Downtown Silver Spring/City Place Mall; Silver Spring, Maryland
Downtown Silver Spring is one of the more interesting downtown revitalization efforts that I’ve come across, in a large part because it incorporates an enclosed mall with the rejuvenated streetscape. The development encompasses two separately owned and maintained parcels–the indoor, 5-level (yet small, at only 300,000 square feet) City Place Mall; and the outdoor “urban neighborhood” of Downtown Silver Spring.
Silver Spring, Maryland is located at the top of the District of Columbia diamond, just inside of the Washington Beltway, in affluent Montgomery County. Arguably the second-largest city in Maryland after Baltimore, Silver Spring’s downtown experienced the same post-war lows as many major American cities, but like many has seen its downtown spring back to life in the 2000s.
The neighborhood surrounding Downtown Silver Spring and City Place has its roots (obviously) in Silver Spring’s historic downtown retail district, which included Hecht’s, JCPenney, and Sears in the 1950s. By the late 1980s, however, the area fell into decline and Hecht’s vacated their large store in the center of downtown Silver Spring. The former Hecht’s was converted to a tall enclosed mall–City Place–in 1992, but the mall failed to attract major tenants and became known as a budget mall. This is largely still at least somewhat true today, as City Place counts Marshalls and Burlington Coat Factory as its anchors. In this decade, however, a large portion of the downtown area surrounding the City Place Mall has been redeveloped as an active outdoor streetscape, with a variety of retail, restaurant, and entertainment-oriented tenants. Several streets are closed to vehicular traffic and used as pedestrian malls, and the development has a symbiotic relationship with the existing enclosed mall. Today the Downtown Silver Spring portion of the development has tenants like a 20 screen movie theatre, Whole Foods Market, Borders Books and Music, and Pier 1 Imports.
If I have any complaint with developments like these, it’s that they tend to be far more homogenous than the downtowns they replace. While I applaud any project that brings activity and life back to our faded downtowns, I hate that it has to eternally revolve around Starbucks and Cold Stone Creameries and that the end result feels like Celebration, Florida. For example, little separates the end product at Downtown Silver Spring from much of the work done 40 miles up the road in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor or from the Newport on the Levee development in Newport, Kentucky, across the river from Cincinnati. Even in their worst downswings, our cities derived their life from the unique businesses they hosted, from local restaurants to used CD and book stores. Developments like these are a start, but hopefully their visitors will fan out to surrounding blocks and enjoy the offerings of neighborhoods that aren’t leased by a single corporate parent.
Nitek Ketin
October 12th, 2006 at 12:01 am
I think the design looks overly saccharine and woefully superficial, however I do respect the underlying intention of creating a pedestrian friendly mixed use center. There must be a strong traditional regional center or two in the vicinity of this thinly-veiled power town concept.
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Caldor
October 12th, 2006 at 12:07 am
That’s pretty much my feeling too. I do enjoy the way they incorporated the enclosed mall with the streetscape, the way some of the classic, large-front department store architecture blends in and creates a dramatic presence, and the use of outdoor seating areas and plazas, but I hate the way the entire endeavor feels like it came straight out of a box and off a truck.
There are many traditional enclosed malls in the area–Wheaton Plaza (which we’ve posted about), White Flint Mall, and Montgomery Mall are the biggest players and are all within 10 miles. Prince Georges Plaza is not terribly far away either. I still admire the idea behind Downtown Silver Spring, and at least a few of the things they’ve done with it. I think Providence Place Mall in Providence, Rhode Island is a better (bigger, better designed, more interesting, less homogenized) example of a similar thing, though–someday we’ll post about that one.
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J-Man
October 12th, 2006 at 2:27 am
Silver Spring is an unincorporated area of Montgomery County, therefore it cannot be the ’second largest city in Maryland.”
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Caldor
October 12th, 2006 at 2:57 am
That is true–much of Maryland is unincorporated, unlike my home region of New England, where nearly all of the land is incorporated. Still, the Wikipedia article says that the place of Silver Spring, depending on how it is defined, has somewhere around 250,000 residents. We could say it isn’ t a “city,” but I don’t know of anyplace with so many skyscrapers that a layman wouldn’t describe as being a city. The incorporation issue counts but is largely semantics.
