Horton Plaza is a 5-level outdoor shopping mall located in downtown San Diego and remarkable for its bright colors, architectural tricks and odd spatial rhythms. It stands on 6 and a half city blocks and is adjacent to the city's historic Gaslamp District. The Mall, an out-of-town shopping centre at Patchway, near Bristol, England. ... San Diego County in the Southwest corner of California. ...

Horton Plaza was the $140M centerpiece of a downtown redevelopment project run by the Hahn Company, and is the first example of architect Jon Jerde's so-called "experience architecture". When it opened in August 1985, it was a risky and radical departure from the standard paradigm of mall design. Its mismatched levels, long one-way ramps, sudden dropoffs, dramatic parapets, shadowy colonades, cul-de-sacs, and brightly painted facades create an architectural experience in dramatic contrast to the conventional wisdom of mall management. This is more than a matter of taste. Conventional malls are designed to reduce ambient sources of psychological arousal, so the customers' attention is directed towards merchandise. By making the mall an attraction in itself, Jerde stood this model on its head. The result feels much less manipulative. Jon Jerde is an American architect based in Venice Beach California, principle of the Jerde Partnership and known for innovative mall design and experience architecture. After 13 years in the mall business working for others, Jerdes first big break was the 1977 design for Horton Plaza in downtown San... 1985 is a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Horton Plaza was an instant financial success, with 25 million visitors in the first year. Twenty years after opening, it continues to generate the city's highest sales-per-square foot, in the range of $600-$700. From an urban planning standpoint, Horton Plaza is a civic asset that generates pedestrian traffic and shares it with a number of contiguous destinations, paving the way for the revitalization of the Gaslamp District. According to its web site, the mall has been "hailed locally and nationally as an overwhelming success since its opening in August 1985, winning dozens of awards in design, architecture and urban development." It is now owned by The Westfield Group. An entrance to a typical Westfield Shoppingtown Westfield Shoppingtown in Chatswood, New South Wales The Westfield Group is an Australian-owned company that owns shopping centres in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. ...

External links

• an evolution of the shopping mall urban form, with pictures of Horton Plaza (http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/soc/shoppingcenter.html)