Barton Creek Mall: Public vs. Private Space by Lauren Fedele

  

   Here in the United States there is a wide array of shopping malls and the population has grown accustom to them, even though there are many variations. Some malls have multiple stories while some are one level. Some have movie theatres, skating rinks, and other attractions while some simply have stores.  Many are enclosed spaces while others are more open and engaged with the outdoor environment. The list can go on. But, what defines a mall comes down to two things, how it looks aesthetically and its usage. These two elements reveal how the mall attempts to classify itself as a public or private space, which at times is an ongoing battle. As time has progressed, more people want a public space that resembles European street shops, which is apparent in many buildings architectural references. That is why new malls tend to be open and interact with the outside environment, giving the space a park like feel while still being controlled. We can see this in Austin at the Domain or in San Antonio at La Cantera mall. Barton Creek Mall, however, resembles the traditional shopping mall but projects itself as much more private than a typical mall.

         Barton Creek Mall is located on the Barton Creek Watershed and next to the Barton Creek Greenbelt on top of a hill, which makes it fairly elevated. It is primarily accessible by car and there is only one bus that stops at the mall making access to it limited. Additionally, very tall trees surround the edifice blurring the building. Once you have passed the foliage and the circles of parking lots, you can finally see the structure, however, the buildings lack of character and defining form make it feel like it is still trying to hide. Therefore, the exterior aesthetic with its buried location, lack of accessibility, and minimal character portrays the image of a protective, secluded, private building much like a castle or fort.

     When you enter the mall, it suddenly becomes more open and brighter making the space feel more public and free form. However, when you enter into an individual store you get the impression that you are entering a private space. The way the clothes racks and displays are arranged combined with the lighting and music, it controls how you move in the space and they are provoking a mood and ambiance that will hopefully promote the consumption of their products. When you leave a store, the atriums and hallways feel more open, free, and communal. It feels more like a public space such as a plaza or park. However, the placement of Kiosks and vendors in the middle of the hallways selling you T-mobile phones or perfumes are obstructing these “public spaces.” They are trying to further promote consumption but are also preventing demonstrations, protests, and performances from occurring in the space. Additionally, the fact that each individual store is separated by doors and that you consistently have to travel though separate spaces adds to the privatization of the individual stores in the mall. In the film,
“Blade Runner,” the city is designed in this similar controlling, enclosed, private form. The entire form of Barton Creek Mall is designed to portray a private space and conveys that it is intended to be used in a specific manner.

     Although Barton Creek Mall’s aesthetic and form portrays the mall as a private space, the people who come to the mall have slowly altered the use of it. The mall has become more of a park in multiple ways. For example, if you go to the mall during mid-day around noon on a weekday you will see three main groups of people are at the mall primarily to get out of their house. The first are families or stay at home mothers with their little kids. The second are teenagers, which can be found in groups or pairs typically walking around and talking. The third and last group is the elderly and they can be seen walking around, sitting, reading, or simply observing society. The mall is a relatively cheap form of entertainment and an easy social and gathering place. Taking into consideration that it is now the summer and too hot to be outside, this air-conditioned mall has been converted into a park. The benches and couches in the hallways and atriums of the mall are placed like they would in a park. People sit in them while talking to their friends, watching their kids play, reading their novels, or simply while waiting for their spouse to finish their shopping. You can see kids playing on the railings, on the fountains, and running around the atriums. Some people even come to the mall to exercise because it has air conditioning and it allows them to see and interact with people rather than at their enclosed gym or house. The reasons why people come to the mall are changing and the way the people at the mall are using the space is transforming.

     The mall is becoming a communal center, a place to interact with others and socialize. Although Barton Creek Mall is located in an area that is primarily middle to upper class and white, the mall attracts a wide range of people. You can see Hispanics, African Americans and Asians at the mall in addition to Caucasians. The stores located in the mall are mainly for middle class people. There are not many high-end or luxury stores like Dolce and Gabbana or Lactose. As you walk around, you can sometimes also hear other languages being spoken like Spanish. Even its lack of accessibility hasn’t stopped people from coming. One time when I was leaving the mall, I observed a lady and her two sons come out of a taxi that brought them to the mall. Barton Creek Mall is adapting to these changes also. They are playing more current music that speaks to the younger population. They have also added a kiosk that does currency exchange. I have never seen a currency exchange in a mall before but Barton Creek mall is trying to accommodate all its customers.

     There is no doubt that Barton Creek portrays itself as a privately owned space. The aesthetic of the building, its buried and fortified location, its lack of accessibility and controlling form indicate that. However, although it promotes consumption inside its walls with the use of banners, advertisements, and never ending string of vendors and stores which is the original and economic purpose of the building, it is transforming into a public communal center; into an indoor park. People of various ethnicities and economic class come to the mall as a form of entertainment and to socialize. Barton Creek is a prime example of the thin line between public and private space that malls hover.         

