Back to the Future of Retail

The building of Irvine Spectrum is an age-old tale.

By Terence Loose

W

hen Phase Two of The Irvine Company’s Irvine Spectrum Center opens late this summer, creating half a million square feet of entertainment/retail space where once only bean fields resided, there will be parking for almost 6,000 cars. That’s over twice the number required by the city. A bit optimistic? Probably. But still realistic. Following the enormous success of 1995’s Phase One, which has as its anchor tenant the massive Edwards 21 Cinemas (a156-square-foot megaplex complete with a 3-D IMAX theatre), center planners learned it’s best to be prepared.

Just ask Rob Elliott, senior vice president of urban planning and design for The Irvine Company. “We opened Phase One parked to code and we had to add 1,000 more spaces almost immediately,” he says. On the weekends, shuttles brought people in from distant parking lots.

But, in a time when it seems there’s only a restaurant and a theatre on every corner but more retail than you can shake a gold card at as well, how can one center draw in so many people—and their wallets? Basically, by promising them more than just a chance to buy a new handbag or coat. In the past few years, planners and developers have come to the realization that to merely offer more of the same doesn’t warrant spending $65 million (Phase Two’s estimated cost) on creating more shopping space. In today’s world of $200 million Titanics and 56K modems, nothing short of an event will do.

Case-in point: the $50 million Phase One of the Irvine Spectrum Center. When it opened in late 1995, The Irvine Company touted not its retail offerings, but the fact that the world’s largest movie complex was coming. Next on the center’s attraction list was a 15,000-square-foot Sega City featuring interactive arcade games and virtual reality experiences. In fact, the hard-goods content, which aside from a Barnes & Noble superstore, is mainly housed in courtyard kiosks, took a back seat to the Moorish/North African-inspired architecture. The thought at the time was that visitors without a mission to buy a new shirt or the latest Dean Koontz novel or even a personal pizza would come for the fun of it. Eventually, after a few hours of bedazzlement in a Moroccan courtyard, they’d leave in a Spectrum T-shirt with a Wolfgang Puck doggy bag and two bestsellers.

The goal, said The Irvine Company’s Retail Division President Rick Evans at the time, was “to create a place where people go for an experience, in the way Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade and Laguna Beach’s Downtown attract people. With the Entertainment Center (now named the Irvine Spectrum Center) we’re just creating an interesting place to go. Because, if you’re going shopping for a coat to keep warm, you won’t visit very often. But, if you’re going because you like the experience, you’ll be back again and again. It’s about entertaining.”

With five million visitors spending $55 million annually at the center, by any standard, it’s a resounding retail success.

Besides the big bucks, that success opened up a world of architectural possibilities for Phase Two. “Definitely, the success of phase one allowed us to do more with this phase,” says Elliott. “Our work was justified. Tenants saw that we knew what we were doing and had faith.” An interesting way to put it, since the inspiration for Phase Two is a place with great religious and spiritual significance: Spain’s Alhambra, the 13^th century-built Moorish citadel which overlooks the city of Granada. The fortress, made up of many buildings connected by grand courtyards, has always been revered as an architectural masterpiece—a feat made more impressive by the fact that at the time of its creation, Europe was hopelessly lost to the Dark Ages. The Moorish kings of Spain, however, were building with focused passion. Presiding over delicate arcades and majestic columns are vaulted ceilings decorated with detailed carvings in marble, alabaster and glazed tile. Then, of course, there is the water. It is everywhere, in the form of reflecting pools, fountains, runnels. . .In fact, it’s said that the ripple of fountains can be heard anywhere inside the citadel’s walls. It’s the sound of the Moor’s offerings to Allah—as desert nomads, water was the most precious commodity they knew.

All this was not lost on Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren, who spent two days at the Alhambra in late 1996 to study its architecture (he also toured Seville, Cordoba and Granada). He says he found a strong historic connection between the architecture of Southern Spain and Southern California. “Some of our earliest structures were designed and constructed with the oversight of early Spanish settlers. These buildings were wonderfully simple and with a form, shape, special relationship and color that were both functional and appealing,” says Bren. They, like the buildings he found in Southern Spain, were buildings which remained functional and appealing even after centuries. “They fit here,” Bren continues, “in part because our topography and climate are similar to the Mediterranean area of Southern Spain.”