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Steven Wilson
October 12th, 2006 at 7:49 am
When I lived in Gaithersburg — home of Lakeforest Mall, a former Taubman mall — they said that it was the second largest city in Maryland. According to the US Census Bureau’s current estimates, Gaithersburg is now third, barely trailing Frederick. I haven’t been to Silver Spring since any of these newer developments went in. Back at the time, the most popular thing about downtown Silver Spring was the Metro station.
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Caldor
October 12th, 2006 at 11:25 am
I’ve added the “arguably” caveat to the story. It seems I unwittingly stumbled into a Wikipedia-fueled battle of local statistics!
It’s much more cut and dried in New England.
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Scott
October 12th, 2006 at 4:15 pm
Haha, Wikipedia is anything but credible.
I guess if I had to make a compromise on replacing enclosed malls with Disney-esque lifestyle centers, this place would be it. I think it’s kinda funny that they have a big “Downtown” sign on it, just in case you don’t know where you are.
Scott
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James
October 13th, 2006 at 5:35 pm
There are two brief, relevant articles just published in Gotham Gazette under the title, “Can small stores survive in New York [City}?.”
One is by Irwin Cohen, the creator of Chelsea Market, a unique urban mall filled exclusively with locally-owned businesses.
http://www.gothamgazette.com/article/fea/20061010/202/1993
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Gary
October 16th, 2006 at 11:17 am
Downtown Silver Spring was in dire straits in the early 1995 and had been in decline for 40 years. There was 6 million sf of office space but the vacancy rate was 39 percent. Retail vacancy was 25 percent. Many thought that downtown Silver Spring coudl never recapture the market. Businesses were leaving on a daily basis. Now the office vacancy rate is about 3 percent, the lowest in the Washington metro region and retail and restaurants are back. It is not the same, but it is alive and well.
To wax nostalgic about small locally owned businesses is nice, but it wouldn’t have made the old 1950s Silver Spring come back to life. You’ve got to do what works. Sure you can find a center in New York City that can survive on small businesses, but I can’t see that translating to anywhere else.
People vote with their feet and their pocket books and they decide what businesses will work with thier purchases.
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Caldor
October 16th, 2006 at 1:17 pm
I actually agree with you completely, Gary. You can’t force people to shop in certain ways, and in cases where you have a downtown in decline (such as Silver Spring’s clearly was until recently) I think it takes a project that achieves a certain critical mass to bring people back downtown. Unless you have certain advantages (such as a university, with a large downtown population) then it’s necessary to leverage what you can. I’m also not against the use of chain stores–heck, this entire site *celebrates* chain stores in a lot of ways–I just also like to see a downtown maintain some of its character, too.
And really, Downtown Silver Spring is pretty successful at what it does. The July Saturday afternoon that I was there found the place teeming with activity, and the way it tied in with the rest of downtown was quite nice. I hope the effect continues to radiate outwards, because I like to see downtowns come back as much as I like to see malls come back.
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Sligo
October 16th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
The “downtown” this development “replaced” didn’t even exist. What it replaced was a couple parking lots/garages, a McDonald’s full of homeless people and a dilapidated Art Deco/Moderne shopping plaza that was home to a police substation. The historic shopping Silver Spring shopping center has since been restored as part of this project. This is certainly a unique feature of this development, so really it is unfair to categorize the entire “downtown” as homogenous.
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Matt
October 17th, 2006 at 12:44 am
Have any of you been to NYC recently? Where are the mom and pop shops you speak of? Have you seen the Red Lobster and Olive Garden in Times Square?
I grew up in a “real” village in northern NJ (Westfield) and can tell you that, when I grew up, it was very quaint and traditional…but it is now an outdoor shopping mall. In fact, it is strikingly similar now to Bethesda in terms of shops, restaurants, etc.
