THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 4, 1996 TAG: 9608030009
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 47 lines
Recent comments on the community effort to develop a stronger design for MacArthur Center indicate some misunderstanding about its rationale. The real objective is not better access to the center for downtown residents and workers, or pretty facades and landscaping, but the creation of an urban experience which will become a strong regional draw. A center which opens to the streets and attractions of downtown Norfolk will better pull suburban customers.
Advocates for the center's current design acknowledge that it has disadvantages. Its inward focus will limit the spillover benefits for the rest of downtown Norfolk. They insist, however, that meeting the parking and security needs of suburban customers mandates the current model.
The belief that suburban customers will respond more favorably to a garage-enclosed mall than a mall fronting lively downtown streets is the critical error of the current plan. Hampton Roads residents are eager for a quality urban experience. The city of Virginia Beach recognizes the enormous appeal of an urban downtown district by its efforts to urbanize the Pembroke area. Norfolk should enhance, not jeopardize, its unique urban appeal in the design for MacArthur Center.
Convenient highway access to and from the center garages, and easy and safe movement between parking spaces and the center, can be provided in a more outwardly focused center. Security on the perimeter of the center would be better with a more transparent mall adjacent to people-filled streets.
A bustling mall interior, after the novelty of the center has worn off, should not be presumed. It will not be easy to persuade suburban customers to pass by neighborhood malls, improved to meet the competition of MacArthur Center, in favor of a drive downtown. We must make MacArthur Center an integral part of a destination downtown district, which no competitor can match.
Thirty-five or more architects, design professionals and citizens, who care deeply about the future of Norfolk and the region, participated in the recent design charette. There they developed some specific concepts for meeting the developer and retailers' business needs. Drawings of these concepts will soon be avialable to the city and area citizens. They can determine for themselves whether they agree that these ideas will provide a stronger McArthur Center and downtown Norfolk.
DAVID LEVY
MARK PERREAULT
Norfolk, July 29, 1996 by CNB