In The News : 2005

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The Pain and Pleasure of Creating Horton Plaza

August 1, 2005
This article also appears on another site: San Diego Metropolitan

Standing on a bench shoved up against a wall on the top level of Horton Plaza, Scott Aishton and John Gilchrist look eminently comfortable, despite the hot sun, quizzical looks of passing shoppers and the stream of directions from a ladder-perched photographer. Both men played a key role in the creation of the iconic shopping center, Gilchrist as the president and CEO of the developer, The Hahn Co., and Aishton as the project manager for the architect, Jon Jerde. They are like visitors to a favorite former home.

They and Jerde recall that nothing about Horton Plaza was easy, starting with attracting retailers.

"We had just taken the retailers out of Downtown, the ones that were left, when we developed Fashion Valley," Gilchrist says. "One of the last things to leave a community are the retailers and one of the last things you can get back are the retailers."

Downtown had lost the ability to support on its own a major retail project, so the idea behind Horton was to make something that attracted residents from around the county. First, Ernie Hahn, founder of Hahn Co., told Mayor Pete Wilson that the city must commit to improving Downtown. "Ernie was clear with Pete and the city that on the public side there really had to be a plan that talked about a larger vision for Downtown," Gilchrist says.

"They (city) took that list," Gilchrist says, "and about 18 months later came back and said to us, 'Pardee will do residential, we have federal funding for a trolley, are working with the Army Corps of Engineers on the marina and it looks like there are going to be some hotels. You are up.'"

Help came in many ways, including from developer Doug Manchester, who built and owns the Marriott Hotel & Marina and Manchester Grand Hyatt. "Ernie Hahn called me to arrange a meeting so his proposed lender, Teachers, could see first-hand that I was in the process of completing what is now our Marriott project," recalls Manchester. "We met on the 10th floor of the hotel under construction where I was reviewing some construction details. Ernie later told me that meeting enabled him to obtain his financing."

Financing the $140 million project, including $35 million from the city, was nice, but the architecture was flopping. "It got to a point that we were under a great deal of criticism from the press," Gilchrist says. "We were criticized for the prosaic suburban architecture we were going to do Downtown. We were just happy to be bringing retailers back."

That’s when Hahn called his former architect, Jerde, who had burned out on the restrictions of mall design.

"Ernie told Jon, 'If you set up to go back into the business, we will give you a great job in Downtown San Diego,'" Gilchrist says. "'We will pull the gloves off.'"

Jerde's memory is more succinct. "Ernie called me up and said, 'Jon, come and save me.'"

For years, Jerde, as the Hahn Co.'s lead architect, had spent long periods of time in close quarters with Hahn scouting shopping center locations. "He and I would ride together in his little airplane (flown by Hahn) looking for sites together for hours," Jerde says. "I would share these visions I had of places for common people."

Jerde drove from Los Angeles to San Diego for a meeting. "Ernie said, 'Jerde, I want you to go home and build me the greatest thing you can think of and when I come see it I want to see something I have never seen in my life.'"

Home for Jerde was the old building that once converted power for the defunct Los Angeles street car system. It was here that Aishton came in 1979 to start work on Horton. "I was living in Chicago and about to leave on vacation when I got the call to come work on this project," Aishton recalls. "If the call had come a day later I probably wouldn’t have gotten the job."

Being unleashed, and given about three months to perform, was inspiring. "Nobody other than me was setting up rules," Jerde says. "There was no template on how to do these things."

For design ideas, Jerde looked at existing San Diego architecture. "I tried to take pieces of buildings that were actually existing and warp the design to form the language of Horton," he says. "It is 15 different architectural styles and painted 50 different colors."

As the 35-square-foot model In Jerde's studio neared completion, Hollywood lighting specialists were brought in to add the finishing touches. A large black theatrical curtain covered the model on the day of the big presentation. "I had to do a selling job and a half," Jerde says. "I had to sell it to the mayor, the CCDC and the department store heads. They all showed up to my office for one big presentation. That was it. When they walked out, they all said, 'thank you, Jon.' A couple of days later I got a call from the redevelopment agency head and he said, 'How in the hell did you come up with that? They loved it.'"

"They were blown away," Gilchrist says. "They approached it a little bit like we did, which was 'you have to be crazy' to 'you know something, this could work.' Jon had a great reputation of designing people places, places people liked that worked. We had a reputation of leasing or managing properties that worked. I think they recognized that if this was somebody else they had not dealt with before, either from the architectural or development perspective, they would not have given them credence."

As the design went public, enthusiasm among the retailers built. "Many of the retailers were having contests with their own people about 'what kind of crazy storefront can you come up with that fits in this crazy shopping center in San Diego,'" Gilchrist says. "I think once the retailers understood what the ground rules were, everyone got on board. It became not only a challenge but it became very fun as well."

Jerde is fond of Horton's ability to mildy disorient people. "The project was designed in a funny kind of way to get you mildly lost," Jerde says. "On one side everything is three stories high and on the other four stories high."

Under Construction

Once the project started construction, Hahn's commitment to it stayed true. "All of the rules were set aside for Horton," Aishton says. "I honestly believe he felt it was his legacy. He knew he wasn’t going to be around to do this much longer. He said we needed to let the spirit remain in the project and not compromise it by taking an easier path."

Gilchrist says the Hahn company employees assigned to the project were told to "forget 80 percent" of what they knew about shopping center development.

Not everything went as planned. Aishton says the movie theaters were originally to be outside of Nordstrom, where Napa Valley Grille and Panda Inn are today. When Nordstrom objected, they were moved atop the parking structure at the mall's opposite end and a restaurant court was created.

How Is It Holding Up

As work today is going on behind the scenes to remodel and reposition Horton Plaza to better cater to Downtown’s growing residential population — "It probably is due for a refresher," says Jerde. — the mall continues to hold up nicely as a regional attraction.

"People go there because they love the place," Jerde says. "They don't come there to consume, but they all end up consuming."

Still, Jerde is surprised by the project's success. "These sort of projects get 9 million (visitors) a year," he says. "Horton is getting 25 million today in a rotten location. The perfect mall location is at a two-freeway interchange. The 35 million visitors a year it did early was pushing Disneyland numbers."

Gilchrist says the project is aging nicely. "I’m not sure I would have repainted as much," he says. "The whole idea was an Italian hill town. I think having a little patina on it would take it in that direction. But Westfield is keeping it up well, they have been a good stewards of the project."

Jerde, 65, does have regrets. "The biggest thing I am sad about is it was designed to have four levels of housing over the top," Jerde says. "In those days there was never housing over retail, that would be ridiculous. But as developers roll through, good ideas from guys like me don’t necessarily happen. It never ended up with this haircut of housing. The housing would wake it up so it was not just a visitor project."

Jerde has no regrets about what it did for him personally. "It launched my career," he says. "I was an architect, a real good architect. But I was a little guy. As soon as that was over I didn’t get any bigger physically but I got more clout."

Related Images

Jon Jerde