This document provides a history of placemaking and new urban retail centers over the past two decades. It discusses how post-World War II development abandoned walkable, mixed-use town centers in favor of automobile-oriented design. Starting in the 1980s, new urbanist developments like Seaside, Florida and Mashpee Commons sought to reinvent the traditional town center. Over the following decades, many new urban retail centers and town squares were built across the U.S. to recreate pedestrian-friendly main streets and neighborhood shopping. The document examines the successes and challenges of translating traditional urban design principles to serve contemporary lifestyles while accommodating cars and larger-scale retail.
This document provides a history of placemaking and new urban retail centers over the past two decades. It discusses how post-World War II development abandoned walkable, mixed-use town centers in favor of automobile-oriented design. Starting in the 1980s, new urbanist developments like Seaside, Florida and Mashpee Commons sought to reinvent the traditional town center. Over the following decades, many new urban retail centers and town squares were built across the U.S. to recreate pedestrian-friendly main streets and neighborhood shopping. The document examines the successes and challenges of translating traditional urban design principles to serve contemporary lifestyles while accommodating cars and larger-scale retail.
Two slide history of U.S. settlement and development
Pre-20th century U.S. - a nation of cities, towns, villages and countryside
Development Projects and Products Conventional, single-use real estate products and projects dont add up to towns and communities and they cant simply be reassembled into town centers without changing their design. After WWII the accepted wisdom was that walkable, mixed-use town centers were obsolete; anachronism in an automobile age, and there were major efforts to reinvent the town center for the motor age. Lake Anne Village Center (Reston, Virginia) - pull up your canoe and shop! Milton Keynes town centre - the shopping mall model of a town center in a box attempted in New Towns and master planned communities of the 1950s-1970s An indoor post office in Cumbernauld town centre A modernist village center in Sweden Source: Jerker Sderlind Another attempted to reinvent the town center in Sweden (campaign promise: I will find the person responsible for this design and make them fix it!) Source: Jerker Sderlind The Place Making book addresses the need to look back and relearn timeless principles of place making for pedestrian, mixed-use town centers and adapt to contemporary needs for accommodating automobiles, larger scale retail and civic uses, and lifestyles. Relearning: human (pedestrian) scale vs automobile scale Comparison of four places drawn to the same scale. (Source: Keller Easterling, American Town Plans) Learning from the past: human scale, spatial enclosure, building height-to-width ratios Attempted reinvention of the town center in Sweden #3: the contemporary mans storefront Source: Jerker Sderlind Ye olde storefront - timeless basics of visual merchandizing 101 The continuum of good storefront design and visual merchandizing A new urbanist main street that comes up short and one that gets it right (a storefront that continues to sell even when its closed and provides one of the best kinds of street lighting (Mashpee Commons, Mashpee, MA) Sorting out urban and suburban types - two Saks 5th Avenue stores, suburban (left) and urban (right). Same merchandise, different context. Attempted translation of the scale, tenant mix, and service area from conventional shopping centers into traditional urban centers 7-11 convenience store Dover, Kohl & Partners Corner store
DPZ & James Wassell
Neighborhood shopping center Dover, Kohl & Partners Village center DPZ & James Wassell New Urban Retail The First Decade Seaside (1980)
Miami Lakes Town Center (1983)
Mashpee Commons (1985)
Princeton Forrestal Village (1987)
Reston Town Center (1990)
Mizner Park (1991)
Early TND Retail Corner stores -Modica Market -Belmont Green -Southern Village -Inverness Square -Lakelands Laguna West Market Street at Celebration McKenzie Towne Centre Town Center coming soon... Seaside, Florida corner store New Urban Retail The Second Decade Haile Village Center Redmond Town Ctr Orenco Station Town Ctr City Place Market St at Celebration Ion Square Kentlands Market Square Santana Row Abacoa Town Center Pentagon Row Southlake Town Square Birkdale Village Easton Town Center Southern Village Ctr King Farm Village Center Winter Park Village Stapleton Town Center Paseo Colorado San Elijo Village Center Baldwin Pk Vlg Ctr... IOn Square (near Charleston, SC) Southern Village village center (Chapel Hill, NC) Infill of a village center for the suburban Haile Plantation master planned community (Gainesville, FL) Rendering of Haile Village Center highlighting the main street (source: Bob Kramer) Aerial view of early phase of Orenco Station Town Center (Portland, Oregon) Celebrations town center (near Orlando, Florida) Across the street from Celebration: typical central Florida sprawl Harbor Town (Memphis, TN) Kentlands Market Square and Main Street (Gaithersburg, MD) Typical commercial sprawl in Gaithersburg, MD near Kentlands Live-work buildings lining Kentlands Main Street Pentagon Row, one of the Federal Realty Investment Trusts mixed-use projects (Washington, DC) Birkdale Village (outside Charlotte, NC) Original suburban plan for the future site of Southlake Town Square near Dallas, Texas Courthouse square area of Southlake Town Square Easton Town Center (Columbus, Ohio) Santana Row (San Jose, California) Retail leasing plan for Baldwin Park Village Center (Orlando, Florida) Village center plan for Baldwin Park Village Center (Orlando, Florida) Source: Torti Gallas CHK Charles C. (Chuck) Bohl [email protected] 305-284-4420 www.arc.miami.edu/knight