Queuing Up for More Freeways

Heavy traffic (shown in lower middle of photo) is backed up for a
detour around the construction site of the Alameda Street grade
separation over the Santa Ana–Hollywood freeway in 1953.

Scenes of congestion were cited as implicit testimony to the
popular desire for more freeways: traffic jams were read as pub-
lic opinion polls by freeway planners. The four-level stack is vis-
ible in the background. (Courtesy of CALTRANS.)

The two-level galleria is lined with specialty shops and a Broadway department store. Brick and wood are the dominant materials. Forty-foot-long steel banners suspended from an overhead skylight were designed to lead the eye through the large space to the reflecting pool on the lower level.

The immediate success of this development exceeded all the economic feasibility projections. The number of daily visitors is already three times as large as the original estimate of 18,000. An interesting note is that more than half of the auto traffic comes from the suburbs. A boon to the merchants is the 10-cent Sunday bus fare, which allows passengers to travel anywhere in the city.

As successful as this downtown complex is in its own right, there is a question as to whether it is sufficient to completely revitalize urban life. Unless contiguous additional developments are linked to this project in a unified plan serving the pedestrian, the project may remain an isolated "Shangri-la." Mildred F. Schmertz, AIA, senior editor of *Architectural Record*, commented in her article in the April 1974 issue:

> In the general spirit of euphoria which these centers arouse, there is a tendency to overstate their importance in revitalizing cities as places to be. Although their economic and social value is obvious, in physical terms they tend to be self-sufficient and self-serving enclaves. This is the fault of the urban context in which they are built rather than a failure on the part of their architects, or a lack of vision on the part of their developers. The downtown shopping center within a megastructure or omni-center is potentially a strong shaping force and a major urban design element. Broadway Plaza can be reached only by private motor car, taxi or bus. As its site plan indicates, apart from sidewalks, there are no nearby pedestrian networks which link up with the shopping mall, nor does Broadway Plaza reinforce or extend an existing urban design structure of pedestrian ways and civic spaces. Few would seem to walk for the pleasure of it in downtown Los Angeles and Broadway Plaza, shaped by circumstance into a self-contained entity, does not improve the world of the pedestrian until he gets inside. It is essentially an island of inward turned amenities bearing no relationship except proximity by motor car to other developments in the area.

The developers are: Ogden Development Corporation; Broadway-Hale Stores, Inc.; and Urban Center Associates.

LEFT: Brick- and wood-lined skylighted galleria links major elements of the self-contained urban center, including Hyatt Regency Hotel, the Broadway store, and "700" Flower office tower. BELOW: Aerial view of completed complex.

The completed Broadway Plaza, in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, is a significant and successful example of central business district redevelopment in the United States.

A complex designated by the architect as a megastructure occupies a site of 4½ acres bounded by Seventh, Eighth, Flower, and Hope Streets. It consists of a 250,000 square-foot department store (the first major department store construction in the downtown in fifty years!); a skylighted two-level galleria, which includes special shops and restaurants; a thirty-two-story office building; a twenty-two-story Hyatt Regency hotel; and a 2,000-car multilevel parking structure with six levels of parking above the Broadway department store for the shoppers and tenants and two levels beneath the entire complex for the office building and hotel visitors.

All elements of the project flow into the galleria. The Broadway store entrance, office building lobby, Hyatt Regency entrance, and several shops open directly onto the plaza level of the galleria. Two banks of escalators and stairways lead down to the garden level, lined with boutiques and restaurants. The hotel lobby merges with the galleria at this level, which also includes a number of the hotel's special restaurants and cocktail lounges. In addition to the two galleria levels, all elements of the project share two interconnected lower levels.

Designed to provide for complete separation of automobile and truck traffic within the complex, truck ramps and service areas are located on the lowest level, below the automobile ramps. There is vehicular access from the service areas to the main ballroom of the hotel, making possible the installation of large, major exhibits. An important element in the access design is the entrance system to the department store. In addition to the main entrance from the galleria at the plaza level, there are entrances on every level from the elevator core, which runs through the heart of the store, serving as a vertical street from the six-level parking structure above.

BROADWAY PLAZA

Los Angeles, California

ARCHITECTS: Charles Luckman Associates