Vibrant and memorable communities are characterized by their integration of natural systems, cultural heritage, architectural character, and civic spaces. Cities and neighborhoods thrive on their own unique mix of these components that foster a blend of living, working, recreational, governmental, religious, educational, and shopping opportunities. Traditional downtowns often overlaid these functions around a central symbolic public space or series of spaces to create a rich diversity of activity. Such a plan organizes a mixed density of uses energized by a civic open space that celebrates the community. The town center is the heart of social and cultural activity and reaches out to link to surrounding neighborhoods and dedicated single land uses. It is the streets and parks that make this connection as densities decrease away from the core. Landmark streets (i.e. avenues) then connected core to core as neighborhoods and districts organized and towns grew. The streetscape and public open space environment provided multiple chance opportunities for interaction with others as people conduct their daily routines. It is these public social open spaces (streets, sidewalks, plazas, outdoor cafes, and parks) that influence so many of life?EUR??,,????'???s daily experiences. Streets and sidewalks not only connect uses, but provide a transition between them for vehicles and pedestrians. Before the advent of multi-level regional malls and department super stores were streets and storefronts that blended grocers, plazas, churches, and civic services. Usually along an important thoroughfare or around the town square, these streets became the heart of activity of any small town or large city. The street itself was the natural activator, attracting vehicular and pedestrian traffic and strongly influencing the character of the urban open space. The streetscape design, therefore, set the tone and vibrancy for the visitor?EUR??,,????'???s experience. Additionally, the diversified collection of retail shopping, mixed services, and public open space heightened the street-side appeal that made these spaces so successful and memorable. Some neighborhoods are stacked floor to floor, while others are joined block to block. Be it a downtown downtown courthouse square or 5th Avenue in New York City, such streets have become city landmarks and destinations in and of themselves within the urban fabric. Integrating Social Space Retail developers have recently been resurrecting some of these historical models and combining them in innovative ways. Lifestyle centers, retail villages, and town/neighborhood centers now compete with the traditional retail strips and regional malls. Interactive gathering spaces are an essential component for success of these new projects by by by providing places for social interaction. The overarching experience is shifting to integrate socializing and "passive entertainment" with educational, shopping, and restaurant venues to celebrate the cultural and social identity of the area. Social spaces spark a spontaneity that is characteristic of the urban streetscape experience. The result is a project identity that is a fundamental part of daily life experience rather than simply a collection of stores. Visitors come to window shop as well as to simply "see and be seen" among all the activity. "Social open space" is as important as the shops themselves in such developments as they draw new visitors and encourage return visits. Varieties in outdoor open space have become the form generators that drive the concept around which the shops and caf????(C)s are organized. Combined uses attract a varied clientele that comes for lunch, but stays to shop, take a class, and visit the library. To the delight of shoppers (and retailers), these somewhat familiar venues are appearing in seemingly unusual locations, proving that the retail streetscape will never go out of style. Many of these varied projects across the country share a common organizing element that can be exhibited in countless ways ?EUR??,,????'??? the street itself. The street provides an intimate scale that is not achievable in typical big box developments that separate themselves from surrounding suburban neighborhoods. Oftentimes, city regulated parking requirements prevent a perceivable pedestrian connection. They remove the elegance of the streetscape experience that provides more than simply vehicular circulation. It is this activity of the street that allows visibility for retailers and the customer convenience of curbside parking. The pedestrian streetscape zone is typically comprised of three areas: an amenity zone of furnishings and street trees; a sidewalk zone of pedestrian circulation; and a social zone where stores spill outside with displays, signs, cafes, etc. It is the artful interplay of these zones that creates a successful and distinctive street environment. Collaborating on Streetscape Designs There are many opportunities for Landscape Architects as vital members on a design team. Beginning with thoughtful master planning and ordinances at the city level on to integrating urban forestry programs and ensuring neighborhood connectivity, planning issues are critical to the greater community at large. From planning and street theming to site graphics, sidewalk, lighting, and planting design, Landscape Architects can create and enrich the identity of the development from the initial master plan concept through details and construction. Good collaboration among developer, architect, engineer, and Landscape Architect is imperative for a successful project. Designers must be ready to quickly reevaluate design changes as leasing plans evolve and tenants make requests (such as restaurateurs requesting outdoor dining). Combine these issues with accessibility, parking, security, service access, and maintenance, and integrated streetscape projects become one of the more complicated design specialties. Most importantly, such projects provide a unique opportunity to enhance the vitality of a community by providing spaces for social interaction while respecting cultural, environmental, and contextual site issues. Two such recent retail projects have been highly