Westfield By Design
Westfield Design brings leading-edge concepts to traditional shopping centers.
Susan H. Fishman

One of the few design groups within a retail real estate development company, Westfield Design, a unit of the Westfield Group, believes that “design is a physical and aesthetic reflection of the Westfield brand philosophy — all geared toward making its properties different, better and special for its customers and retailers.” The design firm boasts a full-service architectural design studio with more than 100 design professionals located primarily in Los Angeles, and close to 300 worldwide, including Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. The group’s current design effort could be considered one of the largest retail design programs in the world (on the planet). With more than $1.1 billion in redevelopment and reinvestment currently underway in the U.S. portfolio alone, Westfield design has an ambitious agenda and is continually growing and improving its services.

Internationally, Westfield development and reinvestment activity is expected to reach $5.3 billion. Pictured is Westfield London.

There are currently 10 Westfield projects in the U.S., and the company has at least 18 projects in the pipeline for the next 3 to 5 years. Internationally, Westfield development and reinvestment activity is expected to reach $5.3 billion. Globally, the equivalent volume of architectural design services billings would exceed $200 million.

With so much in the works and in the pipeline at Westfield, there’s an emphasis now on global design idea exchange of leading-edge concepts between and among the countries. Westfield is designing its projects in the mode of  “contemporary alternative.”

“We are looking at fresh, leading-edge ideas that add life and excitement to retail,” says David Moore, the company’s executive vice president of design. “We’re not trying to create the sort of neo-traditional spaces or the faux history that a lot of the retail industry is currently looking at. We don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, but we like to be a little fresher, and we take our inspiration in large degree from international design.”

Another major focus at Westfield Design is on internal development marketing. The company has an in-house group that helps form the design direction for projects through a series of demographic and psychographic evaluations that help define who the customer is and what he/she wants.

“What the research tells us is who is in our marketplace and who the ‘alpha shopper’ is in that marketplace,” notes Vince Zawodny, vice president of design. “That becomes an architectural strategy that attracts the alpha shopper portion of our marketplace, and we find the alpha shoppers tend to bring most other shoppers with them because they are the folks ‘in the know.’”

Westfield has plans for 500,000 square feet of new and reconfigured space at Westfield Montgomery in Bethesda, Maryland.

A good example of this strategic thinking can be found in the design of Westfield Montgomery in Bethesda, Maryland. Westfield has plans for 500,000 square feet of new and reconfigured space with exterior, streetscape-style entrances to new shops and restaurants. In addition to new mini anchors and specialty retail stores, the project includes a new signature Dining Terrace, a ‘restaurant row’ precinct, fashion wing, theaters and two structured parking decks. In planning the new space, the design group found that Bethesda, Maryland, has a very unique demographic.

“When you think about the Washington, D.C., area and, particularly Bethesda, with the National Institutes of Health, government services, military, leading attorneys and politicians in America, there’s really a very rarified demographic,” notes Zawodny. “The area is populated by people who tend to move there and not necessarily are born and grow up there. They tend to be at the pinnacle of their careers and often they decide to have just one child or no children. So we’ve found very interesting things about this crowd. For example, they don’t mind being in institutional settings so long as those settings are completely oriented toward them and the way they work. So at Westfield Montgomery, we’re intensifying the site with retail shopping and parking structures. It’s a very dense, urban site.”

The Westfield Montgomery design is in contrast to some of the company’s projects in the Midwest, such as Westfield Belden Village in Canton, Ohio, or Westfield Louis Joliet in Joliet, Illinois.

“In those areas, the demographic really wants, even demands, environments that are more traditional in order to feel comfortable and attracted to those environments, says Zawodny. “That’s what appeals to the alpha shopper in those markets.”

“It takes the guesswork out of what’s right or wrong in the root form of what we design,” notes Moore. “It adds a little science to the design process.”

That “science” is all part of Westfield’s focus on the customer experience and service — knowing who the customer is and how to give customers exactly what they want. Nationally, Westfield Design has been considering what is state-of-the-art in terms of elements like play areas for kids, family rest rooms, concierge service, the very best way to provide parking, and how to make those things convenient, comfortable, functional and appealing to the customer.

“It’s all relevant to the customer experience,” says Moore. “It’s what the customers feel when they first hear about the mall and what they see as they drive in and enter any Westfield front door.”

2007 Design Work

Westfield San Francisco Centre combines new design with existing architectural elements.

Last fall, Westfield and Forest City Enterprises celebrated the grand opening of Westfield San Francisco Centre, marking the debut of the $460 million revitalization of the famed Emporium site into one of the finest shopping, office and entertainment destinations in the world.

Westfield San Francisco Centre is located at 865 Market Street, in San Francisco, across from the Powell Street cable car turn-around and directly above the BART and MUNI Powell Street Station. The Centre offers separate entrances on Market, Mission, and Fifth streets as well as two entrances from the BART and MUNI Powell Street Station, creating a corridor connecting Union Square, South of Market and Yerba Buena.

Now the largest urban shopping center west of the Mississippi, Westfield San Francisco Centre is ideally located in the heart of the city, immediately proximate to the Union Square shopping district, the contemporary South of Market (SOMA) district and Yerba Buena, the city’s burgeoning cultural corridor.

The food emporium area at Westfield San Francisco Centre.

