THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, October 15, 1996 TAG: 9610150027
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 124 lines
WHEN THE DESIGN for Norfolk's MacArthur Center mall was unveiled early this year, the basics were a three-story, suburban-style mall flanked by twin parking garages.
Nine months later, after considerable debate and turmoil, that's how it remains.
Many of the design changes trumpeted by this newspaper and other area media last month actually were to relatively minor surface features. Things like the number of street entrances into the mall and the layout of stores - which determine how shoppers and residents interact with the mall - remained basically unchanged.
The mall's front door and some storefronts still face Monticello Avenue. Parking garages line most of City Hall Avenue and Freemason Street. Most of the mall's frontage on four surrounding streets remain either high walls or the bottom levels of parking garages.
Dennis Richardson, a mall project manager for the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, said he was surprised by the popular impression that the mall's design had been changed significantly.
``It's essentially the same as it was,'' he said. In the current design, only the style of the facade has been significantly altered.
The MacArthur Center, a $300 million project financed by the city, is scheduled to open in the fall of 1998. It is the keystone of Norfolk's decades-long attempt at downtown renewal, and its design has prompted a spirited public conversation.
Critics have claimed the mall's parking garages and walls would stifle efforts to restore Norfolk's street life, in part because customers would have no incentive to walk outside. A loosely assembled group fought to make the mall's design more street-oriented, passing out thousands of fliers and produced several alternative designs.
After the developer and city unveiled the mall's final design last month, news reports indicated major changes had taken place. In fact, critics' suggestions were largely unheeded.
``The basic layout remained the same,'' Councilman Mason C. Andrews said. ``It did not accommodate certain objectives that many would have liked, for reasons that we think were compelling.''
Turning more stores to face the streets, as critics had suggested, would endanger the commercial prospects of the mall, Andrews said. And vacant or underused stores do not help anybody, regardless of their location, he said.
One reason some saw design changes when there were none may be that the mall was too big to be shown clearly in any one illustration. The mall looked very different, depending on whether you looked at the mall's front door, its department stores, or its parking garages. Sometimes, one part was mistaken as illustrating the whole of the mall.
David Levy, who helped lead the campaign to change the mall, said he was disappointed that the public was led to believe that the design was substantially changed in response to his group's concerns.
``As far as I'm concerned, we were basically ignored, and there were no significant changes to the mall's design at all,'' Levy said.
To some extent, city leaders and the alternative group appeared to be talking past each other. The alternative group was concerned with how the mall would align with existing streets, how many stores would face the street, the mall's shape and size, and whether housing or offices could be included.
The city, in response, focused attention on the building's facade, something the alternative group had little interest in.
Last month, Levy and Mark Perreault, another leader of the campaign to change the mall, traveled to Little Rock, Ark.. There they discussed with executives of Dillard's, one of the mall's anchors, changing the layout of the department store to become more street friendly. The Dillard's executive was polite but firm about not changing the store's design, Levy said.
``They were pretty closed-minded. . . ,'' he said. ``They had a standard store design that they weren't about to make any changes to.''
That exchange confirmed one argument of Andrews and other city officials: that the alternative designs had merit, but were seen as commercially risky by the mall's major tenants.
While the basic design has been unchanged, some aspects of the mall have evolved over the last six months. The most obvious is the alteration of the mall's facade.
The original drawings showed entrances with prominent banners and glass roofs reminiscent of Norfolk's Waterside festival marketplace. The final drawings have more of a classical look, with columns and roof lines matching the front of the MacArthur Memorial.
Other aspects of the mall that have evolved since drawings were first made public, according to Richardson:
The corner facade of the Dillard's department store, which prompted much criticism because its blank brick walls, has been enlivened with five recesses. From a distance, the recesses will appear to be windows, though they will not offer views into the store.
The parking garages along City Hall Avenue will have false windows on the bottom level. Just what will go in them is still being discussed. One idea is to put in murals of city scenes, Richardson said.
(City officials and mall clients discussed, but ultimately rejected, putting stores on street level beneath the garages, Andrews said. Stores built under parking garages have a mixed track record here and in other cities. But water and sewer lines will be installed, so that stores may be added at a later date.)
The Freemason Street side will feature a park, not townhouses or offices. These may be built later if a developer shows interest, Richardson said.
A restaurant in the Nordstrom store will be moved from the ground floor to the third floor.
Cafe-style sidewalk seating, once considered unlikely, is a more probable option for restaurants along Monticello Avenue.
Some design aspects still have not passed through the city's review process. Over the next year, the city's Design Review Board and Planning Commission will examine the materials to be used on the exterior, and the landscaping.
But with site work already under way, Levy said he has ended his campaign for design changes. Levy and others have spent considerable time and expense on their effort.
``We feel like the game is basically over,'' Levy said. ``We can only hope what we see as the design flaws can be overcome by other strengths downtown. Our real interest is in a successful downtown.'' ILLUSTRATION: FILE PHOTOS
[Photos and graphic ran on page E1.]
THE LAST WORD
If you think radical design changes were made to Norfolk's
MacArthur Center mall in order to placate critics, think again.
These drawings show how the fundamentals of the mall's design have
remained essentially the same over time, although the style of the
facade has evolved. Story on E9
False windows: On the Dillard's store, recesses have been added
to what was a blank brick wall. From a distance, they will appear to
be windows, but they will not actually allow viewing into the
interior of the store.
Classic facade; On the Monticello Avenue side, which is the
mall's principal urban facade, the design has been changed from
festival contemporary, similar by CNB