People-priority social spaces, such as plazas and pedestrian malls, in the heart of communities are crucial for a healthy and happy society. Such spaces are not nearly as commonplace in the US (yet) as they are in other places, such as Europe. That said, the US does have some standout social spaces, many of which came into existence by taking through-streets and converting them into pedestrian streets. We’ll focus on these transformations here.
The failure of many US pedestrian malls created between the 1950s and 1980s is a discussion for another time. Pedestrian malls do work when done right; the below streets are just some of the many success stories in the US we can learn from.
Downtown Mall, Charlottesville, Virginia
Built in 1976 and overhauled in 2009, at 8 blocks long, Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall is one of the longest pedestrian malls in the US. The broad variety of businesses includes shops, restaurants, and offices. Its attractions are supplemented by a weekly concert series in the warmer months.
Times Square, New York City, New York
Following a study by Copenhagen-based Gehl Architects, “The Crossroads of the World” was pedestrianized in 2009 using cheap and temporary materials, a move which was made permanent the following year. This wildly successful transformation was made possible largely thanks to the bold “we’re doing it” stance of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. A lesson for other cities: Mayors with backbones can do great things.
Pearl Street Mall, Boulder, Colorado
The Pearl Street Mall was created in 1976 to help the Pearl Street commercial area compete with a to-be-built mall on nearby 29th Street. The 4-block Pearl Street mall is well designed with multiple play areas, plenty of benches, an array of trees, and other elements, such as low walls, that help break up and define space. The shops are diverse and mostly local, chain stores are refreshingly rare. The area is also well programmed with quality street performers (including the famous “Zipcode Guy”) throughout the year. More photos.
Church Street Marketplace, Burlington, Vermont
Built in 1981, the Church Street Marketplace runs for 4 blocks and ends with a satisfying visual vista at the Unitarian Church. The Marketplace’s design was largely inspired by the successful Pearl Street Mall and features a plethora of outdoor seating, connected to adjoining cafes and restaurants.
Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, California
First pedestrianized in the 1960s and overhauled in the 1980s, the Third Street Promenade is a popular tourist attraction, centrally-located in downtown Santa Monica, close to the waterfront, and assisted by a warm climate most of the year. Unlike other pedestrian areas, such as Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall, the Promenade suffers from an abundance of chain stores, robbing it of some of the charm that locals remember from decades past.
Ithaca Commons, Ithaca, New York
The Ithaca Commons, in downtown Ithaca NY, is a 2-block pedestrian mall created in 1974. Similar to the Pearl Street Mall, the Commons was created to compete with a proposed conventional mall, which would have been built 2 miles away. Like with all successful pedestrian streets, the Commons’s development, maintenance, and promotion is handled by a professional organization: the Ithaca Downtown Business Improvement District.
These are among the most successful public spaces in the US. How did they do it? Here’s how.
A cultural willingness to embrace “The Commons” as part of the larger zeitgeist is important. I lived in Santa Monica in the early 1980’s and worked in the Santa Monica Place Mall as a teenager. At that time the hermetically sealed mall was booming and Third Street had been written off as another failed 1970’s urban renewal boondoggle. The shops on Third Street were mostly empty. The ones that were open were low value thrift shops and stores that sold wigs and such. You were lucky to find really bad chow mein or a slice of greasy pizza. The street was dead. Today Third Street is thriving and has some of the most expensive boutiques and restaurants in an already hyper expensive town. The old Santa Monica Place Mall has been retrofitted into a, “Modern open air mall with designer shops” that extends and mimics the adjacent urban streetscape. The Topanga Plaza Mall in the San Fernando Valley has been retrofitted into an indoor-outdoor Lifestyle Center©™ that attempts (poorly) to simulate a Main Street downtown. The Sherman Oaks Galleria (the mall immortalized in the 1982 film “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”) is now an office complex. My point is, the old urbanism didn’t change. Society just decided to value and inhabit it again.
Your mentioning of a “cultural willingness” is very interesting and worthy of further discussion/articles. How do we facilitate such willingness? It’s a question many public space advocates have been pondering for a long time.
Personally, I’m not interested in fomenting a movement designed to get people to embrace anything they don’t already want. I prefer to identify a location were a self-selecting population is already on board with the same stuff I want. This is the low hanging fruit. But hey. Feel free to try and organize the residents of your nearest gated community and persuade them to invite perfect strangers in to a public plaza in the heart of their community. Mazel tov. You’d be doing a great mitzvah. (And you’d be wasting your time.)
The reality is that many places are actually looking for pragmatic low cost techniques to improve their neighborhoods. But… Announcing that you want to build a grand plaza with shops, apartments, cafes, and a bicycle friendly streetscape that dramatically calms traffic, etc. is scary! Baby steps.
When it comes to talking baby steps versus envisioning big change, I don’t think it’s one or the other. Inspirational visions of this kind work for some people who are ready for them (the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder was achieved in one big step); others are more comfortable with incremental changes – a parklet here, a bulb out there. A group including myself and others are currently talking in detail about these types of small steps.
It’s important to judge correctly when either the baby or radical step is appropriate.
Agreed. It’s also important to recognize timing as a critical factor. I know of a project where the municipal authorities had tried for a decade to change their half dead Main Street. But skepticism and a series of administrative procedures kept things from moving forward. Then the crisis hit in 2008. Suddenly people were no longer so resistant. The first push for the project was done all at once on a few blocks. The city was able to prove the technique is financially successful. Now there’s an incremental branching out process in the entire neighborhood. There are still people who don’t approve, but they are now in the minority. Demonstration models and tipping points are important.
http://granolashotgun.com/2014/04/13/adding-value-and-building-a-strong-town-lancaster-blvd-2/
Wonderful story about Lancaster Blvd!