Portland, Oregon - circa 1960s
The beautifully engineered stairway on the East Mall at Lloyd Center. Some history from its Wikipedia entry:
The mall opened August 1, 1960 in its original 100-store, open-aired configuration. Upon opening, it was certainly the largest shopping center in Portland (and in the Northwest region). It claimed to be the largest in the world at the time, but in fact had already been surpassed by the Lakewood Center of Lakewood, California (1951), and the Roosevelt Field Mall of Garden City, New York (1956). Although very close to the downtown retail core, Lloyd Center was the first major retail development to seriously challenge it, aimed almost exclusively at commuters utilizing Portland's then-growing freeway system.Mall history: 1960 - present
The mall's layout and decor were outdated by the 1990's, which saw a major renovation that enclosed the mall, added new anchor and retail space, and a food court.
Current website: here
Info from Wikipedia
Current aerial view
Previous entries: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
A real STUNNER!!
ReplyDeleteSo, I am guessing since it was remodeled and enclosed that those stairs are gone. Am I right?
ReplyDeleteI just discovered that Lloyd Center was also a John Graham design... if that had already been mentioned on here before, I've missed it. I'm starting to think that his firm really had as much (if not more) impact than Victor Gruen in terms of the number of centers built. This shot is reminiscent of some I've seen of Northgate, like this one (even if it was taken after Northgate was enclosed): http://content.lib.washington.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/buildings&CISOPTR=3857&REC=3
ReplyDeleteI've noticed that in all of the John Graham designs that I'm familiar with (both enclosed and not), that the concourses seem to be a bit narrower than most malls. On a visual level, I think your eye takes in more storefronts at once and it makes the concourse seem longer and neverending. Also, when you leave a store to re-enter the mall, the store directly across seems to have a greater impact since it is closer.