|
|
The Longest Wake: Demolition Progress September 24 - November 9, 2005
Backstory NORTHLAND
SHOPPING CENTER In the early 1950s, Jennings, Missouri was a red hot White Flight destination, just a scootch outside the St. Louis city limits proper, a 5 minute drive out Interstate 70 West. "Newfangled" is the correct word to describe the new homes and businesses that were built at a rapid clip, all designed with the automobile in mind, all built within the modern style. America's pioneering spirit usually culminates in Retail, and the town square of old morphed into the shopping center. Jennings grabbed for the golden ring and gave St. Louis County its first ultra-modern retail village, Northland Shopping Center. The town made the bold, jet-age move of "one-stop shopping," by selling a bucolic 64+ acre site next to the train tracks to developers G.J. Nooney & Co. They wasted no time bringing in the big guns. Famous-Barr - the leading St. Louis department store franchise - took the gamble of committing to a store in the untested county marketplace. Would the city people take the bus or drive their cars out to the suburbs? Will the county grow fast enough to support a store this size? The gamble paid off handsomely, and was a key component in the ultra-rapid expansion of Jennings and neighboring towns. The Look of the Future A shopping center of this size was an innovation, and the developer wanted architecture to match. A symbol of the county's future needed to look like the future, and there truly was a time during the 1950s when modern style was considered a good thing, "ultra-modern" was a term used reverentially by business publications. So, the architectural firm Russell Mullgardt Schwartz & Van Hoefen (who also collaborated on Busch Stadium and Mansion House, bold modern moves in downtown St. Louis) embraced the concept of a groundbreaking modern facility by distilling the International Style. While St. Louis had heretofore only explored this form of modern architecture in a residential capacity, the architects felt this new commercial concept required the sleek, sharp angularity of this sophisticated style. The monumental brick cubes floating atop thin stainless steel columns and covered walkways bore a striking resemblance to architect Walter Gropius' Harvard University Graduate Center (1950). The St. Louis firm expanded that idea to suit 2 levels of outdoor shopping by adding the latest in space age materials, textures and colors, and surrounded all of it with the biggest parking lot in St. Louis County. Aesthetically, it was a grand piece, a concept writ large. The car and the walker were both large in the architects' minds, for the driver and the pedestrian shared the ground back then (it was only when the car took over completely that shopping centers became so boring and ugly). But at the time of its construction, tactile views and sensations still mattered. What will a person see as they descend the stair to the lower level? Can we entice them into a lingerie shop on their way to buy new school shoes? The views from every angle were precisely considered…stainless, modular, weighty; that aqua and green, that metal atop sandstone, those plastic screens all bubbly white and tic-tac-toe like, those slabs of stainless steel jutting out from the brick bulk cube… geometric and breathtaking, creating a comfortable and exciting shopping experience. In Its Prime From the grand opening in August of 1955, Northland was an immediate and huge success. In short order, "outlot" buildings were added to the complex, including an office building (designed by Welton Beckett), grocery store and a post office. A bowling alley was added onto the northeast lower level, while a bank capped off the west end, close to West Florissant Ave. A cinema was built in 1967. Northland predicted, embodied and propelled the new car-centric suburban lifestyle, but it was easy to get to on foot, and became a major bus hub. Its central location at the crossroads of city and county made it a natural gathering place, where people of all ages, incomes and races filled the stores, the parking lots and the outdoor terraces at all hours of the day. It had all the ammenities of a small village; whatever you needed could be found within the triangle of Northland. Its aesthetic statement bled into the look of the rapidly developing commercial districts that strung out behind it to the west. Its financial success enabled the St. Louis County residential and commercial population to thrive. Northland easily maintained its retail and social predominance among the throngs of imitators it spawned. A 1979 St. Louis magazine article listed all of its strengths and attributes, 23 years after it was built. But around 1994 Famous-Barr, wanting to concentrate on deep county mall stores, pulled out of Northland, and it proved a fatal blow. No new anchor store took over the vacant 337,00 s.f. space, and without a solid draw, the smaller stores' business diminished. National chain retailers were replaced with lesser known and locally owned businesses, while most storefronts have remained vacant to this day. Racial Divide Equals Decline The history of the St. Louis County suburbs is directly related to President Eisenhower's passage of the national interstate system, affordable new homes under the G.I. Bill and the tendency of white St. Louisans to flee when black people moved into the neighborhood. The building of a modern shopping center at West Florissant and Lucas & Hunt was partially based on thousands of white families flooding the surrounding areas. North St. Louis County, in particular, grew ever-further north as more black people made their way out of the increasingly deplorable city conditions and into the relative newness of the county (going