The poster who observed that you can’t change the way people shop is 100% right. Silver Spring, my hometown of Westfield, NYC…pretty much any city in the US…they’re increasingly reflections of a populace that favors chain retail to mom and pop shops. I live in Silver Spring (just outside downtown). Don’t criticize the architects of DTSS…criticize the buying preferences and tastes of your fellow citizens.
Matt
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TheQuestioner
October 24th, 2006 at 9:14 pm
Although I am no fan of “mixed-use retail”, “power centers” or any other of these “faux town” shopping concepts, I have to admit that the restoration and expansion of downtown SIlver Spring worked out about as well as it could be expected to. After decades of being little more than a bunch of bus stops, abandoned auto dealerships and closed department stores, the area has some life.
It was also a shock to me that not only was much of the original 1930’s art deco shopping center preserved (at least the facades) but that they also managed to restore and expand the Silver Theater, which is part of that complex. It sat empty and boarded up for over 20 years. Most of the time an old single-screen movie palace like that would have been turned into a church, drugstore, or off-price clothing store long ago. Ironically, since the entire area was blighted, the overall decay actually helped prevent the theater from being ruined or destroyed since no one wanted to open anything around there. By the late 90’s, when plans to redevelop the area were finally coming together, the preservation and restoration of old theaters was in vouge, and the AFI and other groups came together to meticulously restore the place. If the redevelopment of the area had happened any time before the mid 90’s, the theater would almost certainly have been razed.
There had been at least three abortive plans for improving this area since the early 80’s, with nasty zoning fights and county political wrangling keeping things stagnant. Some of these plans were grandiose and unrealistic, and I will take “Downtown Silver Spring” any day over the plan that came just before it. Around 1994 or so, there was a big push to wipe out the entire area now occupied by this development (except perhaps CIty Place, which had just opened) and build some kind of Amusement Park/Retail mix. I think it was the brainchild of the developers of the Mall of America. They wanted it to be a super-regional draw, attracting people from all around the Mid-Atlantic. The thing was supposed to be massive and dense, and there were a lot of protests immediately due to some obvious issues, such as how tens of thousands of additional cars were supposed to travel to and park at this place, which has no nearby highway exits or roads more than 3 lanes in each direction. If this had happened, almost everything that had any historical tie to the original downtown shopping district would have been gone. In the end, the only building of any real historic note to be lost was the Silver Spring Armory. It had gone through a “renewal” to become a community center in the early 80’s, but it never had anything else around it to support it. When the “Downtown SS” plans were finally coming together, the county quietly arranged to have the Armory bulldozed quickly before anyone could mount a “Save the Armory” campaign. While it would have been cool to incorporate it into the “town center” it probably wouldn’t have worked turning it into retail unit(s) or continuing it as a community center. It was on the site of the current multi-level garage.
If anyone wants to see old photos of how this area looked in the past, when visiting, there are a bunch of old images and descriptive text in a montage set up behind glass in a walkway near the Red Lobster.
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Brainchild
October 25th, 2006 at 10:55 am
Great thread. I’d just note that the City Place mall was built during the time when off-price/outlet malls or shopping centers (like Potomac Mills, or the outlet center near Hagerstown) were the “big thing” in the retail world. City Place was intended as an outlet/bargain mall, and the main anchors were Nordstrom Rack, Ross, and Marshall’s. Maybe City Place didn’t take off because the enclosed mall wasn’t the right format for a downtown, or that the outlet concept was overplayed already, or that 300,000 square feet wasn’t enough to make it a destination…all of that’s true, I think, but it also had to do with the fact that the rest of Silver Spring’s revitalization, which really brought people back, came about 10 years later.
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TheQuestioner
October 25th, 2006 at 6:27 pm
Although I am no fan of “mixed-use retail”, “power
centers” or any other of these “faux town” shopping
concepts, I have to admit that the restoration and
expansion of downtown SIlver Spring worked out about
as well as it could be expected to. After decades of
being little more than a bunch of bus stops, abandoned
auto dealerships and closed department stores, the
area has some life.
