I began my observatory journey at the Galleries at Copley place at Dartmouth and Stuart Streets with my eyes and ears open. I noticed the stores within Copley Plan to be very high end and accordingly protected with security guards watching for shoplifters and photographers. The tile floor was laid out in a way that kept foot traffic moving just as a two way road. The old fashion, yet elegant marble floors on other parts of the walkways aligned with the upscale stores. There was a noticeable lack of natural light in this space - maybe something they are addressing in the current construction. As I moved on through the footbridge to the Presidential Center Mall- I felt a different energy. For one, I became very warm due to the inflow of natural sunlight. I did my best to portray these open ceilings and facades in my drawing. I found Prudential Center to be much busier with professionals on their lunch/coffee breaks, tourists, moms with toddlers. There were less security guards and more inviting storefronts and employees promoting samples. Exits to streets are very well marked on signage. Many benches and the large foodcourt provide great seating and meeting places. I walked through during the lunch hour and the place was bustling. The Newbury Street commercial area between Gloucester and Dartmouth had a different feel and look for a few obvious reasons. Newbury Street feels less like a mall and more like a neighborhood. However, signage, advertisements, window displays, etc. help to reveal that it is indeed a commercial space. While I am not positive, it seems as though there are many apartments above the store levels. Many stores have advertisements and mannequins in the windows and signs on the sidewalks to replicate the experience of a shopping mall. However, the signage is all very uniform and understated- probably due to city restrictions of type, height, size and brightness of signage to preserve the historic nature of the area.
After understanding that the objective is to attempt to make an argument about the space of study, I really focused on elements regarding the way people behave and interact in these locations. For Copley Place I immediately noticed that it is low population density and very elegant. The stores had security guards and there were also mall guards. The primary language heard in this location was english, and the movement of people was limited. People also carried fewer bags from their purchases in this location. This varied greatly with Prudential Center. Prudential center had a lot of people walking in a small area. The population density was way higher. More tourists(foreign languages spoken) were evident. People also came to shop in greater amounts as people had more bags. Security did not seem to be as prevalent. Finally, in mapping Newbury Street, I decided to map the amount of trash cans and fancy cars. The stores are literally located in the urban landscape. The trash cans in excess help reduce trash and maintain a pleasing location. I also abstractly depicted population density by creating a bell curve showing the population density on each segment of the street.
Everything about Copley Place screams upscale. From the sign out in front of the mall in the mini-plaza to the advertisements everywhere for the mall itself, as one of many Simon malls, to the fancy salmon-colored stone stairs to the shiny gold elevators and the waterfall in the middle of the atrium, not to mention the glass ceilings that allow for a ton of natural light in the small space in the city. The walkways are fairly wide, with a consistent stone pattern. There are few kiosks. Each store has its own exterior wall finish; the walls of the mall itself are not visible until you go down the path towards the restrooms and the parking. All of these spatial factors are reinforced by the signage. There is a code of conduct posted at the bottom of the escalator, a sign welcoming guests in seven different languages, and free Boston Common magazines in the center of the mall. All of this makes Copley Place enjoyable and accessible to only a certain type of customer: one with money to burn and a strong desire to shop. There aren’t many people milling about and the windows aren’t really big enough to permit for window shopping. Newbury Street is entirely different in character. The sidewalks are bustling with people, including those working the street for their causes. This kind of political advocacy is explicitly banned in Copley Place. The stores are a mixture of retail and grocery/general goods stores. What makes this street clearly commercial is the uniformity of it all. The buildings are all the same height, and often the same red brick with matching roofs. Trees are planted a specific distance apart. There is ample sidewalk room and trash bins, as well as lights for night. Once one steps off Newbury, the buildings again soar to higher, differing heights, the buildings aren’t made of brick anymore and there aren’t trees lining the one-way street.
First, the indoor shopping malls, Prudential and Copley Place: these malls, while indoors, attempt to achieve a sense of the outside. In the Prudential, most of the ceilings are made of glass, and in Copley, in the main courtyard there is a water feature that rises several stories tall. Glass is utilized in both to create a sense of transparency and luminance. The walkway again mirrors this mission, although was broken up abruptly by support stanchions that added a lot of weight to the environment. For both malls, the entrances require the visitor to go up an escalator (or elevator). The elevated nature of the buildings perhaps prevents "unwanted" visitors (i.e. the homeless). However, there were many paths that met in the form of courtyards with ample seating. In contrast, Newbury street is a straight line. There is little to no seating, replaced by many trees. One could almost compare it to the malls, as the buildings themselves served as malls and the sky the ceiling. There is much signage to illustrate the commercial element of this space (just like in a mall), but there is a more authentic, lived-in feel. Yet the entrances also require the visitor to walk up or down steps. Despite being totally different environments, the malls and Newbury have mirrored properties as commercial spaces.
