The primary difference I noticed between the indoor mall organization and the design of Newberry Street was the manner in which merchandise was featured from the windows. Throughout the malls, storefront displays appeared in windows that were much larger than human beings. Each store was a microcosmic world, featuring fabrics, accessories, and atmospheres unique to that brand. Looking through an indoor mall vendor's window, one rarely saw more than one object type (e.g. handbags OR dresses OR watches). When a store had shut down, rather than put up a “CLOSED” sign, the mall painted the windows black or built a box around the space so that it became invisible. More than anything, the indoor mall policed its visual output. In contrast, Newberry Street emphasized an unplanned and casual atmosphere. Storefronts often consisted of small windows on the basement floor; however, one could also find large display cases for the high-end stores. Musicians in strange clothes played for money on the sidewalk. More people were walking their dogs. Because a street relies on city police rather than privately contracted security companies, there was less of a sense that someone could be out of place—though at neither location was anything like a formal dress code enforced. Copley Place succeeds as a suburban shopping area in an urban space by duplicating the suburban mall but only selling spaces to high-end vendors. It’s a chique mall, a mall with all the amenities that urban concentrations of resources can afford. They are even putting in a special food court dedicated to Italian food only will be run by a famous chef. Newberry Street, conversely, emphasizes the city layout. Boston brick is everywhere, and interspersed between shops are the occasional homes and schools. Even with often similar stores, these two shopping areas manage to not put each other out of business by maintaining distinct vibes.
Although Newbury Street and Copley Center/Prudential Mall are very different shopping settings, they surprisingly share very similar characteristics. Copley Center and the Prudential Mall are indoor shopping malls with an emphasis on open space and natural lighting, almost imitating an outdoor shopping experience, like at Newbury Street. Shoppers enter Copley Place through either glass skybridges or a glass-covered entryway, which let in natural light, while still sheltering shoppers from the elements. The main arcade is open to the levels above, making it feel big and open. At the very center, a multistory glass atrium with a waterfall allows shoppers to sit on the centrally located benches and enjoy sunlight. Even the smaller, non-open arcades have high ceilings, wide walkways, and bright marble floors. The openness of the arcade seems to be effective as it attracted many pedestrians and was a popular place for convening (especially under the atrium). The design of the mall also has only two main entrances, “forcing” consumers to walk through the entire mall before they can exit. My sketch is a basic floorplan of the mall that shows the design elements of the walkways that make them feel open and allow in light. Although a completely different setting, Newbury Street has striking similarities to the two malls. The street also has very wide sidewalks and light, one-way traffic; it invites pedestrians to walk on it, even if they aren’t shopping. Most of the buildings have multistory bay windows displaying the products and drawing buyers into the stores. Also, the end of the street is the Public Garden, which attracts lots of tourists and park-goers to casually shop on Newbury. Unlike the mall, though, shoppers can “exit” the shopping center at any point by sampling turning off the street at any intersection. My sketch shows the inviting bay windows of the buildings and the wide sidewalks that people can easily walk on.
In my sketches, I sought to portray and accentuate the contrasts between Copley Place, the Prudential Center, and Newbury Street in terms of their roles as public spaces. I chose to create a schematic map of Copley Place to emphasize its claustrophobic feel. I showed how the mall’s only entrances are at its corners, and how it consists essentially of a long, snaking walkway. As I entered the mall at Dartmouth and Stuart Street and walked through, I was struck by Copley Place’s closed atmosphere, underscored by its dark tile floors, elevation changes (the effect of which is that the path is not revealed until you continue to follow it) and relatively low foam ceilings. There is a central atrium where more light comes in, but this plaza is deserted except for a waterfall, and doesn’t serve as a central gathering place. I color-coded the different areas of the mall on my map. I crossed the skybridge to the Prudential Center, which featured glass ceilings (allowing sunlight in), clear signage, and light-colored tile flooring that provided a warmer feeling. The centralized plaza where each shopping arcade converges has kiosks, seating, and is more bustling. And while Prudential Center represents a more cohesive and orderly public space than Copley Place, both pale in comparison to Newbury Street. In my sketch, I depicted the wide sidewalks, orderly pedestrian traffic flow, and store patios that make Newbury an effective commercial and public space. I attempted to capture the street’s signature brick storefronts, wrought-iron fences, and bay windows. I shaded the brick-covered store patios in red to contrast them with the sidewalk on which pedestrians could pass by. Finally, I highlighted the street lamps and trees that further enhance Newbury’s friendliness to pedestrians. Compared to the discrete Copley Place and Prudential Center malls, Newbury is open, with pedestrians free to enter at any block and navigate freely from block to block, and from the Commonwealth Ave promenade past Newbury to Copley Square on the other side.
