A festival marketplace is a type of shopping market in the United States characterized by a mix of local tenants rather than regional or national chain stores, shop stalls and common areas designed to energize the space, and uncomplicated architectural ornamentation intended to highlight the goods rather than the building itself. Festival marketplaces were a leading downtown revitalization strategy in American cities during the 1970s and 1980s.
Background and History
The concept is most closely associated with developer James W. Rouse (1914–1996) and the Rouse Company, which had previously been major developers of suburban shopping malls and planned communities such as Columbia, Maryland. By the late 1970s, Rouse and his company turned attention to inner-city areas that suburban development had been accused of exacerbating. The festival marketplace was conceived as a way to reverse negative trends in downtown areas and attract both suburban residents and out-of-town visitors.
The first and most influential example is Faneuil Hall Marketplace in Boston, Massachusetts, which opened in 1976 and quickly became a prototype for the concept. It combined renovated historic buildings with shops, restaurants, food stalls, and live entertainment.
Design Principles
According to architect Barry Maitland (author of The New Architecture of the Retail Mall, 1990), the guiding principles of festival marketplaces include:
- A mix of local tenants rather than regional or national chain stores.
- Design of shop stalls and common areas to energize the space.
- Uncomplicated architectural ornament in order to highlight the goods.
Many successful projects benefited from waterfront locations and secure parking, and typically featured restaurants, specialty retail shops, international food courts, and nighttime entertainment such as music and live performances.
Notable Examples
Notable festival marketplaces include:
- Faneuil Hall Marketplace (Boston, Massachusetts) — opened 1976, the prototype.
- Harborplace (Baltimore, Maryland)
- South Street Seaport (New York City, New York)
- Pier 39 (San Francisco, California)
- Navy Pier (Chicago, Illinois)
- Bayside Marketplace (Miami, Florida)
- Waterside (Norfolk, Virginia)
- Union Station (Washington, D.C.)
- Jacksonville Landing (Jacksonville, Florida)
- Underground Atlanta (Atlanta, Georgia)
Scholarly Assessment
Academic literature has offered mixed assessments of festival marketplaces. Some critics have welcomed the return of public life and collective narratives to urban retail spaces. Others have criticized them for their exclusionary nature, formulaic aesthetics, and what scholar Jon Goss (1996) described as a "dream-house of contemporary consumer capitalism." A 1989 article in the Journal of the American Planning Association examined the festival marketplace as a public policy tool, raising questions about whether the public subsidies often required for such projects are justified by their economic impacts.
The festival marketplace concept is related to, but distinct from, the later lifestyle center retail format.
References
- Maitland, Barry (1990). The New Architecture of the Retail Mall. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold. pp. 25–26. ISBN 1854548158.
- Goss, Jon (1996). "Disquiet on the Waterfront: Reflections on Nostalgia and Utopia in the Urban Archetypes of Festival Marketplaces." Urban Geography, 17(3): 221–247.
- Frieden, Bernard J. & Sagalyn, Lynne B. (1989). Downtown, Inc.: How America Rebuilds Cities. MIT Press.
- Martin, Judith A. (1984). "If Baseball Can't Save Cities Anymore, What Can a Festival Market Do?" Journal of Cultural Geography.
