NorthPark Center

NorthPark Center
Location Dallas, Texas,  United States
Coordinates 32°52′7″N 96°46′24″W / 32.86861°N 96.77333°W / 32.86861; -96.77333Coordinates: 32°52′7″N 96°46′24″W / 32.86861°N 96.77333°W / 32.86861; -96.77333
Address 8687 North Central Expressway
Opening date 1965
Developer NorthPark Development Company
Management NorthPark Management Company
Owner NorthPark Development Company
Architect Omniplan
No. of stores and services 225[1]
No. of anchor tenants 7
Total retail floor area 2,000,000 sq ft (185,800 m2)[2]
No. of floors 4
Parking 9,000[1]
Public transit access DART:
          Red/Orange Lines at Park Lane
Website Official Website

NorthPark Center is an upscale, enclosed shopping mall located in Dallas, Texas (United States). The mall is located at the intersection of Loop 12 (Northwest Highway) and US 75 (North Central Expressway). Originally opened in 1965, the center now has over 235 stores and restaurants[3] and annual sales of more than $1 billion.[4] NorthPark Center is the nineteenth largest mall in the United States, based on esri.com.[5]

History

In the early 1960s, developer Raymond Nasher leased a 97-acre (390,000 m2) cotton field on the edge of Dallas and hired E.G Hamilton of Harrell+Hamilton Architects. NorthPark Center opened in 1965, as then the largest climate-controlled retail establishment in the world, and is now owned, managed, operated and leased by husband and wife David J. Haemisegger and Nancy A. Nasher (Raymond's daughter). For its first 34 years, NorthPark stood on land leased from the Caruth family’s foundation. David and Nancy Nasher purchased the property in 1999.[6] In 2006, NorthPark opened its doors to an expansion that more than doubled the size of the existing center, adding an 88,000 sq ft Barneys New York store as a new anchor. (Barneys turned out to be one of the Center's few failures in recent history; it closed its doors in 2012.)[7] For its expansion, NorthPark brought back the same architecture firm that designed the original section to ensure its aesthetic was respected and enhanced. The expansion also included a new collection of specialty retail shops and a third-floor 15-screen AMC theater. The new two-story expansion finally provided for circulation around the Center, by forming a continuous loop through the entire complex. Currently the mall is anchored by, Macy's, Dillard's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and AMC.

The American Film Institute's Dallas International Film Festival was sponsored by NorthPark Center in 2009. The event was held in the AMC NorthPark 15 Theater, which also hosted screenings during the festival’s first two years.[8]

Best known as an art museum inside a shopping center, in November 2007, NorthPark Center was named as one of the "seven retail wonders of the modern world" along with Neiman Marcus’ store at Natick Collection in Massachusetts, Japan’s Mikimoto store in Ginza, England’s Bullring shopping center, Poland’s Złote Tarasy in Warsaw, Apple’s flagship store in New York City and Italy’s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II .[9] NorthPark is the home of Texas' first H&M, a fashion label from Sweden. H&M has since opened other locations in Texas.[10]

Art in the mall

Dillard's at NorthPark Center

NorthPark Center was designed to include art as integral part of its interior landscape. NorthPark received the American Institute of Architects Award for "Design of the Decade - 1960s" as one of the first commercial centers in the United States to create space for the display of fine art.[11]

NorthPark Center is known to have not only artwork displayed, but frequently has performances during holiday seasons. It is common to see a crowd gathered at the center of the mall to see a singing or dancing performance.

