The Willow Lawn Shopping Center (c. 1967)
Willow Lawn (2016)
Site
Name: Willow Lawn (formerly “The Willow Lawn Shopping
Center” and “The Shops at Willow Lawn”)
Date
of Construction: 1954-1956
Reason
for Construction: There was a significant parking and
congestion problem downtown, especially at night, so people started moving out
of the cities, and Willow Lawn was built to service this expanding population.
Site
History: Albert Heisler planned to build the shopping center in
1954, eschewing ideas to develop the area as an insurance center. The
architects were Joseph Saunders and Associates, and the general contractor was
Tower Construction Co. At the time the 40-acre construction project cost a mere
six million dollars. The Willow Lawn Shopping Center opened in October 1956. It
was the first open-air mall that was not in Richmond City proper, but in the
suburb of Henrico County.
Area
History: Richmond’s downtown area was home to numerous
commercial business that continued to grow into the 1950s. Due to congestion
and parking issues, as well as lower real estate taxes in the area, Richmond
suburbia really started to flourish in this time period in a phenomenon known
as urban sprawl. The new neighborhoods were home to many “kit houses,” which
were properties sold by Sears, mainly through mail-order catalogs. After 1970,
the suburban areas became even more populous: forced integration in the metro
area had caused de facto segregation by income and race, with well-to-do whites
being the main occupants of the neighborhoods significantly distant from
Richmond City. These people living the new “American Dream” were able to afford
kit houses and cars for transportation.
What
about the site has changed? It originally had 44
stores and 4,000 parking spaces. As of 2014, there were more than 50 stores and
2,409 parking spaces. and many other stores have come and gone. Federal Realty
Trust bought the mall in 1983. To remain competitive with other shopping
centers, the mall changed its layout and became partially enclosed between 1985
and 1987 in a $9 million renovation. Many merchants were forced to
downsize, and many left. Miller & Rhoads closed in 1990; J.C. Penney left
in 1994; the center’s Regal Cinema was shut down in 2001, and many other stores
came and left. Willow Lawn remained in this configuration until 2006, when
demolition began with the intention of returning the mall to a primarily
outdoor environment. John Tschiderer, Senior Vice President of Federal Realty
Trust (which bought the mall in 1983), remarked that, “As the local market
evolved we discovered that the mall environment really wasn’t that compelling
at this geographic location… we are re-fashioning the property so that it has a
different identity in the marketplace, actually going back to its heritage, its
roots” (ITC). The multi-million-dollar redevelopment ended in 2012 and Willow
Lawn continues to change today.
What
about the surrounding area has changed? When the mall changed
hands, property values around it increase and made surrounding office buildings
more attractive. Prior to 1985, primarily elderly people visited the mall.
The enclosing renovation was meant to lower the demographic age and raise the
demographic income level. Today, while the neighborhood has become more
inclusive, middle and upper class people are still those that live closest to
the mall: in 2014 the average annual income of households within a one-mile
radius of Willow Lawn was approximately $85,000. Also, it is currently home to
many more upscale businesses than it used to have, such as the Family Meal and
Travinia restaurants, but at the same time, it still houses stores like Five
Guys and the Dollar Tree.
Reflection:
I
really didn’t expect to get this involved in a project, but the fact that there
wasn’t a huge amount of historical information about Willow Lawn made me even
more interested to learn its history. I hadn’t done any hardcore research since
my Global Studies 10 paper, so I learned a lot about the resources we have
available at our library and in our city (Virginia Historical Society). I never
really thought about the demographics of my own neighborhood, so it was
interesting to discover why it was developed in the first place and make
comparisons from the past to today. Learning about the mall’s rationale for
construction and constant reinvention served as justification for the fact that
it is still thriving today (and is arguably more profitable than ever) and
helps explain the slight lack of focus when it comes to types of stores in
Willow Lawn.
Sources:
Campbell,
Ben. "Unhealed History." Style
Weekly, February 21, 2012. Accessed March 15, 2016.
http://www.styleweekly.com/richmond/unhealed-history/Content?oid=1669944.
"The
Evolution of Willow Lawn (VIDEO)." Willow
Lawn (blog). Entry posted August 27, 2015. Accessed March 13, 2016.
http://willowlawn.com/the-evolution-of-willow-lawn-video/.
Haddad,
Jessica Ronky. "Building by the Book." Richmond Magazine, August 26, 2014. Accessed March 15, 2016.
http://richmondmagazine.com/home/home-improvement/mail-order-houses/.
Hallman,
Randy. "Willow Lawn Reinvents Itself Again." Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA), November 23, 2014. Accessed
February 18, 2016. http://www.richmond.com/business/local/willow-lawn-reinvents-itself-again/article_8d214fff-4576-551d-a3b9-26d3b94bd38e.html.
Lazarus,
Jerry. "Sleek Willow Lawn Set; Some Shops to Lose out." Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA),
December 22, 1985, G1-G4.
"Regional
Shopping Center, New Area of Architectural Challenge." Virginia Record 79, no. 2 (February
1957): 20-21.
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