopping centers for the vision, innovation and creativity that have ultimately led to their success.
The International Design and Development Awards Program recognizes owners, developers, architects and designers, contractors and managers for their ability to create world-class shopping destinations. Combining dedication and hard work with an ability to innovate, the winners all share a common bond of pride and professionalism in what they do, and the critical ability to respond to the challenges of the global marketplace.
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| Daryl Mangan |
The judging falls into the categories of “Innovative Design and Construction of a New Project” and “Renovation and Expansion of an Existing Project.” The size categories are: under 150,000 square feet; 150,000-500,000 square feet; and more than 500,000 square feet.
Scoring for the entries is based on 1-10 points for presentation of entry materials; 1-15 points for design attributes, including colors, materials and lighting; 1-30 points for overall exterior and interior design; 1-35 points for achievement of development goals and economic success; and 1-10 points for project difficulty and innovative response.
Entries accumulating 85 points or more are declared winners; those scoring between 75 and 84 points are awarded Certificates of Merit. The judging is conducted by members of the International Design and Development Awards Program Committee of ICSC.
The winners for 2003 encompass a wide spectrum of global retail solutions, from urban infill to those designed to cope with hostile environmental climates. They present soaring architecture and solve geopolitical and cultural issues. They turn failure into success and are born out of perseverance. They evoke terms like “cutting-edge design,” “excitement” and “vibrancy.”
The International Design and Development Awards Committee this year consisted of Chairman Daryl K. Mangan, Colonial Properties Trust, Birmingham, Ala.; Ronald A. Altoon, Altoon + Porter Architects, Los Angeles; Tom Brudzinski, The Rouse Co., Columbia, Md.; F. Carl Dieterle Jr., Simon Property Group, Indianapolis; Arcadio Gil Pujol, ASM, LaSBA, Madrid, Spain; Gordon T. Greeby, GCI-ProNet Midwest, Lake Bluff, Ill.; John M. Millar, SCSM, Divaris Real Estate, Virginia Beach, Va.; Matthew Ostrower, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, New York City; J. Thomas Porter, Thompson, Ventulett, Stainback & Associates, Atlanta; Rao K. Sunku, J.C. Penney Co., Dallas; Ian F. Thomas, Thomas Consultants, Vancouver, B.C.; and Gerald M. White, Copaken, White & Blitt, Leawood, Kan.
INNOVATIVE DESIGN
AND CONSTRUCTION
OF A NEW PROJECT
Al Mamlaka at Kingdom Centre
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Owner/Management Company: Trade Centre Co.
Development/Leasing Company: Trade Centre Co.
Design Architect: Altoon + Porter Architects
General Contractor: El Seif Engineering Contracting Establishment
The 450,000-square-foot Al Mamlaka is an urban infill regional shopping complex, part of Kingdom Centre in Saudi Arabia’s capital city. Distinguished by having the tallest structure in the Middle East, Kingdom Centre marries upscale retail with offices, residences and a Four Seasons Hotel (see award winners photos).
The three-level Al Mamlaka is decidedly high-end, both in its soaring architecture and its tenant mix. Saks Fifth Avenue’s first store outside the United States and the U.K.-based Debenhams form a powerful anchor tandem on a tenant roster dotted with such names as Armani, Coach, Givenchy, Hugo Boss, Massimo, Marks & Spencer, Ralph Lauren, Nike, Rolex, Tiffany and Zara, to name a few.
Al Mamlaka presents a grand, cavernous space skillfully softened by contemporary surface finishes. The traditional desert metaphor of camel-borne chests carrying a family’s valuables is applied as a design paradigm, and the grand space itself was conceived as a great chest filled with items of rare quality.
For symbolic reasons, Kingdom Centre’s site plan was to appear as a butterfly — a beautiful life emerging from the cocoon that is the desert. Into the shape of one of the wings, the designers have fitted both department stores and a fully functional mall — creating an architectural spectacle. To accomplish this, the designers imagined it as a single enclosed civic space, a visual event that is as distinctive for the community as Kingdom Centre’s soaring icon tower is for the entire nation. Not unlike a large tribal tent in the desert, it fulfills a civic promise.
