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Westfield San Francisco Center

SAN FRANCISCO
Westfield mall is mix, mismatch
John King, Chronicle Urban Design Writer

Wednesday, October 4, 2006


If there's such a thing as elegant chaos, that's the goal at the new $450 million mall slapped down in the heart of San Francisco.

Historic landmarks bump against stage-set fakery. Walkways are hanging in air or deliberately askew. There are at least eight types of flooring and four ceiling systems. It feels as though an entire shopping district has been compressed onto a single block.

Ultimately, none of this commotion hides the fact that the much-ballyhooed Westfield San Francisco Centre is a suburban mall putting on airs. But contrived as the result might be, give the architects and developers credit. They've created a carnival of consumerism that won't go stale too soon.

Instead of a typical center's endless vistas, there's carefully choreographed confusion. People surge by in all directions, and escalators slide past the edge of your view. The cross-currents create a stir that suggests something's going on -- despite the brand-name predictability on all sides.

The new mall also serves as a snapshot of what San Francisco has become: a city of bland exteriors and sumptuous interiors, where activities that once were kept apart -- living and working and shopping -- now overlap by design.

The complex, which opened last weekend, contains 1 million square feet of space stretching from Market to Mission streets near Fifth Street. It connects to a 500,000-square-foot mall that opened in 1988 and includes Nordstrom.

Judged strictly by size, the resulting "centre" isn't immense: Southland Mall in Hayward and Sunvalley Mall in Concord each contain nearly as much space as the 1.5 million-square-foot complex marketed as "like no other place."

What's different here is the concentrated mix of uses. Five floors of shops are topped by three stories of office space, while a nine-screen multiplex sits atop the largest Bloomingdale's west of Manhattan. And the basement (sorry, "concourse") features an upscale grocery and food court (sorry, "food emporium").

In other words, not everyone passing through is on a shopping spree. They might be grabbing groceries on the way home, or rushing to a meeting upstairs.

One or two might even be standing still, trying to figure out which pieces of mall are historic and which ones aren't.

Prodded by city officials and preservationists, developers Forest City and Westfield Group kept the most memorable pieces of the Emporium department store that occupied much of the site from 1896 until 1996. The Market Street facade of Colusa sandstone and black cast iron was cleaned and restored, and so was the ornate glass dome inside.

Both of these high-profile icons look great, especially the facade. The neoclassical concoction with its enormous arched entrance has a timelessness that puts the rest of the mall's outer wrapping to shame.

For proof, check out how the mall sits like a box along Jessie and Mission streets. Instead of the old Emporium's robust dignity, we get blank, reddish stucco along the alleys and monotonous modernity along Mission Street, where glass stretches tight around Bloomingdale's and aluminum panels hide the multiplex.

The dome, meanwhile, was raised 58 feet from its original location to float above the fourth-floor junction between the new mall and its older annex, although the retail floors were pulled back from behind the arch to allow a glimpse of the dome from the entrance. You also see the gray columns of the rotunda beneath it; those columns are new, cast from a mold of one of the originals.

The dome and rotunda serve as the hinge that ties the interior layouts together. The rotunda marks the spot where old meets new -- where the original mall connects to the larger addition, and where the faux-historic trappings give way to emphatic contemporary pizzazz.

It's also where the shop-lined path leading to Bloomingdale's intersects the piazza-like arrangement of shops and restaurant near Market Street. But that piazza doesn't parallel the surrounding streets -- it's at a 15 degree angle.

The same desire to mix things up is seen in the mall's interior details. For example, the office space framing the rotunda is clad in gray glass, while other upper floors hide behind red granite. Not only is the approach to Bloomingdale's topped by a glass roof, the walkway on one side is a cantilevered "bridge" separated from the storefronts by a 3 -foot-wide slit of air.

The aim is to evoke "a building made of buildings" according to Vince Zawodny, vice president of design for Westfield. His former firm RTKL designed the mall interior; Kohn Pederson Fox designed the center's Mission Street glass-and-aluminum wall. The firm overseeing the different elements was Ka Architecture of Cleveland.