Sources

Census

http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=DEC_10_DP_DPDP1

Capital Metro

http://www.capmetro.org/schedulemap.aspx?f1=030&s=1&d=1

American planning Association

http://www.planning.org/greatplaces/spaces/characteristics.htm

Simon Malls

http://www.simon.com/about

Samo Pederson: The Shopping Mall as a Public Space

http://www.samoclub.com/pdf/shop.pdf

Blade Runner

Barton Creek Mall, Public or Private Space by Agueda Matano

The Barton Creek Square Mall is one of the largest shopping malls in the Austin area. In North America, a mall refers to a large shopping area composed of one or more buildings forming a complex of shops, usually “anchored” by one or more department stores with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from one unit to another, and surrounded by a parking lot. In a simple sentence; a shopping mall is an indoor version of the traditional market place. Shopping malls are public good as they serve as a single location for shopping location that not only save money and time to its visitors, but also help fuel the local economy and provide jobs for its citizens. Shopping mall institutions promote themselves as new town squares or public spaces in which people should come and be friends, and get familiar with the community, and entertain while having the shopping experience. However they are promoted, shopping malls are privately owned establishments, which raise a big a controversy about public versus private space; the Barton Creek Mall is not an exception to this rule.

Margaret Kohn in Brave New Neighborhoods says: “today the only place that many Americans encounter strangers is in the shopping mall; the most important public place (page 254).” However she continues saying that this public place is now private and probably not by accident… so it is difficult to determine what exactly constitutes a public space. We define a public space as a place where all peoples are welcome independently of their race, social class, or gender… an area in which members of the public who are strangers to each other might congregate for the same purpose, and where ideas can be freely shared (almost like in the Greek polis). In this sense, the Barton creek Mall is a public space. Everyone is welcome; I personally saw people of all ethnicities at the site. Nonetheless, we also consider a public space an area for recreation and entertainment subject to usage by the public. In this manner, I guess that the mall fails as a public entity. At the Barton Creek just like any other mall, I believe that individuals perform learned behaviors based upon personal private interests which are consider appropriate civil behavior within the boundaries of their businesses. So, although the mall resembles the traditional market place in many ways, the shopping mall is more a quasi-public space.

The Barton Creek mall, is owned and operated by the Simon Group Property Inc., which is ranked as the number one real-estate investment trust and of course their main goal is to make a profit. So the mall was specifically designed with the purpose of movement and consumption, which in my understanding automatically limits the uses of the site. Likewise, activities in the mall are within a certain space limited to those that promote shopping or another particular agenda that sweeten the interest of the corporate owners. Even the aesthetics of the mall is somehow “limiting” or else exclusive, as the mall was designed for its higher income trade area; something that can clearly be seen from the type of cars in the parking lot, to the watches, and handbags of the visitors. Although you see all kinds of people in the site, visitors are mainly middle-to upper middle class white persons; in this way the mall matches the demographics of its surrounding areas and although indirectly, excludes the less privileged which cannot afford to shop there. I guess this should not be the case of public spaces. So I find it hard to answer the question of whether the place is democratic. According to the Merriam Webster definition the world democracy means “rule by the people,” then with the Barton Creek mall being privately owned, I assume that the owners have the power to decide what can and what cannot take place… Although there is not any constitutional prohibition against legislation protecting political speech in places where citizens were normally allowed to be (including public areas of private malls), citizens need to remember that civil rights and commercial interest do not always mix, and when this is the case, certain liberties are surely lost. Like Margaret Kohn states “ the privatization of public spaces, leaves public sidewalks and streets practically as the only remaining available sites for unscripted political activities (page 254)”… The idea of a public space includes the gathering of people with the absence of coercive powers as well, as quasi-public destination being designed around the concept of security. At the Barton Creek shopping Mall for instance, there are security guards who are well uniformed and patrol the mall corridors and the outside area by car. There are also security cameras throughout the mall, and despite not seeing any particular sign dictating what behaviors are appropriate inside the mall, the fact that the mall is patrolled on a regular basis detracts a little from the concept of the public space that shopping malls try to convey.

The Barton Creek Mall, like other malls, is really a façade of a public space. Economic circumstances define the accessibility of the site and which level of income one must have in order to participate. You cannot simply approach people and speak to them; something that I know from my personal experience on the first part of the assignment. People would not even listen to what I had to say just because I was not carrying any shopping bags… I felt a lot like an intruder that did not belong there, or do anything in the mall space because you will be asked to leave. Nevertheless, the mall is becoming not only a multi-use facility, but a completely self contained homotopia of suburban life… the shopping mall is so attractive because it combines the pleasures of public life with the safety and familiarity of the private realm. And this is exactly what poses a number of conceptual challenges upon which public policy makers must act: the problem of privatization of public spaces.   

“The Mauling of Public Space” From Kohn, Margaret. Brave New Neighborhoods: The Privatization of Public Space. Routledge, 2004.