Building of Southdale
Southdale Mall was built to create a completely new shopping experience. Victor Gruen and his staff found out that in Minnesota there are only 126 days a year where the weather is good for shopping and so they thought it was important to have a climate controlled environment for Southdale.
"We have brought the
outdoors inside...we planned
to make our own "fair and mild "
weather in Southdale every day." ~ Victor Gruen
Because Victor Gruen wanted to create a downtown-like environment, stores were not just for retail. Southdale had a post office, a shoe repair shop, beauty and barber shops, a grocery store, and a children's center and petting zoo. There was a Garden Court atrium with benches and a cafe and many pieces of original commissioned art.
Victor Gruen designed the mall to encourage shopping. One way he did this was by placing the two department stores on opposite ends of the mall so shoppers would have to walk past as many stores as possible to go to both Dayton's and Donaldson's.
Gruen was thoughtful about the outside of the mall as well as the inside space. He designed a sloping road around the mall so half of the shoppers entered on the ground floor and half on the first floor. That became a standard feature of malls today. Underground tunnels were built to eliminate accidents with cars, pedestrians and large trucks in the parking lots. Delivery trucks were not even seen approaching because of a gradual descent to the tunnel from the main road. Ironically, the tunnels built by Leonardo da Vinci for horse-drawn traffic are very similar to the tunnels at Southdale today.
"We have brought the
outdoors inside...we planned
to make our own "fair and mild "
weather in Southdale every day." ~ Victor Gruen
Because Victor Gruen wanted to create a downtown-like environment, stores were not just for retail. Southdale had a post office, a shoe repair shop, beauty and barber shops, a grocery store, and a children's center and petting zoo. There was a Garden Court atrium with benches and a cafe and many pieces of original commissioned art.
Victor Gruen designed the mall to encourage shopping. One way he did this was by placing the two department stores on opposite ends of the mall so shoppers would have to walk past as many stores as possible to go to both Dayton's and Donaldson's.
Gruen was thoughtful about the outside of the mall as well as the inside space. He designed a sloping road around the mall so half of the shoppers entered on the ground floor and half on the first floor. That became a standard feature of malls today. Underground tunnels were built to eliminate accidents with cars, pedestrians and large trucks in the parking lots. Delivery trucks were not even seen approaching because of a gradual descent to the tunnel from the main road. Ironically, the tunnels built by Leonardo da Vinci for horse-drawn traffic are very similar to the tunnels at Southdale today.