Desert Ridge Marketplace
"Desert Ridge Marketplace" Published in Winning Shopping Center Designs - 27th International Design and Development Awards
Desert Ridge Marketplace sought to incorporate and expand on components of regional malls, urban villages, entertainment/lifestyle centers, power centers and neighborhood centers. Five distinct "shopping neighborhoods" provide intimacy of scale and customer convenience: hard goods, soft goods, The District (lifestyle/entertainment and restaurants), neighborhood convenience and health and leisure. The latter two are located around the perimeter of the center for easy access.
The District is the heart of the center, anchored by an 18-screen, 4,000-seat cinema megaplex. It also includes Jillian's, providing food and entertainment, Barnes & Noble, Tower Records, 24 restaurants, a smorgasbord of local restaurant operators and an educational soft-play area. A Generation Y-focused area offers high-energy videos on a 12-foot video screen as well as a rock climbing wall. There is also a live performance stage for emerging musicians, splashy graphics, brilliant colors and retailers serving these teens and 20-somethings.
In its role as a community center, Desert Ridge Marketplace contains rich artistic embellishments, service amenities and a wide retail selection. The living gallery of abundant native Sonoran Desert landscaping, with shade, water and fire features provide year-round climate comfort and ambience on a human scale.
City government needed to be convinced of the need for a 110-acre shopping center in the middle of the desert, where at the time there were only a few homes. There was no freeway access, although one was planned soon. Further complications included climate control in the desert site - achieved with 50 percent shaded areas, canopy trees, vine-covered trellises and loggia, an extensive misting system and foggers throughout the center and parking lot. As the cool evening approaches, the 20-foot gas torcheres and heating lamps in the District come alive as a massive, open stone fireplace and seating invite guests to gather for coffee or cocktails under the stars.
Visual enhancements abound in and around the center. Instead of traditionally blank mall walls, Desert Ridge Marketplace offers large-scale themed graphic panels and commissioned murals. A freeway signage program consists of 14 colorful, 40-foot towering obelisks, offering each major tenant its own pylon.
The desert environment itself provides most of the plantings. An 800-foot four-lane entryway is lined with rows of 30-foot Canary Island Palms, 25-foot Date Palms, Desert Willow trees and abundant Bougainvillea, accented by brick pavers, torcheres and fountains. More than 80 percent of the native desert plant material previously located on the site was identified, preserved and replanted elsewhere in the development. Over 300 cacti and trees, many of them several hundred years old, are included in the landscaping.
The developer and city worked together on the project, with the developer fronting the infrastructure costs and the city reimbursing those costs over time - at first estimated to be seven years, but lively sales will reduce that time to four years, demonstrating the positive community impact of Desert Ridge Marketplace.