east to west, West Florissant Ave. is the perfect architectural history of White Flight). By the time Famous-Barr left Northland, the majority population of Jennings, and environs, was black. Retailers took note and planted their new outlets deeper into the counties so as to follow the white money, for black household income is not as desirable to them. This retail trend, coupled with escalating crime at the shopping center, badly marred Northland's reputation and profit margin. Dead Mall Walking This state of neglect brought forth the Sansone Group, who specialize in redeveloping older shopping plazas. They determined that the rising income level of the Near North Side was enough to warrant a re-think of Northland, and that meant complete demolition of the existing so as to erect contemporary, pre-fab concrete boxes. In July 2002 the Northland Cinema was demolished. The only commemoration was a photograph on the front page of the St. Louis American. Cher bless 'em. On the spot now stands an EFS-yawn of a government center. Sansone's concentration on the redevelopment of another old shopping center in Florissant, and the faltering economy, had kept them from any further work at Northland until Spring 2004 when they built a new Aldi's grocery store building in front of the government building, thus leaving the original grocery store building vacant. The Ambassador night club - in the space that was the bowling alley - is alive and thriving, and the largest draw left at Northland. The bank is still open, and any remaining retail is clustered on the upper level… wig shops, nail salons, discount clothes. But even at this moment, "For Lease" signs are still visible behind the dust-crusted display windows of long vacated store fronts, optimistically offering a phone number…will they let you sign a year's lease? Despite willful neglect, Northland is in surprisingly good structural shape. Considering that it's been purposely left to rot, the stainless steel colonades are rust-free and straight, the brick and stone facades still crisp despite years of water damage. It was built at the tail end of an era when permanence was a virtue. The place had been designed and built to last a long time - they still did things like that in the 50s…they didn't realize that obsolescence would become the religion of the short attention span. Where It Ends? A May 30th, 2004 St. Louis Post-Dispatch article said the redevelopment plan was back on. Northland Shopping Center would be demolished to become the $50 million Plaza on the Boulevard, with Target as its major tenant, and Schnuck's grocery store returning to a spot it had previously abandoned. The article says "the mall suffers from an antiquated design." It's an open-air plaza, a multi-level variation on the ubiquitous strip mall, with 5 standalone buildings along the edges of the site. What are the developer's new plans for the property? Well, "a 270,000-square-foot shopping strip…will feature five standalone buildings around the site's perimeter for restaurants and other retailers." Uh… OK, then. There have been plenty of business articles detailing the demise of the shopping mall, a retail concept that can no longer support itself. Consumer preference now skews toward large masses of retail strips outlining a vast parking lot. Let's state again that Northland - as it currently stands - is a sophisticated version of the same. Ya stick around long enough and your back in fashion… Which brings us to other consumer trends. Retro anything is good retail business. And as the Baby Boomers become nostalgic for their youth, note that Mid-Century Modern (as it's now called) has grown from a market trend to a bonafide lifestyle. Enough time has passed that this generation now looks back at the modern environments they were raised in and see the aesthetic beauty they had so long taken for granted. Look to the once-castigated ranch house now being celebrated by Old House Journal as ironic evidence of such. Northland is still a tad too young to qualify as "Historic, " which would qualify it for Historic Tax Credits (August 2005 Post Script: Northland celebrated its official 50th birthday with 1/2 of it demolished). But the Lever Building in NYC was declared historical well before its 50th birthday, and is alive once again due to a meticulous restoration. Northland could benefit from the same manuevers. Now, I know it's an outrageous idea to rehab a shopping center as a shopping center; if old retail survives, it's due to adaptive reuse. But what if Sansone were to make an original move to repair, restore and retool the existing buildings? Imagine the PR and marketing possibilities, the goodwill it would generate, the retro and nostalgia trends unleashing dollars from our pockets… According to the same Post-Dispatch article, Sansone "will benefit from about $10 million in tax increment financing." The demolition bill, alone, will easily cost that. Why not apply that money towards restoration and updates? And add Historic Tax Credits to the spread sheet. As well as the yards of free publicity they will get for such an unusual and bold move. Bring Northland Shopping Center back to life, full-blown… Imagine the world's coolest, multi-story Target inside the old Famous-Barr spot! As soon as one starts thinking outside the cookie-cutter retail box, it's squarely within the realm of possibility. Saving a shopping center is practically unheard of, but the architectural and historical aspects of Northland make it a special case. Northland originally blazed a trail to the future, and it could be a perfect example of blazing a trail for innovative retail ideas and modern preservation. For more of the story, visit these links: |
|
Images and Text ©2007 Toby Weiss. Unauthorized usage is prohibited.
