Edgewood Plaza Shopping Center in Palo Alto, Calif., a 1950's complex deemed eligible for the state's register of historic buildings, may be in danger of demolition. The neighborhood shopping center, constructed by renowned homebuilder Joseph Eichler, is one of the "most innovative, best-designed" shopping centers in the state, according to Alan Hess, architecture critic of the San Jose Mercury News.

Edgewood Plaza is thought to be the only retail center constructed by Eichler as part of an Eichler residential subdivision. Eichler (1900-1974) is best known for making modern architecture accessible to middle class homebuyers and for opening his developments to minority buyers at a time when housing discrimination was the rule.

Edgewood was designed for Eichler by A. Quincy Jones, one of California's most distinguished architects. The center is made up of several one-story buildings tied together by wide walkways. There is a larger supermarket building, now occupied by an Abertson's. The center is built in the same spare post-and-beam style as the surrounding Eichler houses, and the center and houses share such signature architectural elements as narrow vertical wood siding, large areas of glazing held by narrow wood mullions and wide roof eaves with over-scaled, exposed rafters.

The center is an integral part of the Eichler neighborhood, and is, according to Hess, "part of Eichler's vision of suburbia, which included community centers, libraries, stores and parks as well as housing." Now, after almost 50 years of continuous operation, Edgewood Shopping Center's future may be in jeopardy.

The city of Palo Alto is concerned that sales have dropped at the center, which means reduced sales tax revenue for the city. The city was planning to use its redevelopment powers to demolish the center and build a new mixed use complex; however, a budget crisis and other factors forced the city to abandon its plan in early 2003. In January, 2004, a private developer was reported to be developing plans for a multi-story housing and retail complex on the Edgewood site.

Edgewood Shopping Center is a significant part of Palo Alto's Modern architectural legacy which includes buildings designed by acclaimed Modernist architects Edward Durrell Stone, A. Quincy Jones and Frederick E. Emmons, Robert Anshen and Stephen Allen.

Organizations that have expressed their support for preserving Edgewood Shopping Center include DOCOMOMO, RPPN, The Eichler Network, and PAST (Palo Alto Stanford Heritage).

Sign the petition to show your support for Edgewood's Preservation. It's easy! We still need your signatures...

“Eichler achieved what the dreamers had only waxed poetically about. He built communities that embodied the ideals of the unprecedented American democracy and the great, culturally and economically upwardly mobile middle class…We see at Edgewood the courage to experiment. We see the rejection of the formal and tired forms of the past for the dynamic and informal forms so much in sync with the California experience. We see the traditional building techniques...turned into grand new experiments of space, structure, light and views."

Read more of Mark Marcinik's article "Time-Space Continuum: 1958-2002" in the Palo Alto Stanford Heritage newsletter, Autumn 2002 issue (PDF Format).

For information regarding preservation of the Edgewood,
contact Adriene Biondo at astroluxe@mindspring.com.

References:

The Eichler Network Excellent on-line resource for everything Eichler.

The Eichler Network’s Modern Book Nook: Online resource for books about Joseph Eichler and related subjects.