Rethinking the Mall—Redevelopment of Santa Monica Place Weaves Mall into Urban Fabric

SANTA MONICA, CA – Santa Monica Place -

After a nearly decade long redesign, Santa Monica Place reopened in August with a new look and a tenancy more reflective of the market it serves.  Originally designed by Frank Gehry and immortalized in films like Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Terminator 2, Santa Monica Place was purchased by Macerich Company in 1999.  They began work on its redevelopment in2002.  Jerde Partnership, a Los Angeles based design firm, designed the project in association with Omniplan, the executive architect on the project, based out of Dallas.

Santa Monica Place first opened in 1980 as a suburban-style, enclosed, three-level mall with the intent to draw department stores to the area.  Despite the rising popularity of the city and nearby attractions, Santa Monica Place became less popular among shoppers and retailers as the popularity of the adjacent, outdoor Third Street Promenade grew. The new design takes advantage of Santa Monica Place’s proximity to the Third Street Promenade by establishing pedestrian connections that extend the Promenade into the Mall carefully weaving what was once a concrete monolith into the existing city fabric.

“Our goal with Santa Monica Place was to connect it to its surroundings,” said Tipton Housewright, FAIA, LEED AP, Omniplan Principal. “The new structure is open to the neighborhood on all sides and the public areas remain accessible 24-7. We’re thrilled to be part of creating this exciting new retail destination in Santa Monica.”

Removing the Roof

The redesign plan opened up the mall by removing the roof, creating generous open spaces, and establishing pedestrian connections to the city core. By incorporating forms, materials, and landscaping that are found throughout the city, Jerde enhanced the project’s natural fit, both aesthetically and functionally.

“We approached the design of Santa Monica Place with the primary goal to give this project back to the city and its people,” said David Rogers, AIA, Jerde partner and principal designer of the project. “Santa Monica is best experienced outside in the sunshine and ocean breezes, so removing the roof was a necessary part of tying the new project into the urban experience. To make Santa Monica Place function like a part of the city, we also took great care both to make it look and feel like a natural part and to create new gathering spots and destinations that will become a vital part of downtown.”

Incorporating Green Elements

In addition to bringing life back to Santa Monica Place the redesign incorporated many “green” elements.  First and foremost the conversion of the enclosed mall into an open-air center significantly reduced HVAC costs.  The property features water-efficient landscaping, reduced water usage, high efficiency lighting, “green power” capable tenant spaces and solar roofing.  Additionally, 92% of construction debris was recycled.  The property also features a solar roof over retailer areas that will save enough energy to power 90 homes.  The project is expected to achieve LEED® certification, which recognizes Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.

A Grand Plaza and a Broad Range of Retail

The old Santa Monica Place was wildly successful for its time.  By the early 1990’s it suffered increasingly from chronic low occupancy.  The reinvigorated property, which contains approximately 524,000 square feet, opened its doors with 92% occupancy and is expected to reach 97% occupancy shortly.  The anchor tenants are Nordstrom’s and Bloomingdales.  An impressive list of retailers representing a broad mix of experiences and price points including Barneys Co-op, Burberry, Louis Vuitton, kitson, Nike, CB2, Ted Baker, Juicy Couture, Hugo Boss, AllSaints Spitalfields, BCBG, Johnny Was, True Religion, Michael Kors, Love Culture, Charlotte Russe, Disney, Tony Burch and Tiffany’s round out the roster.

At the center of the New Santa Monica Place sits its signature design element, the “Grand Plaza”.  The plaza acts as the heart of the project on the main level providing a post-modern gathering space that can host performances, art installations and other local events.  The inclusion of this design feature was specifically intended to maximize interaction with and for the local prominent and growing artists community.  The plaza’s elliptical shape combined with the offset orientation of the two upper retail levels maximize sunlight throughout the project, making it perfect for artistic display.

Dining with a View of the Pacific

As part of their overall plan Jerde sought to make Santa Monica Place a dining destination as well.  A rooftop-dining venue was created featuring six chef-driven restaurants including Xino, purported to have the best Singaporean cuisine in the United States.  Other notable dining establishments include Zengo, La Sandia Pizza Antica and Ozuma Sushi.  Fast dining options for every taste are provided as well.

The Dining Deck features communal seating, an outdoor fireplace, cabana-style lounges, and a mature olive tree, creating a rare public space with views the Pacific Ocean, Palisades Park, and local mountains that are often reserved for limited-access establishments, such as restaurants and hotel rooms.  On addition, The Market, a new home for independent purveyors of high quality organic, artisanal and gourmet foods is expected to open later this year as well.

Back to Life

The redevelopment of the center cost upwards of $265 million dollars and represents a move away from traditional mall retailing techniques and conventions that is transforming both the retailing and real estate industries. In many ways, Santa Monica Place is a reversal of the last decade’s global retail approach, which gave us cookie-cutter commerce from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to the Ginza in Tokyo. Now that you can shop for anything online, retailers have to give shoppers a reason to leave the house.  They are striving to create more localized, community-oriented experiences.  Arthur Coppola, Chairman and CEO of Macerich commented that “many of our retail partners have delivered unique store designs and differentiated merchandise to Santa Monica Place,” indicative of the new strategy in retailing of tailoring merchandise assortment to individual stores’ customer preferences.  Nordstrom is a leader in this trend.  With the “Dead Mall” phenomenon spreading nationwide, Santa Monica Place is a case study in bringing dead malls back to life.

The new Santa Monica Place replaces a dead mall with a vibrant, open-air district that fills in a vital missing piece within thriving downtown Santa Monica. By seamlessly connecting its popular and diverse surrounding uses, creating new public spaces, and attracting a new caliber of retail tenants, including new department store anchor concepts, it will become the hub of Santa Monica and create a new destination in greater Los Angeles.

Site Plans and Images are expandable.  Click on the image to view larger.  Additional images can be viewed in RetailRemix’s Facebook Gallery.

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The Jerde Partnership (www.jerde.com) is a visionary architecture and urban design firm.  Founded in 1977, the firm has pioneered “placemaking” and designed projects throughout the world that provide lasting social, cultural and economic value and promote further investment and revitalization. Based in a design studio in Los Angeles with project offices in Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong and Shanghai, Jerde takes a signature, co-creative approach to design and collaborates with private developers, city officials, specialty designers and local executive architects to realize the vision of their projects.

Omniplan (www.omniplan.com) is committed to elevating the quality of communities’ built environments. With offices in Dallas and Phoenix, the firm has worked in 38 states and 6 foreign countries and focuses on the commercial and institutional arenas with special emphasis on large-scale commercial retail and mixed-use developments and facilities for institutions of higher education, especially those related to science and technology.

Macerich (www.macerich.com) is one of the country’s leading owners, operators and developers of highly productive retail properties.  Headquartered in Santa Monica for more than 30 years, Macerich is a fully integrated self-managed and self-administered real estate investment trust, which focuses on the acquisition, leasing, management, development and redevelopment of regional malls throughout the United States.  Macerich now owns approximately 73 million square feet of gross leaseable area consisting primarily of interests in 71 regional malls.