TOPANGA PLAZA
Topanga Canyon and Victory Boulevards
Los Angeles, California

Mid-century mall maven Victor Gruen was involved in the design of the first regional-class, fully-enclosed shopping center in Southern California. TOPANGA PLAZA was developed by May Centers of St. Louis. It was built in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, on a 58 acre tract 25 miles northwest of the center city.

The original mall enveloped 727,100 leasable square feet, on 2 levels, and housed eighty-three retailers. The first anchor store in business was the 3-level (251,800 square foot), Los Angeles-based May Company of California, which held its gala grand opening February 10, 1964.

A second anchor, the 4-level (160,200 square foot), Los Angeles-based The Broadway, opened its doors August 24, 1964. By November of the year, a 2-level (116,600 square foot) Montgomery Ward was inline, as was a mallway-accessed Food Fair supermarket.

Other charter tenants included Joseph Magnin apparel, Mullen and Bluett apparel, Silverwood's apparel, Lane Bryant, Kay Jewelers, Florsheim Shoes, Hardy Shoes, Frederick's of Hollywood, Hudson's Jewelers and Sutton Brothers Home Decorating.

Grand openings at TOPANGA tended to be star-studded affairs, attended by Hollywood personalities such as Zsa Zsa Gabor, Lorne Green, Buster Keaton, Steve Allen, Jayne Meadows and Bea Benedaret.

The Topanga Plaza Ice Arena formally opened -to much media fanfare- in March 1964. It was located on the mall's first level, at the southeast corner. There was also the distinctive "falling glycerin" Rain Forest Fountain in the South Court. The North Court featured the Terrace Restaurant, which overlooked it from atop the May Company store.

A cinematic venue, the Topanga Theatre, was built across from The Broadway, on the southeast corner of Topanga Canyon and Victory Boulevards. It opened in 1965, was twinned in 1982 and tri-plexed in 1992. The building, which had housed a furniture store for some years, was razed in September 2007.

Major shopping options in the "TOPANGA MALL" trade area included FALLBROOK SQUARE (1963) {1 mile west, in Los Angeles} and NORTHRIDGE FASHION CENTER (1971) {4 miles northeast, also in Los Angeles}.

TOPANGA PLAZA was used in location shooting for Columbia Pictures' "Divorce American Style", in 1967. In the film, Debbie Reynolds and Emmaline Henry stroll the North Court, acend an escalator to the second level, traipse through Florsheim Shoes and then head into Joseph Magnin.

Mallophile's may want to check out these couple minutes of footage. They present a mid-'60s time capsule of what a shopping mall was like...topped off by some kooky-sounding "shopping mall music", filtering through the court and corridors.

TOPANGA PLAZA had been conceived as a predominantly middle market shopping center, with most stores and services geared toward a middle class clientele. In 1973, PROMENADE AT WOODLAND HILLS opened, which was two blocks south. This new mall was positioned as an upscale counterpart to the older shopping center.

A New York City-based Ohrbach's opened, in space previously leased by Joseph Magnin, in August 1980. This TOPANGA PLAZA store closed in December 1986.

The first expansion of "TOPANGA MALL" got underway in 1983. This consisted of the addition of a 2-level (154,000 square foot) Nordstrom, which opened in April 1984. A facelift renovation was also given to the mall's interior, with a 15-bay Food Court being installed in the old Ice Arena space. The shopping center now encompassed 881,100 leasable square feet and one hundred and twenty-five stores and services.

Subsequent renovations were carried out in 1992 and 1994; the latter repairing damage to the shopping center from the Northridge Earthquake of January 17, 1994. Other changes occurred at TOPANGA PLAZA in the 1990s. The mall had been sold to Australia-based Westfield Holdings (now the Westfield Group) in 1993. The May Company store had been rebranded as a Robinsons-May in January 1993.

The Broadway location was acquired by Sears in 1996 and the Montgomery Ward closed in 1999. By this time, the mall had been officially renamed WESTFIELD SHOPPINGTOWN TOPANGA.

A fourth renovation began in February 2005. The old Montgomery Ward was torn down and a multi-level addition built. Encompassing 753,500 leasable square feet, it nearly doubled the size of the existing structure.

This project included the construction of a new, 3-level (200,000 square foot) Nordstrom, 2-level (100,000 square foot) Target, and over one hundred stores and restaurants. Three parking garages were also added. As an adjunct to these changes, the Robinsons-May store was rebranded as Macy's in September 2006.

A new, totally refurbished, WESTFIELD TOPANGA (sans the "SHOPPINGTOWN") was dedicated October 6, 2006. With this renovation, the mall encompassed 1,514,600 leasable square feet and housed two hundred and seventy stores.

However, the 500 million dollar renovation project was far from finished. A second phase of construction replaced the circa-1984 Nordstrom with a 2-level (120,000 square foot) Neiman Marcus. The newly-constructed store was dedicated September 5, 2008.

WESTFIELD TOPANGA now encompassed 1,634,600 leasable square feet and trumped NORTHRIDGE FASHION CENTER as the largest shopping mall in the San Fernando Valley.

In late 2007, Westfield announced plans to connect WESTFIELD TOPANGA and WESTFIELD PROMENADE (nee' PROMENADE AT WOODLAND HILLS). This was to be accomplished with WESTFIELD VILLAGE AT TOPANGA, a 750 million dollar "urban village" complex to be built on the 29 acre section lying between the two malls.

The open-air, mixed-use development would have featured 438,500 square feet of retail, 75,000 square feet of restaurants a "boutique hotel" and incorporate 215,000 square feet of existing office space. Moreover, an aerial monorail system, linking the three shopping centers, was mentioned.

The tanking of the US economy, in 2008, caused drastic changes to be made in the project plan. The residential component and monorail were dropped entirely and the size of the prospective complex reduced by 45 percent.

However, an anchor store -Washington State-based Costco- was signed in mid-2010. Their store will comprise 1 level and 146,000 square feet. Costco plans on a 2012 grand opening. The remainder of WESTFIELD VILLAGE AT TOPANGA is scheduled for completion by 2016.