Prosperous MallS and Dying Streets

The derelict condition of town centers has been at the top of mayors and planners agendas for several years. After cars had taken hold of the cities, streets became highways, and public open spaces turned into parking lots. The upgrading of lifestyle and increasing private transportation have decentralized population, thus speeding up suburbanization. Individual freedom of movement causes the scattering of urban developments in a self-perpetuating “magic” cycle: a continuous abandonment of residents towards the suburbs; a parallel move of employment and commercial enterprises; and the reproduction of suburban shopping malls. All these cause financial bankruptcy of small stores in the open commercial streets. City cores become a hotbed for weak populations, thereby causing property taxes to drop, and accordingly - a lack of profitability for entrepreneur investment.

Almost total denial of the past during the 60s and 70s created a deep rift in the continuum of architectural heritage. Massive destruction of urban fabric, in order to rebuild large-scale structures, has changed the reference to the urban outdoors. The street and the square - the hub of activity for generations, have lost their ability to create social interaction - the essence of urban experience. Efforts to reawaken the city centers by building pedestrian streets have proven unsuccessful. Car owners, the better-off sector, prefer to head towards the luxurious air-conditioned shopping malls which provide free-parking.

The suburban mall developed in the U.S. during the 1950s as an alternative to the urban commercial street. Available and relatively inexpensive land enabled large structures with spacious shops. The internal organization of the mall is based on a repeated formula that was developed by Victor Gruen. The idea is based on the location of anchor stores at the ends, and smaller stores in-between. The type of store and its size, the relationship and location of the rest areas and entertainment functions are well-calculated, and operated by a central management.

Since the success of the shopping malls is a critical factor in the decay of inner cities, attempts have been made to return shoppers to the streets by planting malls within the city cores. However, these efforts usually achieve opposite results: the enclosed structure with its impervious facades, rather than encouraging a fruitful interaction with the dying streets, “sucks” the shoppers  into a one-dimensional synthetic environment.

Later attempts to develop an open-envelope mall which meshes organically with the urban fabric have also had little success, as its economic strength poses an unfair economic fight against the smaller shops in the street. Renewed interest in traditional urban generators has brought about attempts to “beat” the mall by emphasizing the street’s multi-facet identity, which stems from its authentic variety of functions and activities, as opposed to the ever-repeated one-dimensional mall space.

In this context, it is worth mentioning two street types that had developed over thousands of years in response to climatic conditions: the partially-canopied arcade street (the Cardo in Jerusalem), and the fully-canopied street (Emmanuel Gallery in Milan), whose images are repeatedly adapted by mall planners.

The impasse which the grim urban reality has reached suggests that the street and the mall cannot live together. The bitter trial-and-error process that has tried to revitalize the city by cosmetic means points, rather, to a  programmatic solution. The economic success of the shopping mall indicates that a combination of economic solutions with social needs in a planned physical layout may have positive results. Since the strength of the shopping mall lies in its economic entity, while the advantages of the street lie in its historical, social, and emotional significance, the solution should be based on a hybrid of the two - an open street that is planned, organized and operated by a central management.

Open malls are not new. Some forms of likeness to Emanuel Gallery have proven themselves in various places: the Manchester arcade, the Cardiff arcade, and Calatravas open mall in Toronto. The principle is that once a section of a commercial area with a unique urban characteristic is allocated, it can be organized, redesigned and operated under the unified management of the local municipality, the owners, and the community.