Featuring the faithful restoration of the Emporium’s fabled glass dome and grand façade as signature elements, the approximately 1.5 million-square-foot mixed-use venue is projected to attract tens of millions of visitors per year and generate more than $600 million in annual retail sales.

Westfield San Francisco Centre is the only urban retail center distinctively anchored by the nations’ second largest Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom. Additionally, the Centre features a mix of 170 specialty stores and exclusive boutiques, The Restaurant Collection, comprising seven full-service restaurants, The Food Emporium, housing Bristol Farms gourmet market and 14 fast-casual gourmet eateries, Class A office space, Burke Williams Day Spa, and a nine-screen, state-of-the-art Century Theatres. Westfield Centre, the office component, consists of 245,000 square feet of Class A office space. San Francisco State University’s Executive MBA program and College of Extended Learning occupies 107,000 square feet of the space, Microsoft announced it will lease 71,000 square feet.

Westfield launched its food emporium dining terrace concept at Westfield Bondi Junction in Sydney, Australia.

Both The Food Emporium and The Restaurant Collection offer gourmet-dining options from around the globe. The Food Emporium, modeled after Westfield Bondi Junction’s signature Harbor Room food court in Sydney, Australia, and Westfield Century City’s Dining Terrace in Los Angeles, California, features food served on authentic china with silver cutlery, elevating the level of dining to that of an upscale restaurant.

The Food Emporium, or “dining terrace” as Westfield refers to it, has been phenomenally successful, says Moore.

“It’s this spectacularly dramatic space where the cooking is part of the experience,” he says. “The food vendors are more like restaurants in the common space, and there’s a lot of activity and excitement in the design as well as the cooking and presentation of the food.”

“You can characterize it as chef kitchens in our dining room,” adds Zawodny.

“It actually equates to a sustainable practice as well, because there is very little trash and the food gets pulped and turned into compost.”

Sustainability is another important effort for Westfield Design. Virtually every project on the drawing board is being considered from a sustainability perspective or currently has an environmental consultant assigned to it to address issues such as lighting retrofits, roofing systems, solar technology and more.

Westfield Topanga is another project that includes a dining terrace concept. In October, the center celebrated the grand opening of its $350 million reinvestment with a new Nordstrom, Target, unique café-style dining terrace and more than 140 other retailers. Westfield Topanga’s diverse and upscale retail mix is unmatched in the San Fernando Valley, as the new center offers nearly 70 new popular retailers making their Valley debut. Completed in 13 months and six weeks ahead of plan, the expanded center encompasses approximately 1.6 million square feet of retail space and more than 250 shops and restaurants. Neiman-Marcus and additional luxury retailers will join the center in fall 2008.

Westfield Topanga is the only shopping center in the world that will have a Neiman-Marcus and a Target in the same center. Such concepts, coupled with a dining terrace, a gourmet grocery, restaurant and entertainment precincts are what make Westfield’s projects unique, adding new elements and new energy not necessarily found in the conventional regional mall format.

The dining terrace at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles.

“Westfield takes aspects of a typical mall, like a food court, and really breaks the rules,” says Randy Galang, regional design director for Westfield. “At Century City, for example, each of the tenants were given a boutique architect that would design their space, and that’s something you don’t see happening anywhere else. There are aspects of the typical mall that we are totally turning upside down and recreating and reinventing.”

Last year, Westfield submitted its application to the City of Los Angeles for its New Century Plan, the next stage in the modern transformation of Westfield Century City shopping center into the premier outdoor shopping and entertainment destination in Los Angeles. The plan represents a reinvestment of approximately $500 million in the continued rejuvenation of the property at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars.

The New Century Plan adds premium specialty retail shops and dining options, increased parking, a new central plaza, more open space and improve the streetscape along Santa Monica Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars with lush new landscaping and pedestrian-friendly walkways.

A key feature of the revitalization will bring new luxury high-rise homes with magnificent views that will offer residents the convenience of comfortable living in a neighborhood distinguished by premier shops, an upscale supermarket, a full range of alfresco and white tablecloth dining and entertainment choices, along with easy access to quality office space.

Beyond 2007

One of the largest retail real estate design efforts of its kind in the world, the Westfield Design group is still growing and is actively recruiting every level of design professional, from entry level designers to top executive designers to interior design professionals. Given the volume and diversity of projects, Westfield has also partnered with some of the leading world-class retail design consultants nationally and internationally, such as RTKL Associates, TVS and Omniplan Architects.

As for the future, the company will remain focused on what the customer needs through its development marketing, demographic research, consumer orientation and the character of project’s geographic location, says Moore.

“We have projects where we’re expanding the interior mall or introducing outdoor components because it’s the right thing to do for the market,” he says. “In many cases, we’re almost doubling the size of a project.”

In addition, Westfield is evaluating a number of sites all across the country for ground-up development potential.

“We are also looking at adding other uses, including residential hotel and office to create multiple use developments and redevelopments to enhance and intensify the project for the marketplace,” adds Zawodny. “Where the market demands it or is right for it, we are looking at intensification of the program on site, not just retail.”

Currently, Australia-based Westfield Group has interests in 121 shopping centers in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. In the U.S., the Group has a portfolio of 59 shopping centers that are home to more than 9,000 specialty stores and comprise approximately 65 million square feet of leasable space in 13 states.


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