Retail urbanism is on the fritz again, with this Lifestyle center incarnation operating on overdrive. Shop in zombiefied generica comfort. | globe | prev
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Malls, alfresco
Quaint stores, shaded walkways, and grass update shopping centers
By Emily Shartin, Globe Staff | August 4, 2005

The roof is coming off the shopping mall.

In the mall's latest incarnation, trees line the walkways. The buildings are one or two stories high, and are designed to look quaint. Shoppers sit down for meals, their tables shaded by umbrellas. Some can even stroll across the grass to their nearby homes.

These villages feature upscale stores and are intended to attract higher-income shoppers seeking both convenience and, developers say, a sense of place in their communities.

Dubbed ''lifestyle centers" by some, the developments are gaining a foothold in suburbia as an alternative to both the old-fashioned downtown shopping district and the gigantic indoor mall. And several projects are now on the drawing boards for communities west of Boston.

A proposal for a low-rise mix of stores, restaurants, housing, and some offices, along with a public park, is in the midst of public hearings in Westborough. (A view of the plan is shown at the top of the page.)

Similar proposals are under discussion in Wayland and Berlin.

Lifestyle centers, which can feature many of the same stores as indoor malls, are meant to be pedestrian-friendly areas that encourage interaction among families or neighbors.

''I think people are looking for the good old days," said Robert Demmons, an architect with Gorman Richardson Architects Inc. in Hopkinton, which is designing the Westborough Centre project. He said housing is key to ensuring that the space is active, even when the stores are closed.

''You have constant activity," he said. ''You don't have dead zones."

Lifestyle centers are the next generation in a family tree that has included indoor shopping malls and ''power centers," large open-air plazas that featured ''big-box" retailers such as Home Depot, popular in the 1990s.

According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, there are about 130 lifestyle centers across the country, including ones in Acton, Hingham, and Millbury, and about 40 more in the pipeline.

The defining characteristics are typically the mix of stores -- upscale retailers like Williams-Sonoma or Pottery Barn, no department stores or big boxes -- and an open-air layout.

But Patrice Duker, a spokeswoman for the council, said the formula is fluid and can include features such as entertainment and housing. Some centers also include grocery stores or other anchor businesses.

Developers say the idea is to create a shopping experience that encourages visitors to spend more time at the center. ''It's almost an ambience you create," said Lou Petra, project manager for the Westborough Centre project.

Developers and officials acknowledge that the attempt at quaintness may seem a little strained at first, considering that the centers are new. But Alison Moore, a spokeswoman for the Wayland Town Center developers, said that designers on that project are familiar with New England style, and that even though the buildings will seem new at first, they will eventually feel ''authentic."

Joe Laydon, Wayland's town planner, said town officials were concerned about the lack of revenue that the existing property -- a vacant office building -- was bringing into the town.

A development that combines retail, office space, and housing, he said, would be better able to withstand economic ebbs and flows. The Planning Board is reviewing a zoning change that would be needed to allow the development to go forward, he said.

But not everyone is excited by what they're seeing. A group called Citizens Against Reckless Development has formed in response to the Wayland Center project. It is concerned that the project is too big for the town.

''It's not a town center," said Alan Mandl, a member of the group. ''It's a shopping center."

In Berlin, developer Jon Delli Priscoli has overhauled his plans for a more conventional shopping center, which did not get approval earlier this year.

He is now designing a project that he describes as ''much more like a replicated downtown," with landscaping, specialty shops, attractive architecture, and a mix of condominiums and apartments.

Jed Hayes, a principal with SullivanHayes, whose separate proposal for a lifestyle center straddling the Berlin-Hudson town line was also scuttled by Berlin voters this year, said the centers can be more ''customized to the community" than traditional malls.

Hayes, who defines a lifestyle center as a retail-only project, said he would return to Hudson with a new proposal; he declined to give specifics of the plan.

One of the state's first lifestyle centers, Derby Street Shoppes in Hingham, features stores like Gap, Crate and Barrel, Barnes & Noble, and Whole Foods Market. The stores are laid out in rows around a parking area, in buildings of various sizes, shapes, and colors.

A center in Millbury by the same developer, W.S. Development Associates of Newton, also includes a movie theater.

Terry Shook, a principal with Shook Kelley, an architectural firm that tracks consumer perceptions and that helps with brand development, said people no longer spend as much time at the mammoth malls that began to arise across the country in the 1950s.

''The mall is no longer convenient for us," he said. At the same time, consumers want more interesting and meaningful social and leisure experiences. Shook, who was in Cambridge last week to speak at the Harvard Design School, takes the lifestyle center trend as a sign that ''suburbia is starting to reinvent itself." He said he believes the model will evolve to include more housing and public spaces.

In Wellesley, developers are hoping to make over the shopping area on Linden Street with additional stores, restaurants, offices, and housing. The developers shy away from the lifestyle-center designation because the stores are likely to be more service-oriented.

Jim Lamp of Eastern Development, which is behind the Linden Street proposal, said developers do not intend for the area to compete with nearby Central Street. That shopping strip boasts the kinds of upscale stores and restaurants as well as the pedestrian-friendly environment that many lifestyle centers seem to be trying to create.