Interior v.s Exterior The Prudential Center is a complex that decorates the interior as exterior. Glass ceilings, tropical trees and roof gardens all yield a sense of organic nature within the artificial world. The glass ceiling is especially interesting for a shopping mall because normally owners wouldn't want customers to notice the time in reality so as to immerse themselves more (and spend more money) in the mall-world. On the other hand, shops along Newbury Street are mansions whose design has a clear boundary between interior and exterior: roof is not transparent, plants are outside, streetwalkers see only models in the window but no further into the shop, etc. Social Boundary: Top v.s Down The Prudential Center uses height and levitation to delineate the unspoken "class." I circled three levitation - one elevator at the Boylston gate next to Gucci store, one staircase to luxury store Saks Fifth Ave, one gateway to premier cuisine Top of the Hub - in red circles. These design partition social boundaries. The Newbury shops, on the contrary, focus on digging down. A typical shop would have a basement level that serves as a bar, a restaurant, or a bookstore. In line with these mansions' essence as "private territory", Newbury shops deliver a sense of social intimacy. Function Boundary: Mixed v.s Single The Prudential Center mixes a variety of clothing, lifestyle, restaurant and entertainment places organically in its floor plan. They also have little cart selling cellphone cases, hats and local souvenirs in the center of the pathways. There are also resting seats and open snack/dessert space scattered in public area. The Newbury shop, restricted by its much smaller room, endorses one function to one space - for example, clothing shop on the first floor and bar in basement. On the other hand, The Prudential Center restricts all staff area to the customers, while at a Newbury shop, customers see or even interact in the office area. This brings the notion that the Prudential Center (and shopping malls in general) is a "stage" where every shop on set is trying to create a compound experience, ideally a virtual reality. Customers are invited to the virtual reality by the design itself; other customers are also merely experiencers. The Newbury shop (and other street-side shops) gives customers more free will and independence as they browse in-and-out hopping different stores; the design itself is not as seamless and coherent as in the shopping mall. Yet in this case, it is the pedestrians that are coming and going on the street serve as "actors" that complete this commercial experience.
In both Newbury Street and the Prudential Center, the store (commercial space) and the space outside of it are mediated by a storefront. The open, protruding nature of the storefront expose the commercial space to the passersby and display the products on sale; this is the primary design feature that shows the commercial nature of the store to passersby. On Newbury Street, the storefront and sidewalk is separated by an ambiguous space that is neither commercial nor public. The store is separated from the sidewalk by a physical distance of a few meters, and there are separate paths leading up to the doors of each store with a staircase leading to the door. This means that the individual must intentionally make a “commitment” of walking those few meters in order to enter the store. The storefront is elevated, adding to the sense of distance between storefront and sidewalk; there is sometimes even a fence between the two spaces. People rarely linger in this middle space (colored gray in my diagram) unless they are walking to get inside the store. From the viewpoint of the pedestrian, commercial elements stand out and invite one in (such as through the open storefront or the a-frames), but they are not intrusive and require a decision or commitment to engage in consumerist behaviors. However, in the Prudential Center, no such ambiguous middle space exists between the storefront and the rest of the space; the open storefront is in direct contact with the public space of the mall. In fact, the public space of the mall is not truly public, because everyone is a potential consumer and the entire mall is set up around the stores and storefronts; in this sense, even the walkways of the mall are “gray spaces” rather than true public spaces. As a result, people are evenly dispersed through the entire space because there is no extra commitment to entering a store. Another interesting difference between Newbury and Prudential is the spaces where people sit; whereas on Newbury Street, people take any possible space (such as elevated areas on the sidewalk or in front of trees) to sit, the benches are the sole and designated sitting space in the mall. In this setup, people are continually engaged in an activity such as shopping or walking ahead.
