THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, September 17, 1996 TAG: 9609170042
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Commentary
SOURCE: BY EDWIN SLIPEK, ARCHITECTURE CRITIC
LENGTH: 134 lines
FOR A GENERATION now, Norfolk's downtown has been systematically torn down and only partly rebuilt. A huge, eight-square-block bald spot remains exposed in the center.
So Wednesday will be a critical day in the city's history. That evening, the Taubman Co., a shopping-mall developer, will unveil specific architectural renderings for the proposed $300 million MacArthur Center.
Bulldozers are already clearing the site, bounded by City Hall and Monticello avenues and Freemason and Cumberland streets. So the plans shown probably will be very close to what will be built.
Parts of the plan already made public have sparked impassioned and often intelligent discussion in recent months. Citizens have joined the architectural community in a debate on the form and spirit of the mall. This conversation is heartening, proving that despite the ugly sprawl that characterizes much of the region, people care passionately about the future shape of downtown Norfolk.
Will the wholesale demolition a generation ago of the heart of downtown prove to have been hara-kiri? Or will the connectedness, appearance and functionality of the MacArthur Center put everything together again?
Wednesday's announcement may provide some answers. Some are already available.
It is apparent from plans that have already been shown that the proposed monolithic structure will succeed in restoring downtown in some ways better than others.
Let's examine how the center, as shown in plans already released, will relate to each of the four major streets it will front:
Monticello Avenue
The western facade will be the focus of the mall's grand pedestrian entrance. Department stores will anchor this side at each end.
The front door to the mall will be near Market Street and the Wells Theater, with a pedestrian passageway across the street connecting Monticello and Granby Street. This should provide a pathway to the new community college.
It is exciting to envision the linkage that this side of the mall will provide with such landmarks as the modernistic Scope to the north, the exotic Wells to the west and the remaining gracious old structures that face historic Freemason Street to the south.
The southwestern corner, at Monticello and City Hall avenues, where a Dillard's department store will be located, is critically important. It should be built as close as possible to City Hall Avenue so as to create the strongest magnet possible for visitors at Waterside and Nauticus or those working in the financial district. This is a pivotal corner that does not appear to have been successfully addressed in designs to this point.
Freemason Street
The re-establishment of Freemason Street east of Monticello with demolition of the Freemason Street Garage is already cause for rejoicing. Looking eastward down Freemason, there is now a marvelous vista culminating with the steeple of Freemason Baptist Church.
Starting from the department store planned to hug the corner of Freemason and Monticello and moving eastward, most the mall's mass will be wisely set back from the street to allow smaller-scale buildings to be built, and to provide a buffer between the parking garages that will envelope the mall and such noteworthy landmarks as the Moses Myers and Willoughby Baylor houses.
There will be secondary pedestrian entrances to the mall near the intersection of Freemason and Bank streets. This entrance - alas, into the parking garage, not directly to the mall - will create strong visual linkage with Chrysler Hall. This entrance will also enhance the sense of urbanity at this intersection. Bravo.
Cumberland Street
If the mall has a back door, this is it.
Ironically, however, this will be the front door for those arriving by automobile. And make no mistake, the developers are counting on shoppers arriving by automobile, not those arriving by foot, to make this project profitable.
Entrances and exits to the parking garages will flank the Nordstrom store, which will be in the center of the Cumberland Street side. Rather than create a strong urban wall that could serve as a backdrop for the handsome country-like churchyard and buildings of the St. Paul's Church complex, this side promises to be the most amorphous aspect of the mall.
City Hall Avenue
As things now stand, this is the most disappointing of the MacArthur Center's four fronts. If the Monticello Avenue side connects with its environs, the City Hall Avenue side is essentially a huge wall.
This is sad, particularly considering that it faces the Douglas MacArthur Memorial, which inspired the mall's name and its five-star logo. How about a little more respect?
As planned, a huge ``speed ramp'' will run up the City Hall Avenue side of the mall from Cumberland Street, introducing a very disconcerting highway-like element at a symbolically important location.
City Hall Avenue is a major vehicular gateway into downtown from encircling highways. St. Paul's Church and the MacArthur Memorial are Norfolk architectural treasures of the highest order. Rather than have the speed ramp run up the side of the mall at a disconcerting angle, this feature should be disguised.
At downtown Charlotte's new NFL football stadium, many have praised the way ramps of any type have been hidden behind walls to reinforce a strong ``urban'' statement. Nearer by, Hampton is wisely removing service roads along decidedly unlovely Mercury Boulevard.
However, Norfolk is adding what amounts to a service road in the heart of downtown. Ridiculous. There is no place for highway-scale ramps on a main street linking sensitive historic structures.
Some architects and other citizens have pleaded for shops and display windows on the City Hall Avenue side. Windows and doorways would punctuate the relentless wall, thereby providing life and connectedness to city life on the south.
Cities in general, and downtowns in particular, must do two things to stay viable. First, they must be responsive to the physical and commercial needs of the populations they serve. Second - and perhaps more important - they must reflect the hopes and aspirations of their people. The street grid, sidewalks, familiar landmarks and even trees reflect what is important to a community.
Many Americans go to considerable lengths and expense to vacation at spots such as Santa Fe, N.M.; Nantucket Island; or the Caribbean. We are drawn to places with singular beauty and an assured sense of place and history. Norfolk can be a similarly special place.
Norfolk suffered through a self-inflicted, post-World War II lobotomy, with the removal of hundreds of buildings that possessed millions of collective memories. More recently, the infusion of new housing, in the form of single-family homes and converted warehouses, and such projects as the Norfolk Waterside Marriott Hotel, have returned no small measure of civility to formerly desolate streets.
Still, much of downtown remains fragmented, soulless and downright tawdry.
For Norfolk to realize the look and dignity of the regional hub, international naval center, historic destination city and spectacular waterfront community that it is, the significance of what happens on the eight square blocks earmarked for the MacArthur Center cannot be underestimated.
This project is surely one of the last great hopes for downtown's long-sought, and hard-fought, renewal. It requires careful scrutiny. MEMO: Edwin Slipek Jr., 45, is a native Virginian and a doctoral student
in architectural history at Virginia Commonwealth and a writer for 10
years on architecture.
KEYWORDS: MACARTHUR CENTER MALL by CNB