Photo Credit: Snookie77 via Flickr
Visionary retailer Rick Caruso is bringing the Disneyesque Los Angeles high-concept shopping center The Grove to the landfill and marshes west of Berkeley (actually in Albany) where the pony-tailed-and-hemp-clothing set has just spent a decade fighting baseball diamonds in favor of frogs.
It's genius, really. Because as my friend Jane says: "You can't buy Chanel lipstick anywhere in Berkeley." For shopping as theatre, it's brilliant. There's a huge audience just waiting for something like this, they just don't know it yet. Just look at that gingerbread house. Sweet! Most of Rick's malls feature dancing waters (to music) waterfalls and quaint cobbled streets, and we can expect the same here, perhaps with a touch of West Coast Bungalow, Arts & Craft Movement shingles and a little Stick-Style Queen Anne.
·The Grove
·Battle for the Waterfront... [SFGate]