The shopping malls of Copley Place and the Prudential Center are very focused on aesthetics as a part of the experience. The area is bright, clean, and certainly not made of cheap materials. As shown in the sketch, the malls have a definite flow to them through large corridors, with smaller walkways branching off to stores and other amenities. There are many changes in elevation throughout the long chain of malls, most of which take visitors to higher elevations allowing for better views of the city when looking outside (including the pedestrian bridges). The malls act mostly as a location for people to shop, but there are also many restaurants and larger social areas for leisure, rather than just walking from store to store. The entrances to the mall sit back further from the street and are made to look grand, and demand a stronger presence on the streets of Boston. While my sketch only shows the large main corridors of the malls, the configuration seems to be main walkways lined with stores, punctuated by larger social gathering areas, restaurants, and cafes. This configuration allows for a balance between the fast paced consumers and those who go there to relax and be social. Newbury Street has a few characteristics that reveal its commercial nature. First of all, unlike the residential buildings along the streets of Boston, the first 1-2 floors of the buildings on Newbury are occupied by stores, mostly with a lot of glass to allow window shopping and to display their inventory. There are also small sitting areas outside of many of the buildings, giving pedestrians and consumers a place to sit, relax, and socialize while still being within the commercial space. Another characteristic is the the sidewalks are much wider than many other streets, allowing for the increased foot traffic that a commercial space would have. Like the stores in Copley Place, the window displays in the shops on Newbury are meant to draw people in, and the close proximity of all the stores replicates the dense nature of a shopping mall. Newbury Street is a part of the larger grid that makes up much of Boston, allowing for easy access from many locations.
Copley Place/Prudential Center Malls I think that the physical space and shape of the connecting malls makes the area seem much larger than it actually may be. This is because it is largely just one long hallway that connects through three buildings. Although the space is not necessarily wide, it is long and tall and therefore gives the perception of a much larger building. This also has to do with the connectivity of the buildings through the pedestrian bridges. The buildings seem to be one rather than separated because you do not have to walk in and out to get from one to the other. However, the entrances and exits to these bridges emulate those of exits to buildings in the sense that they are nearly entirely revolving doors, something very common these days at the entrances/exits of buildings. Another thing that I noticed is that the space is not very handicap accessible. There are lots of little stairs to get from one place to another, escalators, and other handicap challenging obstacles. Other than that, the space is quite open and inviting. The use of tile and limestone as well as bright colors initials a comfortable, pleasant feel of luxury as you make your way past endless designer stores. The long hallways that make up these malls are broken up into smaller sections by larger spaces often shaped as geometrical hexagons. These spaces serve as sitting areas, places for kiosks, food, and other things in order to make you feel like the space is in fact not one large, never ending hallway. Newbury Street There are several aspects of Newbury Street that reveal it as a commercial space, other than the simple fact that the street is lined with commercial retailers. The first I would say is the number of cars that are parked along the street at any given time and the number of people walking around that goes hand and hand with the cars. The large number of cars tells you that this is not a residential area because it is simply too busy to be one. Large numbers of people do not go and hang out in a living community, the hang out where there is fun to be had through a wide variety of things. Another way the area screams commercial is the width of the streets. The wide streets are there to serve the flow of large crowds, something not found in residential areas because there is no need for them. Another aspect is the vast number of small restaurants that line the street with their outdoor, hangout-vibe seating. These restaurants allow people to spend more time shopping without leaving the area to search for meals, increasing the flow of people per day. None of these are unique aspects to have, however. Copley Place/Prudential Center Malls had nearly all of the same characteristics, but the fact the Newbury is located outside sheds the feel of your average mall. Compared to the mall, the entrances/exits to Newbury are very open, as should be expected. There are no restrictions on who can enter or exit and enjoy what the street has to offer.
Copley Place was obviously more high-end than the Prudential Center—which was noticeable through the material that was used and the spaciousness and lightness of the interior. The furnishings of Copley place were either white marble for the hallways between stores or red-brown marble for emphasis in resting areas. It was very brightly lit with a luxurious gold light, with the stores lit especially brightly. The ceiling of Copley Place was very high and the space felt very open, with numerous floors visible from the first floor. They were aesthetically stacked on top of each other, almost evoking a sense of awe. Things did not feel crowded or cramped because the ceiling was so high, and the space very open—the hallways were very wide and the resting area was very spacious, with multiple benches. The ceiling was made entirely of glass, which also added a natural sense of light to the mall. It was a place that one could spend a long time in without feeling stifled. The attempts to add nature or greenery was visible—with potted plants placed along the halls and throughout the floors, with the resting area boasting a wide are of greenery and even a waterfall. This was pointedly different from the Prudential Center, where immediately the passageways were much narrower, and I found myself having to move aside for people. The ceilings were much smaller, the shops much closer together, and I felt a bit claustrophobic. The interior was a more simple white and beige, and the ceilings lower. There was still an attempt to incorporate nature into the interior, but this area was a little removed from the shops, whereas in Copley, it was incorporated into some of the bigger brands. This could be that for Prudential, since it is less high-end than Copley, they want shoppers to actively purchase rather than rest in the middle. The entrance to Copley Place was large and made of glass, with almost a plaza like area outside with statues of horses. Despite the numerous chairs outside, no one was lounging out in the chairs, which also seemed to denote its status. Newbury Street, despite being outdoors also was similarly set up like the indoor shopping districts. The elaborate buildings are all uniform, with some large shopping windows, which display products. There were many sub-basement areas where many cafes and restaurants and outdoor seating spaces were placed to maximize space. A building, made up of three-ish smaller buildings repeated itself down the street, with trees placed regularly, and some of the sub-basement spaces fenced with shrubbery, much like how little spruces of nature was incorporated into the shopping malls. The street however feels a little different from a shopping mall in that the buildings seem like residences. It feels more like a boutique that maintains independence from the other stores and business alongside it, because it seems to have its own independent space, although the buildings are similar. The buildings are also not very modern, and we tend to associate shopping malls with modern furnishings instead of stone embellishments and red-brick, which allows us to somewhat disassociate Newbury Street from a traditional shopping mall.