It was also a shock to me that not only was much of
the original 1930’s art deco shopping center preserved
(at least the facades) but that they also managed to
restore and expand the Silver Theater, which is part
of that complex. It sat empty and boarded up for over
20 years. Most of the time an old single-screen movie
palace like that would have been turned into a church,
drugstore, or off-price clothing store long ago.
Ironically, since the entire area was blighted, the
overall decay actually helped prevent the theater from
being ruined or destroyed since no one wanted to open
anything around there. By the late 90’s, when plans
to redevelop the area were finally coming together,
the preservation and restoration of old theaters was
in vouge, and the AFI and other groups came together
to meticulously restore the place. If the
redevelopment of the area had happened any time before
the mid 90’s, the theater would almost certainly have
been razed.
There had been at least three abortive plans for
improving this area since the early 80’s, with nasty
zoning fights and county political wrangling keeping
things stagnant. Some of these plans were grandiose
and unrealistic, and I will take “Downtown Silver
Spring” any day over the plan that came just before
it. Around 1994 or so, there was a big push to wipe
out the entire area now occupied by this development
(except perhaps CIty Place, which had just opened) and
build some kind of Amusement Park/Retail mix. I think
it was the brainchild of the developers of the Mall of
America. They wanted it to be a super-regional draw,
attracting people from all around the Mid-Atlantic.
The thing was supposed to be massive and dense, and
there were a lot of protests immediately due to some
obvious issues, such as how tens of thousands of
additional cars were supposed to travel to and park at
this place, which has no nearby highway exits or roads
more than 3 lanes in each direction. If this had
happened, almost everything that had any historical
tie to the original downtown shopping district would
have been gone. In the end, the only building of any
real historic note to be lost was the Silver Spring
Armory. It had gone through a “renewal” to become a
community center in the early 80’s, but it never had
anything else around it to support it. When the
“Downtown SS” plans were finally coming together, the
county quietly arranged to have the Armory bulldozed
quickly before anyone could mount a “Save the Armory”
campaign. While it would have been cool to
incorporate it into the “town center” it probably
wouldn’t have worked turning it into retail unit(s) or
continuing it as a community center. It was on the
site of the current multi-level garage.
If anyone wants to see old photos of how this area
looked in the past, when visiting, there are a bunch
of old images and descriptive text in a montage set up
behind glass in a walkway near the Red Lobster.
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TheQuestioner
October 25th, 2006 at 6:34 pm
The only reason I recall anyone I know had to visit City Place was to go to the AMC Theaters on the top floor. This was one of the first “modern” multiplexes in the SIlver Spring/Wheaton area and it was a big hit for the first few years. I think it closed down either shortly before or shortly after the new Majestic Theaters opened in the “Downtown” complex. It had fallen on hard times before then, however. City Place (especially the parking garage across Fenton St.) had developed a reputation for crime and unsafe conditions. It didn’t help that AMC and most other tenants didn’t seem to do much upkeep. By the late 90’s most chains were gone and lots of newer multiplexes had opened within 5-10 miles.
I would predict that within 10 years City Place with either be gutted and redesigned to better fit the upscale feel of the surrounding businesses, or it will be torn down to expand the “town center” feel of the Downtown complex.
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Michael
January 23rd, 2007 at 1:05 am
This is a very intresting design with its pros and cons.
Personally I see this as a better alternative to the Providence Place Mall in downtown Providence, RI. because this mall has integrated more shops and restaurants with street level retail space which increases pedestrian traffic outside. There is hope then that these people will want to leave this outdoor type mall area and explore the rest of the city. I know there are some people who venture outside of the Providence Place Mall but there are a lot more people who drive in, park in the garage and drive out two hours later without ever stepping foot downtown.
This being said this area does resemble in some ways Baltimore’s Inner Harbor which I visited. I loved it BUT it was also filled with shops and restaurants that I can get at home. Cities and places with things like the Inner Harbor need things that seperate them from the next development. At the Inner Harbor for example they have the Maryland Science Center, Baltimore Aquarium and the Maritime Museum. If places do not distinguish themselves with locally owned and operated shops and restaurants or attractions there will be no reason to visit them.
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