BRANDSCAPES

Anna Klingmann

(Published in Archithese, 2003)

Today, the admiration of the world is no longer directed at the pilots of transatlantic airliners: instead our

great heroes are global architects. Aerospace and electronic communications have long since solved the

problem of linking the five continents into a coherent whole: the new task is to create new identities for the
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patchwork of old and new cities caught up in the one-world network of a globalized future.

‘Architecture as a brand’ is shaped by the cross roads of opportunity created by the global collision of

markets, media culture, and technology. The architectural brand goes beyond the architectural object to

create new identities and experiences. Experience in this sense is not what simply happens to you, but

like any other commodity is consciously created. It is only through the immediacy of perception elicited by

the iconic quality of myth that architecture can begin to transcend its object status into the orchestration of

a truly integrated experience. Thus, architecture brought into the concurrent context of marketing becomes

a complex manifold of myth, identification and effect.

On the one hand architecture has already become part of a package, that may perhaps best be described

by the idea of branding - but even in order to secure its survival as a ‘singular commodity’, it needs to

engage some of the interdisciplinary thought of marketing, to the degree, that it may compete with other

products on the global market.

All of the case studies that will be introduced in the next paragraphs rely on strong marketing strategies to

back their design concept. In all instances, marketing is assimilated into the architectural design process

mediating perceptual specificity in conjunction with communication of narratives. Ultimately, all examples

demonstrate commercial strategies that blend social values with the strategic thought of finance.

Literal Brandscapes

Urban renewal and urban entertainment, terminologies born from the latest of economic developments in

the United States account for a new urban phenomenon, where entire cities emerge as branded

merchandize of an experience economy. Today, more than ever, brandscapes as physical sites have

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become the key elements relinking identity, culture, and place, and as such, signify a paradigmatic shift in

the definitive terms of culture and economy. Marked by a variety of themes and lifestyles, new forms of

urban communities are called into existence, where cities are remarketed as commercial enterprises. The

conversion of cities into commodified simulacra of public life is frequently shaped by brands as

deterritorialized signifiers of lifestyle and identity.

The Case of Times Square and Potsdamer Platz

Due to their spatialization as three-dimensional entities positioned in the urban territory – brands today

frame physical contexts of their own. This process of brand territorialization in particular increasingly

affects urban centers; two strikingly similar examples are Times Square and Potsdamer Platz. It makes

no difference that one was merely redeveloped while the other was rebuilt from scratch: both constitute

territories fabricated by a global brand industry. Replacing the specificity of local culture with the

spatialization of mediated brand identities, corporations have exteriorized themselves to formulate

culturally independent territories.

In this regard both, Times Square and Potsdamer Platz constitute synthetically conceived protourban

conditions and hence appear to be virtually interchangeable. This however is not quite so. Whereas the

spatialization of brands is a global phenomenon, brands as initially aterritorial entities nevertheless benefit

from very specific myths of carefully selected sites and gain even more significance as a result.

Conversely, also the site itself gains a compounded significance through the implementation of a specific

brand. Just as Potsdamer Platz acquired its latest identity from Daimler Chrysler and Sony who

conversely also benefit from the lingering myth of Potsdamer Platz, Times Square is strongly linked to the

corporate identity of Disney. At the same time the Disney myth is reinforced by the history of Times

Square as a legendary entertainment district. In this regard, Times Square 42nd Street, former theater and

red-light district, has been transformed into today's New York Land, a themed shopping area split between

the corporations Disney, Warner Brothers and Ford. In a similar fashion Potsdamer Platz after the

unification of East and West Berlin was redivided between the two corporations of Sony and Daimler

Chrysler giving rise to a differentiation of architectural expression and materialization that expresses the

respective identity of the corporation. Whereas the Daimler Chrysler territory can be easily identified by its

contextual limestone architecture, the Sony site is characterized by its use of glass and steel construction.

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What's fascinating in both instances is the fusion of two essentially very different icons - a global brand is

successfully merged with a world-famous site documenting a very specific part of a cultural heritage. In

this sense, the myth of a deterritorialized brand is strategically compounded with the myth of a very

specific culture or place.

