THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, April 11, 1996 TAG: 9604110315
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY ALEX MARSHALL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 97 lines
Developers of the MacArthur Center mall gave city design officials Wednesday their first detailed examination of what the planned shopping center will look like.
As earlier envisioned, the mall remains a large, boxy structure, flanked by parking garages, with a principal facade along Monticello Avenue. On that street will be the mall's front door, along with entrances to two of its anchor department stores.
In size and scale, the overall structure dwarfs the smaller buildings and streets around it.
But the drawings and slides presented by the Taubman Co., the mall's developer, did provide additional details of the design of the mall's main entrance, its parking garages and how the center's access points are aligned with existing streets.
About 50 people were present for the presentation, including the Planning Commission, the Design Review Committee, Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority officials, city planning staff, private architects and Taubman officials.
The Planning Commission and the Design Review Committee must eventually vote on the design.
But the mall faces hurdles beyond their approval. The Department of Housing and Urban Development is holding up a $33 million loan while Norfolk and HUD discuss whether the city must guarantee that a percentage of mall jobs will go to poor people.
The state Department of Historic Resources has said it will hold up the project until the city better documents what was on the site before it was cleared during urban renewal in the 1950s.
Mayor Paul D. Fraim, in an interview Wednesday, said the city expected to resolve its differences with HUD in a matter of weeks. The city plans to transfer control of the property to the building contractor in June as scheduled, Fraim said.
The mayor also said the concerns over historic documentation were being resolved.
Some of the details revealed in Wednesday's design presentation included:
The four-story parking garages will feature vertical partitions, perhaps false columns, to break the monotony of long, horizontal parking decks.
The central entrance on Monticello, placed at the end of Market Street, might feature an old-fashioned marquee that would advertise movies in the mall theater. This entrance could include a balcony, where people would be able to stand and look out over Monticello Avenue.
The mall would have street entrances on three sides, each of which would try to draw traffic from surrounding centers of activities.
The Monticello entrance would draw from Granby Street; the City Hall entrance from the business district and hotels, and the Freemason entrance from Scope and Chrysler Hall. Mall and city officials hope the mall will increase street-level activity downtown.
A small, long park would be created in front of the mall on the Freemason side. Eventually, brick townhouses might go on this park, hiding the parking garage that dominates this side of the mall.
Cars will enter on Cumberland Street, essentially the back of the mall. The Nordstrom Store would be located there. Although it would lack a street entrance, Nordstrom would be flanked by two parking garages, meaning most drivers would enter the department store first.
The design met with generally favorable reviews. Some officials, however, still had concerns that the mall was a suburban structure primarily oriented toward motorists.
Henry Shriver, chairman of the Design Review Committee, asked whether the developers could make the interior of the mall feel more like a continuation of the outside streets. Shriver named as an example La Galleria in Milan, Italy, a 19th century structure with a glass arcade that many consider the first shopping mall.
The MacArthur Center, Shriver said, was still ``a mega-structure.''
Shriver's comments prompted Bill Hiotaky, a Taubman official who is leading the company's design process, to suggest another meeting to discuss Taubman's unique design philosophy, which concentrates on how a mall's design can prompt those inside to spend more money.
``Everything we do inside a mall is for one purpose, and that is to enhance sales,'' Hiotaky said.
One design official asked whether the mall might include sidewalk cafes along Monticello Avenue. Hiotaky said that was a possibility. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Illustrations]
The MacArthur Center's main entrance, top sketch, and two other
entrances will open onto Monticello Avenue. It's four-story parking
garages will feature vertical partitions, perhaps false columns, to
break the monotony of long, horizontal parking decks as seen from
this perspective looking down City Hall Avenue near St. Paul's
Church.
JIM WALKER
The Virginian-Pilot
Ray Gindroz of UDA Architects, describes plans for the mall.
by CNB