The Pedestrian Mall
flickr; Boots made for walking, corydalus via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
When I was a kid growing up in Chicago, one of the highlights of the Christmas season
was a trip downtown to see the decorations on State Street and a visit to Santa Claus at Marshall Field's, or Carson's. When I was old enough to travel on the bus by myself, I loved taking trips to that "Great Street" and wandering from department store to department store, among the throngs of shoppers and the folks who made up the downtown workforce.
During my teens, in the late 70s, State Street went through a transformation.The enclosed
suburban mall reigned supreme and shoppers were fleeing the downtown retail district. Under the guise of pollution abatement, the city closed the street to automobile traffic and allowed only bus and emergency vehicles. The sidewalks got a lot wider, but there were fewer and fewer pedestrians to fill the walkways. The retail economy in central business districts around the country were in free fall, and Chicago wasn't the only downtown that closed their streets to auto traffic as a means to keep shopper's shopping. Not even every suburb was immune. Oak Park (Frank Lloyd Wright's old hometown) closed their main commercial district, Lake Street, to the automobile and created a wide swath of brick paving and plantings hoping to keep the public from heading out to newer suburbs with bright, shiny, new indoor malls.
Many years later, after I'd left Chicago for LA, we made a return visit to the city, and on a trip
to State Street I was pleasantly surprised to find a street that reminded me of my youth - only better. The avenue had been reconfigured once again, cars were streaming by and the sidewalks were filled with pedestrians. On a visit to Oak Park to see the Frank Lloyd Wright Home and Studio, we went to Lake Street for a coffee, and low and behold, it had gone through a transformation and was back to where it was before the auto had been banned.
All this came back to me because of an article I read yesterday in the Boston Globe.
Boston had closed a portion of a downtown retail street to car traffic in the late 70s, and there is a debate going on right now about re-opening it for automobile access. Folks on the side of change, sight Chicago's now thriving State Street as their primary example of success. The article also pointed out that by the 70s, cities around the country had built more than 200 pedestrian malls. There are now just over a dozen left. When we stayed in Charlottesville, Virginia while working a movie a couple of years ago, our apartment and production offices were located downtown, which was transformed from a typical commercial street into a pedestrian mall years ago. The mall was relatively quiet during the day, but most evenings, and every weekend, the place was packed with people.
I was happy to see my old State Street come back again. When urban planners around
the country decided 30 years ago that the way to save a downtown was to "mall" it, I'm sure it seemed like a good idea at the time. Some cities decided that the concept was no longer working, and went back to the old formula. But in some places, ie. Charlottesville, Madison, WI., or the 3rd Street Promenade out here in Santa Monica, the idea thrived. Boston has to decide which scheme will work the best for their 21st century pedestrian.
via flickr /Artwork: designslinger]
Posted by designslinger at 3/11/2009 5:00 AM 
Categories: Architecture, Urbanism
Tags: Chicago Boston urban planning malls
Categories: Architecture, Urbanism
Tags: Chicago Boston urban planning malls
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