successful, although they approach these traditional retail streetscape models in different ways. Southlake Town Square sits in the edge city of Southlake to the north of Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, and recalls a "traditional" central community open space defined by a town square complete with band gazebo, fountain, and central park. The Streets at Southpoint in Durham, North Carolina, is actually part of a regional shopping mall. The "Streets" extend the mall for three outdoor shopping "blocks" that reach out and create a distinctly urban feel and active street environment connecting the mall with a new theater. Designing a Lifestyle Center The Streets at Southpoint creates a three block extension to the Southpoint Mall in Durham, North Carolina. The project was developed by Urban Retail Properties and is now owned by The Rouse Company. "Streets" reaches out from the traditional enclosed shopping mall to provide an outdoor marketplace of specialty shops and restaurants. The design was a joint venture between RTKL Associates (architecture and theming) and MESA Design Group (landscape architecture). Haden-Stanziale was the landscape architect for the parking lot and project entries. The project creates an outdoor pedestrian shopping "steet" market connecting the main entrance of the mall with a new multi-screen cinema. The Streets at Southpoint actually combines elements of a lifestyle center with a mall to lend the scale and feel of a town center to the project. The architecture of the development, designed by RTKL, utilizes a variety of forms, materials, and masses in a crisp and timeless arrangement based on the scale of regional tobacco buildings. The individual outside building facades along the "street" continue right into the interior shopping mall, creating a seamless transition at the main entrance and setting the theme and continuity for the two shopping environments. The buildings masses are further broken up by diversity in materials, colors, and detailing. The site plan borrows the typical street and sidewalk width (building to building dimension) and removes the cars to form a pedestrian promenade. Being connected to the mall, "Streets" is surrounded by a typical mall parking lot, but upon entrance to the pedestrian promenade, the feel is decidedly different. The individual building facades are slightly over-scaled and the pedestrian areas are slightly angled and tightened from the typical mall width to intentionally create an element of "comfortable congestion." This creates a forced perspective that makes the buildings seem closer and encourages pedestrian movement out of and to the main shopping mall. The architecture borrows design details from area architecture and utilizes vintage style painted wall advertisements to add a colorful graphic element. The area between the shops recalls the spirit of an active street but without the curbs, gutters, and cars. The central spine varies from forty to fifty feet wide and is alive with a full array of streetscape amenities. Thoughtful scale and design detailing transforms common elements into unique expressions that convey the spirit of the urban design concept. These pieces are carefully arranged and placed to promote casual interaction and provide both unique nodes of activity and restful pockets of solitude. Fountains, furnishings, and landscape materials are all utilized as themed elements within the streetscape. Central fountain sculptures (by Waterworks International and A.R.T. Design Group) at three main intersections celebrate abstractions of every day life, a theme that spills out from similar features within the main interior shopping mall. One depicts children playing with umbrellas in the rain, one with kids on bicycles, and a third playfully portrays water-spraying manhole covers. These colorful fountains add a splash of color and movement at important junction points along the promenade and serve as meeting points and secondary landmarks. The promenade is crossed by two vehicular streets: the automobile movement is an important component which reinforce the urban character and activity. The character of these two corridor types (vehicular crossings and pedestrian promenade) are decidedly different. Pocket gardens are placed between the buildings to direct shoppers to the fountains and other important focal points. The "street trees" on the pedestrian way switch sides of the promenade from block to block, livening the view and preserving storefront visibility along the pedestrian way. The vehicular cross streets are defined with hedges and maple trees. Automobile interaction is mitigated by abstracted and over-scaled crosswalks constructed of brick and colored concrete. Bold lines and artful paving "graphics" of the exaggerated crossing form an event in the pedestrian promenade that celebrate the vehicular crossing in lieu of breaking the movement. Custom bollards by Beers separate pedestrian and auto traffic. A landmark interactive fountain serves as the forecourt to the theater. Four light canisters utilize a light beam control to allow visitors to alter the spray of the fountain as they pass a hand across the light beam. This interactive feature has been quite a hit with children of all ages. Brick pavers throughout the project were supplied by E.P. Henry with specialty paving bands constructed of buff colored Pinehall English Edge. The paving of the plaza takes the form of a compass point, reinforcing the logo of the project and orienting visitors to their greater surroundings. Small Town Dowtown Southlake Town Square is the 40-acre first phase of a 130-acre development of retail, office, and civic uses master planned by David Schwartz of Washington, D.C. Brian Stebbins (C.E.O. of Cooper & Stebbins - project developer, owner, and property manager) envisions the project as a "small town downtown" and meticulously researched traditional downtown streetscapes prior to finalizing the development plan. While not intentionally setting out to develop a "new urbanist" project, the development has been hailed by new urbanism advocates as an outstanding example of mixed-use development. The multi-phased project has become an important retail