Within that space, the notion of admitting exterior light into an enclosed space, particularly in a region where daytime temperatures often exceed 120 degrees, was highly unconventional. Al Mamlaka accomplishes that by filtering daylight through the layered fabric structures prevalent in the local historic markets, providing an ambience that is ultimately soothing.
Al Mamlaka is also groundbreaking in the way it reconciles state-of-the-art Western retailing with Islamic Law requiring women to wear the abbaya (coat) and radwa (head cover) in public where men are present. Under these circumstances it would normally be difficult for women to sample cosmetics or try on apparel and accessories, but Al Mamlaka solves that problem with a special zone: The third level is Ladies Kingdom, a shopping enclave accessible to women only, in which they are waited on by women only. Besides retail shops, it includes dining facilities, a 6,000-square-foot beauty, health and fitness spa, a business center and a place to relax.
Top-of-the-line Western retailing combines with deference to local tradition and law to provide a highly functional, convenient, secure, fulfilling shopping destination. Against seemingly great odds, Al Mamlaka is a highly successful, world-class, state-of-the-art urban shopping experience that defines a capital city and an entire nation.
Botany Town Centre
City of Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand
Owner: AMP NZ Retail Property Limited and AMP Diversified
Property (NZ) Trust
Management Company: AMP Henderson Global Investors
Development Company: AMP Henderson Global Investors
Design Architect: Altoon + Porter Architects
General Contractor: Mainzeal Property and Construction
The 520,122-square-foot Botany Town Centre was envisioned as the civic heart of an emerging residential community in suburban Auckland. The result is a sense of place — an open-air shopping, dining, entertainment and office environment planned around a collection of civic spaces that combine to form an authentic urban heart, a new downtown.
Anchored by a Farmers department store, a New World Supermarket and Whitcoulls, a purveyor of books, stationary and music, Botany Town Centre is organized as a series of distinct districts orbiting a central square. Secondary squares and courtyards are connected by a series of pedestrian streets, lanes and passages, creating an urban scale that is uncommon to retail projects.
Each district is characterized by its own scale, architectural design and retail mix, mimicking a town whose various districts might have evolved over time. The Bulky Goods district, for example, has simple, almost industrial architecture. Front Street sets the tone as a landmark with a sense of arrival at a destination. West Courtyard and Passages combines professional offices with Generation X and Y retailing. The Conservatory is artsy, while The Galleria is fashion-oriented. East Courtyard and Passages is a collection of household shops, while Market Court is anchored by the center’s supermarket.
The Garden Walk, on the other hand, is relaxing and park-like. Main Street is, well, Main Street. Food Hall provides the gustatory focus, and Town Square is the nexus of Botany Town Centre, linking all of the other districts to the residential community.
The developers overcame several key challenges in building Botany Town Centre. Proximity to residential neighborhoods required a more sensitive treatment of site development. Local strictures on site disturbance required a complex watershed maintenance system that included 25 percent tree coverage.
Ultimately, Botany Town Centre sets a benchmark as an environmentally friendly project. Envisioned as a village downtown, it is highly authentic in its feel, respectful of local traditions, and sound in its retail plan. It is dedicated to combining customer convenience with enhanced consideration of its surroundings through its sensitive treatment of the site and its commitment to sustainable energy.
With the shopping center industry worldwide undergoing a sea change in terms of planning and design owing to customer and community preferences, Botany Town Centre is out in front. It provides an urban framework, creating an impression more of a town evolving than of a project. Ultimately, it observes the social and cultural values and norms of the community it serves.
Centre Commerical International Val d’Europe
Serris, France
Owner: Secovalde
Management Company: Ségécé
Design Architect: Graham Gund Architects
Development Company: Ségécé
Centre Commercial International Val d’Europe is the cornerstone of the town of Serris, which was created to the east of Paris some 16 years ago to support the construction and ongoing operation of Euro Disney and, later, Walt Disney Studios. Developed by Ségécé, a prominent innovator of shopping center development in Europe, the 880,000-square-foot center serves that role extremely well with a powerful tenant mix led by a new-generation Auchan hypermarket, nine mid-sized anchor tenants, 130 smaller shops, a food court and 70 outlet stores.