"We wanted an experience that reflects the complexity of the city," Zawodny said before the opening. "We wanted to reflect that this is not just a machine for selling."

Except, of course, that it is.

Look past the gawkers and shoppers, the sleek storefronts and the shiny stainless-steel escalators, and what you see is a mall working hard to be like the hectic city outside. But the developers and 170 tenants don't want a building that causes shoppers to pause in contemplation.

They want hubbub and high sales.

The tackiest example of how marketing trumps design is the way mall operator Westfield already is cramming merchandising tools into every inch of space. Remember I said you can see the dome from the Market Street entrance? Actually, part of the view is blocked -- by a tall metal signboard at rotunda level telling us about a store that's not yet open.

The signboard and similar clutter can be removed, but the moral of the story won't change. A mall is a mall is a mall -- even one that's "like no other place."

E-mail John King at jking@sfchronicle.com.

The old emporium building gutted with just facade and dome preserved.


The restored facade


The restored dome










The new behind


The new interiors

grantboston

Man, I remember going by this building over the past few years and it seemed like they've been working on this forever. Glad to hear it's finished. Looks great.

__________________
"The world is a book; those who do not travel read but a single page." -St. Augustine

kenc

It may have the same mix of retailers as suburban malls, but I think this is a very urban space. It's beautiful and I would give anything if we had an attraction like this in Downtown Dallas.

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Barneys likely to give already bustling Union Square retailers lift
George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 18, 2007

It's not a scientific analysis, but from her office window overlooking Union Square, retail consultant Ellen Magnin Newman can pretty well measure the district's economy by counting shopping bags.

"After the dot-com bubble burst and 9/11, I would look out the window and see no one on the streets," said Newman. "Now I look out and see armloads of packages. There's a babble of tongues. There's been constant growth of the area, probably since 2005."

San Francisco retailers were in economic quicksand five years ago, and while recovery has taken its own sweet time, there has been a burst of new stores of late, particularly in the luxury category. One of the most noteworthy additions will come this week with the opening Wednesday of Barneys New York, the very stylish luxury specialty store, in the Union Square area.

Others are coming: De Beers, the jeweler, will open kitty-corner to Shreve & Co. on Post Street this winter; Prada, the couture designer clothier, will move from Geary Street to larger quarters in the old, long-vacant Brooks Brothers building on Post Street after the first of the year; and designer Helmut Lang plans a luxury shop for Maiden Lane, to name a few. They're joining a parade of luxury brands established in Union Square and in the San Francisco Centre.

"Considering how small San Francisco is, we are second strongest for the retail market in the country," meaning second only to New York in gross sales for many retailers, said Vikki Johnson, a principal at the San Francisco real estate firm Johnson Hoke Ltd., which is focused on Union Square.

Johnson, who brokered the transactions for Barneys, the H&M store on Powell Street and De Beers, said the flurry of business reflects San Francisco's recovery and unusual concentration of customer bases within a five-block radius - hotel districts south of Market Street and west of Union Square, the theater district, convention and business districts and, increasingly, upscale residential options, all within an easy walk to and from Union Square and the Westfield San Francisco Centre.

"I think Barneys and H&M are two of the most significant deals in the San Francisco market," said Johnson, "bringing in a brand-new component in both categories, luxury (Barneys) and midpriced (H&M)."

Barneys New York is the buzz du jour. It has taken over the old Joseph Magnin building at Stockton and O'Farrell streets where, real estate sources say, the company is spending $35 million to gut and transform the space into a temple of fashion.

Howard Socol, Barneys New York board chairman and chief executive officer, said the company does not disclose such figures, but he said the business plan in San Francisco is to create "a jewel box, not a mega-size store but a specialty store."

The store's new address certainly has plenty of history behind it.

In its first life, the 1907 building at 77 O'Farrell St. (also given the address of 48 Stockton St.) housed the Newman & Levinson Fancy Goods Store. In 1914, Joseph Magnin, in his first and only commercial real estate transaction, leased the building and bought the company. The store bore his name at midcentury and was an iconic San Francisco clothier and purveyor of jewelry and other fine goods until its sale in 1970. From 1989 until 2003, it was the San Francisco flagship of FAO Schwarz until the upscale toy retailer was trounced by cheaper mass discounters.

