Aletha Hart
Spacious indoor boulevards with striking architectural brick flourishes reminiscent of Charlotte's textile mill past are the hallmark of Northlake Mall. A vaulted ceiling and extensive windows of the upper level bathe strolling shoppers in natural light as they venture among tenants including anchors Belk, Dillard's, Hecht's and Dick's Sporting Goods.
The era of drab fluorescent lighting, hospital-chic decor and visual isolation from the outdoors is nowhere at the north Mecklenburg mall.
The developer, Taubman Centers Inc., sought more than to simply offer shopping to an underserved area. Taubman officials wanted to balance a respect for Charlotte's past with an eye towards the future growth of the northern half of the city, says Mike Moukalian, vice president of engineering and construction.
The appearance of the 1.2 million-square-foot mall reflects research by the center's designers, who traveled to Charlotte to study the location and the area's history.
"They came here and drove around a lot, taking pictures," says Phil Morosco, general manager of the mall. "They were looking at the market and wanted to reflect the region the mall would be built in and yet be unique, not just a cookie-cutter shopping center," he says.
Taking into consideration the region's textile history, the Farmington Hills, Mich., architectural firm JPRA Architects incorporated some aspects of mill architecture, such as brickwork and glass, and blended them with a modern, family-friendly design.
The firm, which specializes in large regional centers, also designed the Millennium Mall in Orlando, Fla.
"We had to get some context and evolve around local needs," says Greg Tysowski, JPRA's senior design principal on Northlake. "We wanted to combine the new and the old. There is historical-looking brick and then there are contemporary skylights and frames. We tried to instill some of the heritage of craftsmanship that's a part of the history of the Charlotte region."
The food court features brick walls that contain scenes of the area's past. They were executed in brick relief and include scenes of bricklayers and other images of the area's more industrial past.
One of the mall's outstanding features, a grand skylight, had to be in place before the food court could be built below.
Despite that requirement, Tysowski says, "My favorite element of the mall has to be the central gallery space. It has a good, indoor/outdoor feel."
Taubman, which owns or manages 23 shopping centers in 11 states, wanted Northlake to be a unique experience, Morosco says.
"I like the openness of the center of the mall and the natural light that comes in," says Morosco. "It is not like being cooped up in a concrete box, by any stretch of the imagination."
The sheer size of the 130-acre site also presented challenges from its inception, says Jessie Brewer, chief operating officer at general contractor Skanska USA.
"It was a huge site job. The most complicated part was moving 1.5 million cubic yards of cut and fill and evening out the low and high areas," he notes.
Another challenge was coordinating with the designers and builders for each of the five anchor stores and 136 other tenants. The delivery areas also had to be completed before March 15 to allow the stores to begin stocking early.
Skanska recently received a N.C. Building Star award in recognition of its efforts to meet and exceed safety and health regulations on the project.
"We are really proud of our safety record," Brewer says. "Most builders look at safety regulations as a requirement and have great programs in place, but we look at safety as a part of our culture. An injury-free environment is what we are looking for and our goal is zero accidents."
The location was no accident, either. Taubman chose the site, at Interstate 77 and W.T. Harris Boulevard, to serve the surging growth in the northern half of the county and to "fill a void for this type of retail," says Moukalian. With improvements to the interchange, "Northlake Mall will benefit from unprecedented ease of access from virtually anywhere in the Charlotte metropolitan area and beyond," he adds.
So does Brewer, who's based in Charlotte, hop on the highway to shop at the new mall? "I have shopped there," he says with a chuckle. "But my wife has shopped there a lot more."
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