Architecturally, it is divided into five very distinct sections, each one inspired by a separate Parisian architectural genre of the 19th century. “Les Halles,” for example, covers two levels with its hypermarket and its other shops and services. Les Passages, on the other hand, acts as a bridge above the adjoining TGV high-speed rail line, linking Serris to Paris. Then there’s La Promenade, where the emphasis is decidedly on high fashion. Les Terraces boasts restaurants and entertainment, while La Vallee provides the focus for Val d’Europe’s outlet retailing. Steward and valet services are offered at Val d’Europe, and there is a centerwide credit card.
Interestingly, individual retailer identity is downplayed here, both in Val d’Europe’s promotional materials and in the building itself. The idea is to brand Val d’Europe as a retail experience in its own right, as a shopping destination, and the concept works handsomely.
Val d’Europe is a hybrid, bringing together a unique combination of retail formats — from the hypermarket, which was a European innovation, to upscale fashion, to outlet shopping. And it’s all packaged well by a developer with broad experience in doing just that. And besides the residential population of 130,000 in the region, Val d’Europe benefits as well from its links with Euro Disney and the 13 million annual visitors it attracts.
The Grove
Los Angeles
Owner: Caruso Affiliated Holdings
Management Company: Caruso Property Management
Design Architect: Elkus/Manfredi Architects
General Contractor: Whiting Turner Contracting Co.
Development Company: Caruso Affiliated Holdings
Leasing Company: AFC Commercial Real Estate Group
Set on 17.5 acres next to the historic Farmers Market and Gilmore Adobe in Los Angeles, this 555,386-square-foot center was designed as a downtown street evolving into a visually rich and genuinely historic retail district anchored by the Farmers Market on one side and The Grove’s own town square on the other. It clearly succeeds in mingling a wide variety of architectural styles reinforced by building details, materials, finishes, signage and lighting. The result of the personal care and touch that created this environment is a coherent, harmonious ambience that links the past with the present.
The Grove integrates the developer’s shell building, leasing, design and construction programs with tenant improvements into a very tight urban specific site. Anchored by such retail names as Banana Republic, Barnes & Noble, Crate & Barrel, FAO Schwarz, Gap, The Grove Pacific Theaters and Nordstrom, it features interesting tenant build-outs and an integrated interior/exterior transition that creates a seamless customer experience.
Striving to offer first-class service, The Grove offers a full-time concierge staff, valet parking cards, package/bag check, restaurant and theater reservations, personal shopping, foreign language assistance and more. In a blind study, The Grove’s concierge was rated tops in the nation.
On the retail side, The Grove maximizes gross leasable area on its infill site by pushing retail and restaurant tenants to two- and three-level formats. That approach provides street-level entry for all tenants while solving the problem common to urban shopping centers of maintaining upper level circulation.
The Grove’s buildings are designed to be highly articulated and inviting, while the open spaces create different moods. Within this open-air urban shopping and entertainment district are promenades, meandering walkways and generous plazas. With its extended hours, it caters to the needs of its audience, becoming an integral part of the community. Indeed, a day at The Grove can start with breakfast at 7 a.m. and end after midnight with the end of the last movie or close of the last restaurant.
The Grove sets a standard in retail center design, proving it can work well with its older surroundings. It proves, as well, that such old industry taboos as multi-level stores, irregular tenant spaces and deep bay depths need not apply.
The Streets at Southpoint
Durham, N.C.
Owner/Management Company: The Rouse Co.
Design Architect: RTKL Associates- Dallas
General Contractor: Beers/SKANSKA
Development/Leasing Company: The Rouse Co.
The 1.3 million-square-foot Streets at Southpoint is, ultimately, a townscape complete with individualized store “buildings,” encompassing both an outdoor dining, shopping and entertainment area with an enclosed, two-level regional mall. It deliberately blurs the distinction between interior and exterior shopping streets with a sheer glass façade and a palette of architectural, paving, lighting and sculptural features that unite it as a fresh, new Main Street-inspired shopping experience.
But it does more than just set a new standard. It breaks new ground in an area with strong traditions rooted in historic downtown Durham, a city that hadn’t seen large-scale retail development in decades. It utilizes design features that echo the town’s traditions. Besides reinventing small-town shopping streets, it pays homage to Durham’s roots with a central two-story brick warehouse structure emulating the city’s stately downtown tobacco buildings.
