West Towne Mall - 1970s

1970s

The West Towne and its sister mall, East Towne, were originally developed by Jacobs, Visconsi, and Jacobs Company of Cleveland, Ohio, which was later known as the Richard E. Jacobs Group. Initial anchors were Prange's, Sears, J.C. Penney and Manchester's. The Manchester's location was their sixth and at the time their largest store. The store would eventually be replaced by a food court.

West Towne was built in a cow pasture on the west side of Madison in an area that was originally intended for industrial development. After the mall was built it became a massive retail area instead. Palm trees and other tropical plants were originally used in the mall area. The trees shipped from Florida were nearly killed by a cold snap when delays in the shipment of the glass for the main entryway forced emergency heaters into use. Half-inch-thick glass (13 mm) made by Pilkington in England was hung in curtain form with no visible support or connections and filled a 50-by-27-foot (15 m × 8.2 m) area at the main entrance. A helicopter was employed to place the 30 HVAC units on the building's roof to control the climate of the building.

West Towne's grand opening was Thursday October 15, 1970 at 9:30 a.m. and had no ceremony or ribbon cutting to mark the occasion. The mall's manager James M. Roche explained the lack of a ceremony saying, "We feel the shopper has come out to see the center. Our "grand opening" will be symbolized by all stores opening their doors promptly at 9:30 a.m." Part of the opening included young women called "mall-ettes" handing out balloons, flowers and mall directories to shoppers. Only 28 stores were open at the time and two of the anchors Sears and J.C. Penney opened later.

Two artists were commissioned to provide artwork for the main mall area. Detroit sculptor Joseph A. McDonnell was commissioned to create five metal sculptures for the mall. McDonnell spent seven months completing the sculptures, four of which were motorized to rotate, as well as a large 15-by-15-foot (4.6 m × 4.6 m) chandelier-like work that hung near the east entrance. McDonnell was quoted as saying he was "astonished at the amount of money wanted to spend on art" and noted at the time that he had only seen one other shopping center that spent more on artistic development. Clarence Van Duzer, a sculptor from Cleveland, Ohio, was commissioned to help design three of the four fountain areas as well as a suspended sculpture and water sculpture locater at the center of the mall. Part of the central fountain included a 19-foot-tall (5.8 m) metal piece with several nozzles that circulated 800 US gallons (3,000 l) of water per minute, forming part of the sculpture. He also created four magnesium sculptures that were suspended from the ceiling between the fountain and one of the sunken lounge areas. The fountains and sunken lounges were removed during a late-1980s remodeling of the mall.