We entered the mall through the Dartmouth and Stuart Street entrance, where there is a set of revolving doors. (Every outside entrance/exit to the mall had a set of revolving doors, as did one side of each pedestrian sky bridge. I suppose this is to control congestion, should it occur in the mall.) The Copley Place shopping center was highly geometric in its design, with a lot of large cylindrical white supports arranged in triangular shapes (depicted in a kind of sectional way in my map, as I found them interesting). The mall had multiple levels, which seemed to have an effect on the amount of natural light that could reach the ground floor (where we walked). I thought this was handled most interestingly in the area with the waterfall. It was an open space shaped like a polygon with many sides. Looking up, you could see one floor with more shops as well as a level above it that seemed just to be decorative glass. Each floor was shaped slightly differently so that an upper floor did not overhang the one below it so as to restrict its light. Mall patrons, however, did not seem to be utilizing the space as an area to pause - there was a strange smell, perhaps from the coins thrown into the waterfall, that was present, and people did not seem to want to linger on the benches. The Prudential mall, being only one floor of shops, was much more generous with its light. Even the transition between the two malls was distinct; Copley had a dark hallway that ended in a lit area, almost drawing us into the pedestrian walkway that led to the Prudential mall. It instantly felt different - there was a great deal of lush greenery that created almost a greenhouse feel. The pedestrian traffic was also much greater in this area. In both buildings, the floor tiles had a distinct pattern - a lighter tile in the middle of the walkway, and a darker tile on the edges. This might be to guide mall patrons towards the middle of the walkway. The starkest difference between the two areas was definitely the light - the Prudential mall was much better lit with its pitched glass roof. Newbury Street had a much more particular demographic than the mall, which seemed fairly diverse. There were fewer very old and very young people, and people were predominantly white or Asian. We assumed that the upper levels would be largely residential; when we climbed up a fire escape for a roof view, however, we found that the upper level of one building was actually some kind of fashion school office. In my map we only marked the clearly residential buildings as residential; some of the buildings are left uncertain because we thought they might be some kind of gallery or office space. All of the street-level entrances were commercial, but only one large business (Cole Haan, on the far right) seemed to occupy the upper levels as well. Similar to the mall, all of the businesses could be accessed from one level. The sidewalk was very wide, as was the street, which had unidirectional traffic. It seems in some ways that the Prudential mall is imitating Newbury Street and not vice versa, as it is planted in a similar way.
Entering Copley Place through the Galleries of Copley Place is hectic, yet peaceful at the same time. Skyscrapers reach to the sky and cars hurried behind me as I walked across the open brick platform. While on the brick landing, I observed women riding bikes and individuals sitting on benches. This area is an escape from the business of the major roads and the rising buildings. It serves as a popular walking area and promenade. The Copley Place shopping mall is unique in that its traffic flows in circular motions. Like the entrance outside, there is an open landing and sitting areas. Shops line the edges of each floor, layering the inside of this magnificent structure. Lastly, the Boylston Arcade is a hall filled with high-end shops, which attracts many individuals to the well-lit glass structure. Unlike, the Copley entrance and the mall, the public area is a straight avenue of activity. Newbury Street, compared to Copley Place, is similar and different in term of its impact of space and activities that take place. Newbury Street is the iconic avenue in Boston and, on a sunny Saturday afternoon, is bustling with activity. The long straight road, unlike Copley entrance and Copley Place, is lined with shops as well as restaurants on the sidewalks coupled with views of downtown Boston in the background. Similar to Boylston Arcade, citizens pass in near single file masses through the Newbury Street shopping area, which seems hidden and quaint with trees and low buildings.