Curious in this regard however, is the fact that the brand's new spatial dimension as a culturally

independent site neither gives rise to new forms of organization, nor informs new typologies in

architecture. The import of Helmut Jahn's generic architecture for the Sony territory begs the question of

how its postmodern rendition might inform a cultural site related to the identity of Sony as a global

corporation marketing technological advancement and cultural innovation. Neither does the progressive

potential of the brand inform the urban organization of Potsdamer Platz in any way. Instead, the

organizational structure of the most recent version of Potsdamer Platz is revived from historical plans of a

Potsdamer Platz that has not existed for decades. In this regard, the real potential of place making based

on brand identity is not exploited: even though brands have in themselves the potential to transcend the

specifics of site, culture and tradition, these brand territories, at least superficially, still strongly model

themselves on contextual parameters.

Nonetheless, it is a valid proposition to maintain that brandscapes arise from the conjunction of two

principles: an increasing exteriorization of corporate identities on the one hand combined with an artificial

making of place on the other. Brandscapes constitute the physical manifestations of synthetically

conceived identities transposed onto synthetically conceived places - demarcating culturally independent

sites where corporate value systems materialize into spatial experiences.

In contrast to traditional architecture, basing its formal articulation on notions of culture, context and

function, brand architecture manifests its own cultural landscape, deriving from a particular brand identity.

In its most ideal scenario a brandscape exteriorizes a corporate value system simultaneously as an image

to establish market presence, as well as in its provision of a marketable experience as a means to

establish brand identification. Consequently, brandscapes become largely the product of two factors:

image and experience.

But if we look at the spatial rendition of many brands, this premise is not fulfilled. Nike's brand

architecture, for example, remains the weakest part of its holistic projection, matching neither the level of

product innovation nor providing exceptional experiential value of any kind. Niketown in New York is a

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great example, where the discrepancy between branded architecture, between interior design and exterior

design, graphic design and the building's poor experiential quality becomes evident. While the term

"Niketown" designates its own ageographically-defined context in form of a city, the building clearly fails to

exploit this potential. Whereas the product line constantly turns out new iconographic effects, reinforcing

and reinventing the image of Nike, Niketown as a built brand environment instrumentalizes very familiar

organizations and iconographies. And where the product range constantly invents new typologies that

are neither modeled on traditional aesthetics or superseded technologies, but on the contrary express the

latest technology coupled with a futuristic image, the architecture is stuck in a highly contextual mode.

Thus, for architects the question remains if and in how far this radical augmentation of branding might

inform new principles of planning and opportunities for design, new and interesting social experiences,

and new typologies in architecture.

Phenomenal Brandscapes

From the examples given, it becomes quite obvious that architecture and urbanism have become firmly

embedded in current marketing strategies. As Gottdiener writes: “It has become quite evident in the past

few decades that consuming is no longer only sign driven but also dependent on new forms of space.” In

fact, the commercial environment has become a sign in itself, as a “symbolic space that connotes

something other than its principal function – the realization of capital through the stimulation of consumer
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desires and the promotion of sales.” Turning this game around, it could be argued, that the insertion of

commercial activities might also be used to revitalize cities and rebrand places. Thus, whereas the

previous section illustrated how brands are literally converted into marketable experiences, this paragraph

explores the potential of brandscapes as a means to rebrand city districts, create experiential value, and

to promote urban revitalization.

Partially as a consequence of the decline of industry and partially due to a decline in public funding, former

industrial sites as well as urban centers in need of revitalization are increasingly converted into profitable

branded mixed-use complexes or – to put it in real-estate terms - Urban Entertainment Districts.

Urban Entertainment Districts owe their origin to the economic recessions of the 1970’s and early 1990’s,

which inspired the development of off-price and outlet retailers, while forcing shopping malls to seek out

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competitive niches. Given the premise that all urban activity hinges on practices of consumption, shopping

is used as a vehicle to reinvent the urban experience. In this regard, UEDs offer a synergetic combination

of entertainment, dining, and retail, which are also frequently mixed with cultural venues. The Urban Land

Institute defines Urban Entertainment Districts as a new form of shopping center that must contain three

basic components: at least one pure entertainment attraction, generally a new generation cinema

complex; theme restaurants; and entertainment oriented shops in a coordinated, intensely sociable

environment that draws large and diverse audiences. From a real estate point of view the intent is to draw

visitors from a variety of overlapping markets.