and civic center for the rapidly developing city to the northwest of DFW International Airport. Drawing on successful and vibrant historic models, the plan strives to quite literally create an "authentic" downtown and town square for the city of Southlake. This concept is critical not only in how the development looks, but also how it is used daily by the public. Southlake Town Square invited the city to consolidate their divided municipal service offices into the heart of the development and donated the land for a large new city hall building at no cost to taxpayers. The complex has become the civic and ceremonial heart of the city by providing retail, service, entertainment, and municipal uses (including a library and post office) all in one integrated location. The resultant blend yields "what one would have expected" to find downtown and generates more reasons to visit, strengthening the retail and all tenants. Future phases are planned to include brownstone townhouses and condominium lofts. It is also becoming the sentimental home of the public as they crowd the square to capacity for annual events co-hosted by the city and the developer. More than 30,000 people attended an Independence Day celebration last year. Other annual events include the high school homecoming parade, a juried arts fest, a planned October festival (pending approval by the city), and extensive holiday events in December. The project is decidedly more civic and urban in scale and arrangement and directly avoids typical suburban shopping strip type improvements. Using Details to Add Character The architecture of the development was a collaboration among numerous architects and utilizes multiple facade styles, colors, and materials to create the historic feel of an old shopping "main" street. Such subtle details create variety while preserving an authentic multi-layered character for the streetscape experience, seemingly as if the buildings had each been built by different owners over time. The first floor spaces are filled with retail and restaurants while upper levels are utilized by various title companies, investment firms, doctor offices, and other service professionals. Streets are organized on a traditional grid that facilitates a very walkable block arrangement. The street module parcels out two central blocks in front of the town hall to create a formal public open space. The cross streets through the square can be closed during programmed events to create one large public event space. When the streets are left open for traffic, they divide three distinct zones: detention pond with band gazebo, central fountain plaza, and city hall. MESA Design Group worked with Brian Stebbins in developing the landscape architectural design for the project. The south end of the square holds a traditional open-air band gazebo overlooking a detention pond for evening concerts and support for festivals. The structure anchors the south end of the site to create a visual landmark when viewed across the pond from Southlake Boulevard. The center of the square holds a series of formal lawns divided by pedestrian sidewalks. At the midpoint of the axis between the gazebo and City Hall is a pedestrian plaza and two tier bowl fountain. The fountain itself is a combination of standard and custom pieces by Dura Art Stone and was facilitated by Greenscape Pump Service and Hobbs Architectural Fountains. Engraved brick paving around the fountain assisted in charity fund raising while adding an element of ownership by the public. All net proceeds went to a local charity. This series of public spaces offers a variety of seating options and choices for both interactive play (kids at the fountain) or quiet conversational zones along the open lawns. Great care was taken in planning the retail streetscape pedestrian environment. A consistent tree spacing (35?EUR??,,????'??? on center) reinforces the order of the grid while providing even shade to the sidewalk zone. Athena Elms were chosen for their upright character, seasonal change, and hardy adaptability to the urban environment. Tree wells (4?EUR??,,????'??? x 8?EUR??,,????'???) were planted with evergreen ground covers in lieu of tree grates so as to further visual break up the sidewalk and promote more varied pedestrian movement. The sidewalk width was critical (11?EUR??,,????'??? at the main square and 9?EUR??,,????'??? on the side streets) to accommodate pedestrians and encourage free access to stores. The streetscape utilizes very simple and traditional materials. Concrete was used in lieu of bricks in order to preserve the authentic small town feel rather than that of a shopping center. Pavestone pavers were used at the crosswalks to lend a visual and auditory zone, however, and pedestrian landings at street corners were widened. Head-in diagonal parking around the town square completes the "main street" appeal. Creating a Distinct Experience Southlake Town Square and the Streets at Southpoint both utilize the concept of the street as an organizing and energizing element for mixed use and retail development. They utilize different elements of streetscape design and portray a distinct experience to entice customers to visit the project and return often. Public open spaces are thoughtfully conceived not only to connect stores, but also to encourage social interaction and variety of experience. The result is a streetscape atmosphere that is as much a destination as the shops themselves. These thriving environments were purposefully developed by the design teams to encourage social interaction among visitors. The street itself is designed for pedestrians to enjoy retail shopping as one important component of many integrated into these mixed-use projects. Most importantly, these projects capitalize on their connection to the community, be it by literally creating a new "town center" for an edge city or by recalling the vitality of neighborhood storefronts from days gone by. Both are highly successful examples from the constant evolution of retail streetscape design. About the Author: Bill Millsap is a Principal and Andrew Duggan is an Associate at Mesa Design Group, a landscape architectural firm located in Dallas, Texas.