Ellen Magnin Newman, now "more than 70," grew up in the building her grandfather had taken over, playing retail merchant with her brother, Donald, and worked there until it was sold. She said she couldn't be happier with its new lease on life.

"It's a very lively company, interesting, exciting," she said of Barneys New York. "It's much better than a toy store.

"There was a time and a place for Joseph Magnin, and there was a time and a place for it to go away," she said.

Competition awaits Barneys, whether it be from Wilkes Bashford Co., Neiman Marcus or Saks Fifth Avenue, at the higher-end price points, but retailers like Richard Horne, the president of Shreve & Co., think that's a good thing.

"Long run, it's healthy. Brings in more shoppers," Horne said of Barneys' entry into the market and competition.

Shreve's business itself this year is 20 percent higher than its pre- 9/11 sales, said Horne. That reflects the region's recovery, the health of the luxury category and an infusion of European visitors who, with the U.S. dollar weakened, can buy luxury items for less than they can at home.

Sales tax figures from the San Francisco controller's office help tell the tale: For the 12 months ended March 31, San Francisco's 1 percent share of sales tax collected by Union Square merchants was $11.7 million. That compares with $10.3 million for the same period in 2006 and $9.1 million in 2005. Of those totals, sales tax from apparel stores in the district produced $3.8 million for the year ended March 31; $3.2 million in the same period in 2006; and $2.6 million in 2005.

Citywide, San Francisco collected nearly $121 million for the year ended in March, and of that, $11 million was from sales in apparel stores, trailing only restaurants and miscellaneous retail. The citywide figure was $114.5 million in 2006 and $105.7 million in 2005.

"That's very healthy and shows a rebound in our local economy," said Todd Rydstrom, director of budget and analysis at the controller's office.

Economic fundaments bode well for continued growth in retail and for hotels, said Rick Swig, chief executive of RSBA & Associates, a hotel and resort consultancy in San Francisco.

"The last cycle, in 2000, was built with the smoke and mirrors of the dot-coms. This cycle, with technology and the biotech world, is firmly based on a solid foundation, and in the national corporate economy, business is good," said Swig. "When business is good, companies send people to conferences. San Francisco is among the top five conference destinations."

San Francisco hotels are prospering, compared with the downturn of 2001-2003, when occupancy sank to around 60 percent or less. In June, the occupancy rate in Union Square/Moscone Center hotels was 81.7 percent, compared with 80.6 percent a year ago, according to PKF Consulting in San Francisco, which tracks the industry.

At the Handlery Union Square Hotel, the rate was 97.5 percent in August, said Jon Handlery, the general manager.

"A lot of that is the shopping - and people seeing 'Jersey Boys,' " said Handlery. "It's the best shopping, almost equal to New York. ... That sells people on coming to San Francisco rather than Los Angeles."

Is such a wealth of high-end shops in a concentrated area off-putting to some? "I think not for the San Francisco market," said Linda Mjellem, executive director of the Union Square Association, representing retailers and other stakeholders. "And I think not for the San Francisco visitor. Our niche is in luxury," she said of the square, "and we have grown eclectically with the addition of these stores that cater to a younger, edgier market."

Barneys is a good fit, said retail consultant Helen Bulwick of New Market Solutions in Oakland, "because it is great fashion apparel, high quality, urban and young, and there's nothing comparable on the square."

Barneys is known for - in addition to women's shoes - establishing relationships with and encouraging young designers and catering to, as chief executive Socol put it, "great customers who favor fabulous luxury goods."

The price points are many, noted Michael Celestino, Barneys' executive vice president and director of stores, from $95 sneakers to $10,000 suits - and much more than that for select designer women's items. The average age of Barneys' customers is mid-30s to early 40s, but "it's much less about age than it is about attitude," he said, that being "a fashion intelligence, a fashion sense."

E-mail George Raine at graine@sfchronicle.com.