Southdale Center

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Inside the Southdale Center

Southdale Center, commonly known as just Southdale, was the first fully-enclosed and completely climate-controlled shopping mall in the United States. It was opened for public use on October 8, 1956, in the Minneapolis, Minnesota suburb of Edina. As of 2006, the original Southdale building is still in use, as well as later additions to the building. Three similarly-named shopping centers were also opened in the Twin Cities area: Brookdale Center (opened 1962) in Brooklyn Center, Rosedale Center (opened 1969) in Roseville, and Ridgedale Center (opened 1974) in Minnetonka. Southdale is currently owned by the Mills Corporation.

1 History
2 Southdale Today
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] History

Southdale was the brainchild of Victor Gruen, an Austrian emigrant who moved to the United States. Gruen was a European style socialist; he hated the suburban lifestyle of 1950's America, and wanted to design a building that would bring people together into a community, by providing a meeting place that American towns lacked. They would come together to shop, drink coffee, and socialize. It was never his intention to design what some consider an icon of capitalism. He modeled the design of Southdale on the arcades of European cities, although his original version was never achieved. Gruen also saw the mall as the center of a community. When he first drew up the plans for Southdale, he placed the shopping center at the heart of a 463-acre (1.9 km²) development, complete with apartment buildings, houses, schools, a medical center, a park, and a lake. Southdale, in Gruen's opinion, was not a suburban alternative to downtown Minneapolis. It was the Minneapolis downtown you would get if you started over and corrected all the mistakes that were made the first time around. Gruen planned for an atmosphere of leisure, excitement, and intimacy to be created. To achieve this he placed works of art, decorative lighting, fountains, tropical plants, and flowers throughout the mall.

Groundbreaking for Southdale took place on October 29, 1954. 800 construction workers were needed to construct the 4-story, 800,000 ft² (74,000 m²) center, complete with 5,200 parking spaces and 72 spaces for tenants. The mall was originally developed by the Dayton Company, owners of Dayton's department store in Minneapolis and predecessor to the Target Corporation. A branch of Dayton's would anchor the mall along with Donaldson's, Walgreens Pharmacy and Woolworth.

It was envisioned that Southdale would become the central gathering place not only for the residents of the city of Edina, but also for the greater Twin Cities area. Southdale was designed from the viewpoint of the future. The creators of the center understood that in the future, consumers would demand convenience and variety; as a result, the mall was designed to provide many useful services all under one roof. These services included everything from a Post Office, to a grocery store, to an upscale apparel store and even a small zoo. Other intentions would take hold, though, and the construction of the IDS Center and its attached Crystal Court would shift attention back to downtown Minneapolis.

When Southdale opened, it became a gathering place for area residents, just as was envisioned. Over the years, Southdale hosted gem, boat, and fine art shows, and also served as host for charity and community events. Southdale was even the host-site for an episode of the popular game show Truth or Consequences. However, the full scale of the original plan was never realized. There were no parks or schools or apartment buildings - just a big box in a sea of parking. With a few exceptions, no one else planned a shopping mall as the centerpiece of a tidy, dense, multi-use development.

Southdale was the site for many firsts in shopping mall history. Besides being completely enclosed and climate-controlled, Southdale was also the first United States shopping mall to feature two competing department stores under the same roof, as well as the first to feature original works of art hanging on the walls.

[edit] Southdale Today

Trendz on Top Area located on the Upper Level

While one may expect to find an old and worn-down shopping mall, this is not the case with Southdale. The original Southdale building is in use and still popular. Additions to the original construction have brought the total area of the shopping mall to 1.3 million square feet.

Dayton's original store was gutted in 1991 and turned into more mall space, as a new Dayton's was built behind the old one. The newer store would convert to Marshall Field's in 2001, and then to Macy's in 2006 after a series of acquisitions. Donaldson's later housed a Mervyn's; this space, spanning 179,090 sq. ft. on four levels, is now vacant after a series of store closings in 2006.

In 2002, Southdale Center took on a new look with the completion of two projects: Trendz On Top, an area for the young and fashion savvy shopper, and The District on France, a combination retail, entertainment, and dining experience.

Over 15 million shoppers visit Southdale’s 130 retailers each year. Southdale’s anchor tenants include AMC Theaters (80,927 sq. ft.), J.C. Penney (247,902 sq. ft.), Macy's (formerly Marshall Field's and prior to that Dayton's, 346,795 sq. ft.), and Marshall's (43,533 sq. ft.).

[edit] See also

The Mall of America, located in nearby Bloomington, is said to be the largest shopping mall in the USA. To an extent, the construction of the Mall of America was an impetus for the expansion and remodeling of Southdale Center, as there was considerable fear that the newer mall would kill off the older mall.