The primary goal here was to create the variety and visual interest that exist in authentic urban shopping places, but in an unexpected way. Southpoint’s exterior buildings were designed to be separate from each other to achieve the variety that individual buildings provide, but they were enhanced with coordinated, multi-color bricks, roof forms, towers, canopies and other architectural touches. It all came together with input from the retailers’ internal design teams. On the inside, the architects created design criteria that allowed tenant storefronts to encompass the entire interior lower-level façade, creating a variety of cornice heights.
The center’s anchor group includes Belk (180,000 square feet), Consolidated Cinema (52,415 square feet), Hecht’s (180,000 square feet), J.C. Penney (102,700 square feet), Nordstrom (144,000 square feet) and Sears (111,864 square feet). It’s a retail mix that’s designed to dominate its market.
Ultimately, The Streets at Southpoint has redefined the hybrid mall and is breaking new ground for retailing, all the while staying true to the needs of its marketplace. It combines many layers of rich detail that play to the perception of small town America.
The Streets at Southpoint was never intended to take the place of a downtown shopping experience. The aim was to reinterpret that experience in a whimsical way that is quite unexpected in a regional mall. It reflects a collaborative spirit that clearly has connected with the community.
CERTIFICATES OF MERIT
INNOVATIVE
DESIGN
AND CONSTRUCTION
OF A NEW PROJECT
Bowie Town Center
Bowie, Md.
Owner/Management Company: Simon Property Group
Design Architect: RTKL Associates- Baltimore
General Contractor: DPMI
Development/Leasing Company: Simon Property Group
Centre Commercial Courier
Annecy, France
Owner and Management Company: Ségécé
Design Architect: Chapman Taylor France
Chandler Fashion Center
Chandler, Ariz.
Owner/Management Company: Westcor Partners
Design/Production/Graphic Architect: Omniplan Architects
General Contractor: Kitchell Contractors
Development/Leasing Company: Westcor Partners
Desert Ridge Marketplace
Phoenix
Owner/Management: Vestar Development Co.
Design Architect: MCG Architecture
General Contractor: McCarthy Building Cos.
Development Company: Vestar Development Co.
Leasing Company: CB Richard Ellis
Forum Algarve
Faro, Portugal
Owner: Commerz Grundbesitz Investmentgesellschaft
Management Company: Multi Development Corp.
Design Architects: Broadway Malyan, T&T Design
General Contractor: McCarthy Building Cos.
Development Company: Multi Development Corp. International
Galeria Dominkanska
Wroclaw, Poland
Owner: ILWRO Joint Venture
Design Architect: Studio E!
Development Company: ECE Projektmanagement Polska
Gateway Theatre of Shopping
Durban, Kwazula Natal, South Africa
Owner: Old Mutual Life Assurance Co.
Management Company: Old Mutual Properties
Design Architect: RTKL Associates- Baltimore
General Contractor: Gateway Construction
Development Company: Old Mutual Properties
Leasing Company: Broll
Newport on the Levee
Newport, Ky.
Owner/Management Company: Steiner + Associates
Design Architect: Development Design Group
General Contractor: Messer Construction Co.
Development/Leasing Company: Steiner + Associates
Pentagon Row
Arlington, Va.
Owner/Management Company: Federal Realty Investment Trust
Design/Production Architects: RTKL Associates
General Contractor: Bovis Lend Lease
Development/Leasing Company: Development Management Group
Polaris Fashion Place
Columbus, Ohio
Owner/Management Company: Glimcher Development Co.
Design/Production Architects: KA Architecture
General Contractor: Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.
Development/Leasing Company: Glimcher Development Co.
Punta Langosta
Shopping & Cruise Terminal
Cozumel Island, Quintana Roo, Mexico
Owner/Management Company: GICSA
Architect/Designer: GICSA Proyectos
General Contractor: Construcabi
Veso Mare
Patras, Greece
Owner: Techno Ate
Management Company: REDS
Design/Graphic Architects: RTKL-U.K.
General Contractor: Elliniki Technodomiki S.A.
Development/Leasing Company: Real Estate Development Services
RENOVATION AND EXPANSION
OF AN EXISTING PROJECT
Centre Commercial
La Part Dieu
Lyon, France
Owner: Rodamco France
Management Company: Rodamco Gestion
Design Architect: Building Design Partner
Development/Leasing Company: Rodamco Gestion
Built back in the mid-1970s, the 1.2 million-square-foot La Part Dieu on the outskirts of Lyon in southeastern France, was one of the best known shopping centers in all of Europe. It was also a true pioneer of its genre. But 25 years after its opening, La Part Dieu was showing its age in the face of new and growing competition.
