Drew Chamberlain

Drew Chamberlain

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.