Bren was so awed, he immediately instructed Elliott and his team to use the Alhambra as inspiration for Irvine Spectrum Center’s Phase Two—a move that didn’t exactly flood Elliott with excitement. “At first,” admits Elliot, who holds a master’s degree in urban design and landscape architecture from Harvard, “we weren’t sure about the idea. It was hard to see. But that’s what has always amazed me about Don—his vision. Don saw the variety of architectural styles, from Moorish and Renaissance to Medieval, and he saw that we could use that to our benefit in creating energy. He saw they offered choice and range, not constraints.” Plus, he says with a sly smile, he knew that once Don Bren has a vision, he doesn’t let it go easily. So, Elliot started doing research, a lot of it. The goal was to learn about the history of the people who built the citadel—their inspirations, their passions, their beliefs. He knew he needed a clear vision himself if he was to create something lasting at Spectrum.

In Phase One, the mission was obvious from the start: Incorporate a lively atmosphere that’s inviting and isn’t overshadowed by the mammoth, 153,000-square-foot Edwards building (Edwards had their own team build the cinemas). To do that, Elliott turned everything inward toward a courtyard and designed all the buildings at 150 percent so they “didn’t look like a bunch of ducklings around a mother hen. In the first phase,” he says, “we had the theater as a starting point; it was there, we had to work with it. So in Phase Two, it’s important to have the Alhambra as that starting point. It’s impossible to create a sense of place without a strong central theme that everyone on the project clearly understands. It’s the only way to pass Don Bren’s acid test for a project, which is ‘Does it have integrity?’ He’s a bulldog on making sure we’re realizing the vision; every nuance most measure up,” says Elliott.

That does not mean, however, that The Irvine Company is bringing the revered Alhambra—cracked clay brick and all-to the confluence of the 405 and 5 freeways. “I bristle every time I read somewhere that we’re trying to bring the Alhambra to the Spectrum,” says Elliott. “We’re not. We’re just using it as a guide. We’re learning from something that was built centuries ago and is still inspirational.”

Anyone driving south on the 405 past Irvine Center Drive couldn’t deny something inspired is going up. Towering, uneven brown block walls ensure that Phase Two will be a magnet for a wide range of commentaries if not shoppers. But interestingly, the walls are not the major architectural focus of the project. For the walls are only defining characteristics to the real reason for using the Alhambra as a template: The courtyards. As Bren says, “I was particularly attracted to the (Alhambra’s) courtyards, which are richly landscaped and built around pools that reflect the colors of the buildings, but also of the blue of the sky. As a consequence, these courtyards create for the visitor a sense of serenity. You know you are in a very special place.” This is exactly what every retailer is going for.

Irvine’s version of the Alhambra will feature three distinct courts connected by cozy souks—open-air marketplaces which invite you to slow down and smell the merchandise. Opening off the existing center via a large keyhole-shaped entrance, Phase Two, says Elliott, will invite shoppers to wander further into its “streets” with its architectural variety and warmth. (In fact, like a true fortress, there will be few ways out once in: Only two other gateways will cut through the towering walls.) And though a certain amount of architectural restraint had to be used in order not to drive away potential tenants with their own distinct images-Johnny Rockets, Gary’s Island—the overall concept will be strong, says Elliott.

From the existing center, the first court encountered will be the Court of Lions, an area themed after the original of the same name. Four giant palms and colored arcades will surround a fountain with water-spraying stone lions. The courtyard floor will take its inspiration from various tile and Persian rug patterns of the Alhambra’s era: In this 1990’s version, ground blue glass will be mixed into the concrete to give a dynamic flare to the area. Also, large glass stars will flash according to a computer program—a one-upmanship on the popular fountains now found in Fashion Island.

Next, the visitor will wander into one of the many amorphous souks, which will, with overhead trellises to soften the light and cast interesting shadows, offer a more mellowing experience. “We can’t make everything wild or the whole suffers,” says Elliott. Besides, there’s enough wild in the remaining courts. The court of Myrtles will have more sparkling glass in the concrete—this time green—which will house a large reflecting pool featuring jets that when turned on, will create an energetic festive feel and when off will offer serenity. Palm-shaded seating areas will give shoppers a chance to rest for the rest of their adventure. Finally, the Court of Dorado will include a 40-foot, softly-lighted bell tower which will serve as a beacon to beckon shoppers from those far away, extra parking spots. And, of course, sprinkled around the courts will be up to three dozen stores and restaurants; like the historic Spanish citadel’s buildings, they will both define and be defined by the courtyards they surround.

“The challenge is building something based on architecture from centuries ago for people in a technologically advanced world, where people expect to be entertained every minute of the day,” says Elliott. To pull it off, Elliott is counting on one of man’s most innate qualities: “Humans are curious by nature,” he says. “Exploring the unknown is natural; it’s what they do in old cities. We think that’s how they’ll discover all parts of this project.”

And, after all, that’s how Bren found the inspiration for Phase Two’s citadel look: By exploring the original. Will Consumers buy into his vision?

As always, the proof will be in the ring of the register. þ

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