Land+Living: Downtown Mauled

Commentary, Urban — November 10, 2004 Posted by James

Victoria Gardens: suburban mall impersonates a town center in Rancho Cucamonga

This former agricultural center 50 miles east of Los Angeles was once home to sprawling groves and vineyards, but has been more recently known for the sprawl of big-box mini-malls and cookie cutter tract homes. Now a new development seeks to be the downtown that Rancho Cucamonga, California has never had.

The New York Times saw fit to cover the opening of this new mall, so we figured that it was worth the 40 minute drive to check it out. City planners had originally envisioned a more traditional mall, but the developers had a bold idea that breaks many (though not all) of the rules of the typical mall development. The idea behind Victoria Gardens is not new, pseudo-historic town centers are the core of most New Urbanist neighborhoods, but here it has been inserted into an existing tract home city.

The name of this mall betrays its form; all of the shops are located along an urban grid of streets open to vehicular traffic, complete with parking meters and sidewalks. Parking lots and service areas located in the center of the blocks, much like a traditional American town. "Victoria Gardens" fails to provide a hint of the urban space that has been created, or perhaps this was an intentional move to calm local residents who may fear density.

Link: Victoria Gardens
Article: New York Times - A Different Sort of Mall for a California Town
Reference: Downtown Mauled - Part II

Developer: Forest City Enterprises with Lewis Retail Centers
Masterplan and Design Concept/Design Architect: Field Paoli
Executive Design Architect: Altoon & Porter
Executive Architect: KA Architects
Design Architect: Elkus Manfredi Architects
Landscape Architect: SWA Group

Rancho Cucamonga, California

The feeling is supposed to create the sense of a small town Main Street, and in this respect, the designers have succeeded. There is an unmistakably Disney theme park feel complete with piped in music and historically themed detailing and architecture, but the developers insist that they have not created a theme park.

The point is well taken, we understand that above the stores are leaseable office space and housing components are planned for the periphery of the property. In addition, there are some elements of “grit” on display, the infrastructure and services are not necessarily hidden away.

North Main Street

Urban space in suburbia

Mauling the Mall

Variations of scale

However, we would argue that Victoria Gardens is a physical manifestation of the kind of “reality” displayed in reality television shows. The designers have created a carefully scripted and edited version of “reality” that is very much manipulated and controlled. While the concept behind the mall is in many ways innovative and groundbreaking, it has been veneered with a saccharine layer of history to create the illusion of a place which never existed.

That is not to say that we necessarily dislike Victoria Gardens, we actually feel that it is successful on a number of levels. While we could wish for even more innovation, we are rather encouraged by the fact that developers seem more willing to take risks beyond the tried and true forms of retail development, even though relying on the crutch of historicism.

The central "Town Square"

Applied history

Historical markers recount local lore

TO BE CONTINUED
In Part II we will review more of the specifics of the architecture and space, and delve a bit further into this idea of private development masquerading as public space.

4 comments

Comments (4)

Hector D — November 16, 2004

Your pictures suggest that that place look really nice?

Denise Fuchs — March 20, 2005
great pictures

The information you provided is outstanding. My daughter was to make a model of Victoria Gardens Mall. The photos you included were extremely helpful.

Sarah — December 30, 2005
Cool

My father worked on that mall. He developed it.

Matthew West — October 20, 2009
Downtown Cucamonga High Rise Towers

I live in Rancho Cucamonga and I love downtown. I live in the Alta Loma District of Rancho Cucamonga which is in the northwest portion of the city. The freeway onramp is two blocks from my house. Exit a few ramps down on Day Creek Blvd. and there you are. Pull into the parking structure and get everything done in one trip. Just one block away there is a Henry's Grocery Store that I do my food shopping at on my way home. It is a great design, very accessible. The next phase of the mall is a very significant one for the city. It takes a more vertical approach to the mixed-use design. The mall will add five levels of luxury condos above the shops along both North and South Main Streets. The parking lots and service areas inside the retail blocks will be replaced with shared parking structures for the existing retail and for the future condos. The outside ocean of parking that surrounds the mall will also go through a large transformation. This parking lot is divided into a total of 13 parcels. Every one of the massive single level parking lots will be replaced with multiple mixed-use high rise condo and office towers with shared parking structures. The first two towers will be located in the AMC Theater and the JC Penny parking lots. They will be 12 stories tall with taller projects coming in future phases. Future tower projects will fill in the other 11 high rise building lots. These towers will be even taller, probably with a height of 20 + stories. Just one of these 11 parcels can fit in a five star luxury hotel with a parking structure. That is how much room there is here. This is where the tallest buildings in the city will be located creating a downtown skyline for the city of Rancho Cucamonga. This new downtown expansion plan has huge corporate headquarter potential due to the high end retail, restaurants, offices, and condos. The new urbanism design and the California High Speed Rail Station in Ontario will also help attract class A office buildings. Thanks to the Rancho Cucamonga Fire District who finally raised the building heights from 5 to 12 stories, thus expanding our local economic potential. Future Cucamonga Fire District expansions will make much taller towers more feasible, similar to the city of Ontario's Office District which will see towers as tall as 40 floors constructed in the years to come. Ontario's Fire District has been handling high rise towers for years now. Rancho is just getting in the game. All in all, these two cities will become very vertical places along with the rest of the Inland Empire's burgeoning cities such as: Riverside, San Bernardino, Chino Hills, Fontana, and Palm Springs.