The dramatic rejuvenation has created a whole new look and feel. The entrances and common areas have been upgraded and modernized and internal circulation problems have been addressed. Portions of the center’s massive, 6,500-square-foot masonry slab of rooftop parking have been cut away to allow for new skylights over the mall.
In a project that took 13 months, aging surfaces were replaced with new and traditional high quality materials, creating high levels of natural light. La Part Dieu has been reborn with architectural forms of timber, stone, glass, steel and plaster.
The tenant mix has also been revitalized, both in type and style, and some 60 of the more than 250 smaller tenants took it upon themselves to renovate their own spaces. La Part Dieu’s anchor mix includes Carrefour, C&A, FNAC, Galeries Lafayette and Decathlon. Other retailers are Disney Store Gap, Pimkie, Sephora and Zara.
A trend-setting retail juggernaut when it first opened, La Part Dieu, with its grand re-opening, is back on top. After a careful and thoughtful rejuvenation of the newly reborn center, from its appearance to its retail mix, one of Europe’s top shopping centers is again at the top of its game.
Park Place
Tucson, Ariz.
Owner/Management Company: General Growth Properties
Design Architect: ELS Architecture and Urban Design
General Contractor: Vratsinas Construction Co.
Development/Leasing Company: General Growth Properties
Park Mall, a failed 1970s enclosed mall, has been transformed into Park Place a stunning retail and entertainment destination. From that earlier failure has emerged a package of three distinctive shopping centers in one, beginning with The Broadway Shops, a 100,000-square-foot open-air street retail area with wide sidewalks, pedestrian amenities and individual buildings for its retail tenants.
Its Interior Mall, meanwhile, has been reduced in size from its original 310,000 square feet to 220,000 square feet and remarketed with a renovated common area. Its low ceilings, conversation pits and bulky appearance have given way to 42-foot barrel vault ceilings and deep-recessed windows reminiscent of the historic missions of the Sonora desert.
Its Entertainment District is a new community gathering place with an open-air restaurant plaza, a food court, a children’s play area and a 79,000-square-foot cinema complex. It is the kind of populist venue that the market has been lacking, an open-air courtyard that provides a meeting place amid lush landscaping.
Anchors include Dillard’s (200,000 square feet), Macy’s (160,000 square feet) and Sears (207,307 square feet).
In 1996 when General Growth Properties acquired the property, vacancies and short-term leases added up to at least 80 percent of the then-Park Mall’s 832,000 square feet. It was a dark, drab and dated place. But Park Mall is no more. The now-1.1 million-square-foot Park Place is so distinctively different and unrecognizable from its recent condition that shoppers are responding to it in a whole new light.
The overall effect is the creation of one of the memorable places in the region. Park Place is an example of how a failed regional center can be brought back to life as a gathering place and destination. The Tucson-inspired design rings true, and a family-friendly environment leads to strong local identity and customer loyalty.
In the final analysis, Park Place stands out as an example of how an unsuccessful project can overcome the skeptics and a negative reputation, and despite the obstacles provided by market-dominant competition and other factors, find its way back to the top as a retail and entertainment destination in its own right.
RENOVATION AND EXPANSION
OF AN EXISTING PROJECT
CERTIFICATES OF MERIT
Bay Street
Tampa, Fla.
Owner: The Taubman Co.
Management Co.: Taubman Centers
Design/Production/Graphic Architects: Callison Architecture
General Contractor: Sordoni Skanska Construction Co.
Development Company: The Taubman Co.
Colonial Brookwood Village
Birmingham, Ala.
Owner/Management Company: Colonial Properties Trust
Project Architect: Streets Works and HKW
General Contractor: Brasfield & Gorrie
Development/Leasing Company: Colonial Properties Trust
Mayfair Mall
Wauwatosa, Wis.
Owner: General Growth Properties/Ivanhoe Cambridge
Management Company: General Growth Properties
Design/Production Architect: Carroll Associates Architects
General Contractor: Hunzinger Construction
Development/Leasing Company: General Growth Properties
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DESIGN AWARD WINNERS
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