My sketches of the Prudential Center Mall and Newbury Street were stills of sections of each area. For the Prudential Center Mall, I chose to sketch a small section of the large and elaborate mall. The section I chose felt to me like the most representative section of the feeling I had walking around the mall. This section, just past the center of the main mall, included several clean, very upscale stores, benches that allowed people to sit, and wide-open sky lights along the entire ceiling, as this area was above the street level. While walking around the mall, I noticed how bright, clean, and white many of the stores were, and how the fact that everything was at least one floor above street level made everything feel removed from the dirt and business of the city. There were benches and large walking spaces throughout the mall, to encourage pedestrians to roam and rest throughout the mall. Although the mall was very different than the hustle and bustle of Newbury Street, both had several elements in common which allowed them to be major commercial spaces. They both had large storefronts with a lot of windows to encourage shoppers to come into the stores. They both also had visible brand signs over every store entrance, to attract customers. Both also had large walkways for pedestrians, which allowed large crowds to roam around the commercial area. However, Newbury Street was unique in that it was also a place with a lot of vehicular traffic in the streets. The storefronts on Newbury Street were all unique, as they were individual buildings as opposed to one continuous mall. Above each storefront, there were also apartment complexes, which allowed integration of the commercial and residential lives. The entrances to the storefronts were also very interesting, as they were usually either slightly above or below street level, which again allowed the commercial aspect of the stores to be slightly removed from the street. Overall, I feel like I gained an appreciation for the effects of design for commercial spaces.
As spaces designed to promote commercial activities, the Prudential Center/Copley Place and Newbury Street serve an identical, core purpose to this area of downtown Boston. However, upon examination and observation of the two spaces, it became clear that the vastly different design of the spaces allows these spaces to develop a character and pattern of interaction distinct from each other. In particular, two aspects of these commercial spaces stood out to me: 1) The use of structural geometries, colors, and symbol to both frame and establish identity for a space, 2) the effect impediments, whether natural or artificial, have on pedestrian flow and promoting specific behaviors in the space. When I entered the Prudential Center/Copley Place, I immediate noticed the sharp geometries that framed the space. From the shape of the space’s corridors to the “arches” that frame them, the polygonal shapes predominated this environment. These polygonal “arches” are demonstrated the sketch, and serve to frame and encapsulate the space within this artrium­like hallway. Although Newbury Street did not contain the same pronounced geometries, it did distinguish itself from the surrounding neighborhood with color, distinctly the reddish brick that was on nearly every building. The aspect of the spaces that I most vividly recall was the ease (or lack thereof) at which I was able to move throughout the space. While both spaces were occupied by a non­trivial amount of other individuals, the design of Newbury Street lent itself to a more natural, unobstructed pedestrian flow, than in the Prudential Center. The linear nature of Newbury Street allowed pedestrians to walk in a manner in which they were only obstructed by cars and each other.Whereas, in the Prudential Center, it was as if there was always something “artificially placed” in the way of movement such as a kiosk or the sinuous, seemingly endless corridors. One of these “obstructions” which I found fascinating and try to convey in my sketch was the use of artificially placed nature, such as trees, flowers, etc. When comparing the two spaces, it was interesting how the placement of trees can be used to complement pedestrian flow along the shops (Newbury Street), or can be used as an obstacle to redirect flow to shops and places of commerce.
The malls and Newbury Street perform similar functions in notably different ways. While the malls are very clearly highly designed and decorated (with patterns on the walls, floors and ceilings), Newbury Street has rustic and authentic infrastructure, with some modifications that create a commercial space. For example, the streets are exceptionally clean and fairly even. There are trees at regular intervals which have lights on them and this adds to the feel that the area has been somewhat contrived to create a commercial space. While the malls have central areas for people to stop and sit, Newbury street does not have any seating areas and so the pavement itself is mainly for people to pass the shops and see what is available. The malls are somewhat more exclusive due to being physically enclosed with rotating doors on all the entrances. While Newbury Street is not physically a closed space, it still feels quite exclusive due to the high-end shops and clear signs of wealth. While both the malls and the street use posters for advertising, the malls had the posters all over the outside of the shops and the street had them only stuck in some of the windows or on little signs outside the front. The street’s advertising was more subtle. The mall had designated green areas and then street had the trees, as well as some bushes in front of some of the shops. However, while people were able to sit in the green areas in the malls, they were not able to do so on the street and so they functioned in different ways.