Architecture

Nordstrom at NorthPark Center

NorthPark Center was designed by Omniplan in the early 1960s. For its recent expansion, NorthPark's owners returned to the architectural firm responsible for the 1960s design. The expansion turned NorthPark's original U-shape into a square design surrounding a 1.4-acre (5,700 m2) landscaped garden known as "CenterPark." Featuring a series of lawns, 41-year-old live oaks and red oaks, seasonal flowers, crushed granite walkways, and a small collection of art, CenterPark doubles as a park area for visitors and customers. [12]

NorthPark Center received both the Texas Society of Architects' annual Design Award and the 25-year Design Award in 2007 for the original design.[13] After a major expansion, at 2,350,000 square feet (218,000 m2), it is now the second-largest mall in Texas and the 21st-largest in the U.S. based on total square feet of retail space (gross leasable area) according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.[14][15][16]

Public library

Located in NorthPark Center is Bookmarks, a 1,993-square-foot (185.2 m2) Dallas Public Library for children 12 years and younger. Bookmarks is the first children's library in the United States to be located in a shopping center.[17]

Location

The Center is located at the intersection of the Central Expressway and Loop 12/Northwest Highway, located to the east and south of the center respectively. NorthPark is also located across the freeway from The Shops at Park Lane, a mixed-use development with which includes shopping. NorthPark Center is the most popular shopping center in North Texas, with over 27 million visitors a year.[18]

Television and film location

NorthPark's interior has been used a location for scenes in television and film productions.

Dr. T and the Women, the Robert Altman film, has one scene in which the character Kate (Farrah Fawcett) visits stores in the area of the Neiman Marcus court, then is seen around the Dillard's court fountain—which she eventually finds herself in, frolicking and splashing in the buff.[19]

True Stories, a 1986 movie co-starring David Byrne, with one scene of a fashion show held at a mall in Virgil, Texas (the movie's fictional setting) during a town celebration; the interior portion of the scene was filmed in a mid-court area between Neiman Marcus and Dillard's. When the mall was reopened in 2006, The Dallas Observer used the mall's ambiance as documented in the film as a source of comparison. "The place looks like a tricked-out spaceship compared to the stark, cold NorthPark in which True Stories was filmed exactly 20 years ago. It looks like the old NorthPark—damned if you can tell difference between the old bricks and the new ones; this thing looks like it was built in a time machine—yet it's brighter too, a friendlier version of the same ol' place."[20] The exterior of Virgil's mall wasn't of NorthPark—the producers used the outside of the former Big Town Mall in nearby Mesquite.[21]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Fifty Largest Shopping Malls in the United States - ESRI". esri.com. 2012. Retrieved January 30, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved March 27, 2007. NorthPark Center. Retrieved October 22, 2008.
  3. ↑ http://northparkcenter.com/press_release/050307e.html
  4. ↑ "Owners of Dallas' NorthPark Center hire broker to arrange financing". Retrieved May 21, 2010.
  5. ↑ "50 Largest US Shopping Malls". storymaps.esri.com.
  6. ↑ "Nancy Nasher opens up on what it takes to make NorthPark Center a success". The Dallas Morning News. September 29, 2015. Retrieved June 4, 2016.
  7. ↑ "Barneys New York and Dallas don't mix - twice now". The Dallas Morning News. October 8, 2012. Retrieved January 4, 2015.
  8. ↑ "AFI Film Fest gains new presenting sponsor". Dallas Business Journal. January 15, 2009. Retrieved May 27, 2009.
  9. ↑ "Shopping Centers Today Online". Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  10. ↑ "H&M opening first Texas store at Dallas' NorthPark Center". Retrieved October 29, 2010.
  11. ↑ "Malls of America". Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  12. ↑ http://northparkcenter.com/press_release/050307b.html
  13. ↑ "Texas Society of Architects - News & Events". Retrieved May 27, 2009.
  14. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved March 27, 2007.
  15. ↑ http://www.northparkcenter.com/NorthParkFacts.pdf
  16. ↑ "Projects - NorthPark Center". www.cmcalamosteel.com. Commercial Metals Company.
  17. ↑ http://northparkcenter.com/press_release/052908.html
  18. ↑ "Make It New: the Queens Library for Teens and Dallas's Bookmarks". Retrieved March 27, 2010.
  19. ↑ "The Mall Coming To A Theater Near You". Retail Traffic Magazine. Archived from the original on 2011-06-13.
  20. ↑ "The Mall: It's a Good Thing". Dallas Oberver's Unfair Park. May 2006.
  21. ↑ "Review: True Stories directed by David Byrne". City Paper.

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