Southdale Center

Southdale Center, commonly known as just '''Southdale''', was the first fully-enclosed and completely (opened 1962) in Brooklyn Center , Rosedale Center (opened 1969) in Roseville , and Ridgedale Center (opened 1973) in Minnetonka . The mall is owned by The Mills Corporation .

HISTORY

Southdale was the brainchild of Victor Gruen , an Austrian Emigrant who moved to the United States. It was never his intention to design an icon of capitalism. 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. He modelled the design of Southdale on the arcades of European cities, although his original version was never achieved. Gruen also saw the mall as the centre of a community. When he first drew up the plans for Southdale, he placed the shopping center at the heart of a tidy 463 acre (1.9 km²) development, complete with apartment buildings, houses, schools, a medical center, a park, and a lake. Southdale 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 , Fountain s, Tropical Plant s, 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 .

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 Southdale understood that in the future, consumers would demand convenience and variety. To this end, Southdale 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 up-scale Apparel Store .

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, as well as served as host for charity and community events. Southdale was even the host-site for an episode of the '' Truth Or Consequences '' Game Show . 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. Save for 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 Store s under the same roof, as well as the first to feature original works of art hanging on the walls.

SOUTHDALE TODAY

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.

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 J.C. Penney , Marshall Field's (soon to be Macy's ), and Marshall's .

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.

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