My map of Newbury Street is actually a combination of multiple segments of Newbury: the image of the street and walkways depict the segment between Gloucester and Dartmouth, where the storefronts, which are former residential spaces turned commercial, are abutted by small, gated gardens. This street segment however is disjointed from its actual location and is instead depicted as adjoining to Boylston, which runs along the Boston Public Garden. I did this in light of our recent discussions concerning how the pastoral appeal of natural gardens attracts society’s upper classes—exactly the type of people who would do their shopping in a high-end commercial space like Newbury Street. My map also depicts a bold black line of storefronts, with the shop entryways marked by blue lines. This demonstrates the vague sense of separation and inaccessibility that I—a person who does not typically shop such high-end brands—felt while passing through the space. In comparison, the shops in Copley Center, which were for the most part just as high-end as those on Newbury, felt somewhat more accessible because of the casual, communal nature of shopping malls. Because I felt more integrated into the atmosphere, I was more comfortable entering into a high-end store in Copley than I would have been entering into an equally pricy store on Newbury. The mall also featured multiple layers of elevated walkways and various overlapping shopping levels, which were easily accessible by a series of escalators, elevators, and staircases that connected all the traffic areas in a somewhat complex network. The walkways were wide, and the high ceilings and glass architecture contributed to a sense of spaciousness that is often associated with affluence. The Copley equivalent to Newbury’s small front yard gardens was its central atrium, an area with a water feature and live plants, surrounded by seating. Prudential had a similar parallel: its large outdoor courtyard, which features a grassy area, trees, and a fountain. Interestingly, the transition from Copley to Prudential brought about some noticeable atmospheric changes. The walkways of Prudential were narrower and divided down the center by kiosks selling cheap wares. The shops were also more diverse and slightly less high-end than Copley’s, although this may have been a false perception influenced by the less grand atmosphere of the Prudential shopping center, and also the fact that some commercial spaces were empty due to construction.
I visited Newbury Street before I visited the malls and was immediately intrigued by its spatial feel. It feels very wide and light in comparison to most streets so I attempted to do a sketch that would capture that essence in some way. I decided that the best way to organize my sketch was by height, because I believe that this street’s width in combination with its relatively low height. I was also interested in the way that people move through this space, in a generally linear fashion down one side of the street, entering stores of interest. Upon going to Copley Place mall, I realized that the large, two story corridor was constructed using many of the same principles. It provides for a large amount of open space between the stores and people move about the space in roughly the same way. That is, it is a sort of promenade that forces people to walk past all of the shops to get to the one they want to find. The Shopping spaces are both linear, seemingly designed to maximize the amount of interface a shopper has with the storefronts they are passing. The wide open spacing and large amount of natural lighting also make these shopping spaces much more enjoyable. The mall also has less seating options than Newbury Street, making it ultimately a very dynamic place. While one can either promenade or sit and enjoy the space on Newbury Street, they are almost forced into shopping by the very construction of the mall.
For these sketches, I emphasized the changes in elevation in the two different shopping areas. I thought it was interesting how while one might imagine an indoor mall to have shopping on multiple levels, the more traditional shopping on Newbury Street actually makes use of shopping on various levels as well. There are the street level shops with entrances at sidewalk level, but there are also shops upstairs from these and often shops below sidewalk level as well. In addition, in both the Copley Place mall and on Newbury Street, there is additional office space located above the retail levels. In the photos that I have also included alongside my sketches, you can see that the mall is characterized by large escalators and a waterfall in the atrium that highlights the enormity of the shopping on its three levels. In comparison, there are certainly no escalators on Newbury Street, and the change in elevation is subtler, the entrances to subterranean shops often hidden behind railings and shrubbery. Storefronts in the mall are large and imposing. For example, you can see that the Barney’s storefront is meant to invoke a sense of elegance and grandeur in the shopper’s mind. In comparison, the shops on Newbury are subtler, often with only a limited square footage of window and floor space to showcase their products. Overall, I think that both forms of shopping make good use of space by having shopping on multiple levels. However, you can tell that the mall was specifically built with room to showcase lots of advertisements and products in each store whereas on Newbury Street, retailers have to make do with a limited amount of floor and window space to draw the customer in.