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Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade: the failure and resurgence of a downtown pedestrian mall

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Abstract

This article provides an overview of planning policy, practice, and theory related to downtown pedestrian malls in the US from the 1960s to present day taking into account social, economic, and design issues. It attempts to explain why most pedestrian malls failed and to recount the history of Santa Monica's downtown pedestrian mall. The story of this pedestrian mall is particularly interesting because the original mall, built in the 1960s, was a complete failure. Subsequently, the mall was entirely redeveloped in the 1980s and became a nationally recognized success. As interest in planning downtown pedestrian areas and alternative transportation modes has recently revived in the US, an explanation of the forces behind this turnaround is particularly illuminating.

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Notes

  1. ‘Downtown pedestrian malls’ are the American equivalent of the European car-free city centres. Usually at the beginning, they were exclusively commercial, with no mixed-uses, replicating suburban shopping malls. Hence the term downtown pedestrian ‘malls’.

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Acknowledgements

The author is grateful for the help of numerous individuals in Santa Monica who went to great efforts to provide extensive information on the history and operation of their Promenade. Special thanks are owed to Ken Baar.

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  1. Baar and Associates, 2151 Stuart St., Berkeley, 94705, CA, USA

    Dorina Pojani

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  1. Dorina Pojani
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Correspondence to Dorina Pojani.

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Pojani, D. Santa Monica's Third Street Promenade: the failure and resurgence of a downtown pedestrian mall. Urban Des Int 13, 141–155 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1057/udi.2008.8

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