Featured Apartment:
San Diego - NO FEE - Clean quiet building in solid early San Diego design. Studio, one and two bedroom apartments with newer refrigerators, 40 inch gas range, tile counter tops, built in ironing board, walk-in closet and lots of cabinet space. The buildings facilities include a large on site laundry room with newer machines, gated front entrance and (available for small monthly fee) reserved covered parking in gated area. Its central midtown location is 5 blocks to light rail, post office, bank, grocer, co-op, hospital and many restaurants. View More Listings -->
Renting an Apartment in Horton Plaza
What You Should Know
Horton Plaza is a 5 level outdoor shopping mall located in downtown San Diego
and remarkable for its bright colors, architectural tricks and odd spatial
rhythms. It stands on 6 and a half city blocks and is adjacent to the city's
historic Gaslamp Quarter.
Horton Plaza was the $140,000,000 centerpiece of a downtown redevelopment
project run by the Hahn Company, and is the first example of architect Jon
Jerde's so-called "experience architecture". When it opened in August 1985, it
was a risky and radical departure from the standard paradigm of mall design. Its
mismatched levels, long one-way ramps, sudden dropoffs, dramatic parapets,
shadowy colonades, cul-de-sacs, and brightly painted facades create an
architectural experience in dramatic contrast to the conventional wisdom of mall
management. Conventional malls are designed to reduce ambient sources of
psychological arousal, so the customers' attention is directed towards
merchandise. By making the mall an attraction in itself, Jerde stood this model
on its head.
Horton Plaza was an instant financial success, with 25 million visitors in the
first year. Twenty years after opening, it continues to generate the city's
highest sales per unit area, in the range of $600 to $700 per square foot ($6500
to $7500/m�)). From an urban planning standpoint, Horton Plaza is a civic asset
that generates pedestrian traffic and shares it with a number of contiguous
destinations, paving the way for the revitalization of the Gaslamp District.
According to its web site, the mall has been "hailed locally and nationally as
an overwhelming success since its opening in August 1985, winning dozens of
awards in design, architecture and urban development." It is now owned by The
Westfield Group.