In their effort to provide innovative experiences and consumer engagement through a shared sense of

entertainment, the origin of Urban Entertainment Centers can be traced to the evolution of exhibition

architecture from the 1900’s like the Crystal Palace in London, the Eiffel tower in Paris or the Sea lion

Park in Coney island, N.Y. - to more recent examples of entertainment architecture like World Fairs,

Expos and theme parks. What we learn from this progression is that techniques formerly applied to

expositions and leisure venues are now applied as urban planning strategies and city marketing.

Typically, UEDs are conceived as public-private joint ventures that are financed by large corporations and

to a lesser extent by public funding. While corporations seek out new ways to realize capital, municipalities

hope to promote the improvement of urban areas by generating additional tax revenues and enhance their

marketability for spin-off residential development and employment-generating activities. From the private

perspective, developers as a rule need the public sector to share the financial burden of planning and

operating costs, particularly in downtown locations.

Thus, it could be argued, that the proliferation of mix-use environments has largely resulted from the

convergence of several economic factors involving marketing, retail, and real estate trends, along with a

growing need for municipal revitalization. The goal is, as realtors have it, to create a destination – a point

of arrival, a place. This place must provide a shared identity for a larger region must be recognizable as an

icon as well as provide myriad forms of instant identification. Conceived as programmatic hybrids, which

amalgamate multiple modes of consumption with specific themes and experiences UEDs lend formerly

depressed areas a new identity.

These destinations have since become trademarks in their own right. Just like a brand, this type of

orchestrated consumer environment has to cater to a large target market. In this regard, a UED aims at a

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highly diversified experience while seeking to establish a consistent image. Crafting this image involves a

variety of sources, which may be fictional and/or historical – sometimes both in order to establish a sense

of context. Intrinsically linked to the production of carefully orchestrated atmospheres Urban Entertainment

Districts become stage productions for the induction of historical and cultural narratives established by

practices of consumption in order to maximize appeal to potential customers and tourists.

As powerful extensions of media culture, Urban Entertainment Districts combine strategies of narrative

theming and placemaking: by effectively merging narrative iconography with commercially inspired

programs into scripted experiences a sense of place is established. Viewed from a wider perspective,

these projects provide a new definition of context where fictional elements collide with history to forge

urban identities. Most of these projects are created from a "back story", a technique borrowed from the

entertainment industry - now applied to urban planning - in order to craft an narrative that blends the

authenticity of the preexisting fabric with a sense of fantasy or romance to appeal to the potential visitor.

The elements involved in creating a "place" include strategies of land marking, choreography,

densification, the design of pedestrian spaces, the use of narrative or contextual associations, and

frequently the application of brand development techniques. In a variety of developments, branding

consultants are used to apply strategies that are typically used for the branding of consumer products.

Interestingly, the cities, which often act as partners in developing UEDs, have been turning to the very

same branding consultants to define and differentiate their image for conventioneers and tourists.

In addition, most destination developments work with the reintroduction of familiar urban elements such as

pedestrian streets, piazzas, esplanades, as well as variations in the facades to create a sense of intimacy

along with the feel of a public space. TrizecHahn’s Hollywood-Highland, a redevelopment of Hollywood

Boulevard is a paradigmatic example of such a destination. Named after the roads that it is immediately

adjacent to, this entertainment district markets the fictional context of Hollywood as a “real place”

Recreating historic icons and movie sets from the 1930’s, a theme establishes the center point destination

that eluded so many tourists in their frustrated effort to find Hollywood.

Third Street Promenade - Evolution into a Flattened Branded Landscape

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Another example in of an Urban Entertainment District is the remodeled version of Santa Monica’s Third

Street Promenade in Los Angeles, a three block outdoor walking street comprised of flagship stores, large

cinema complexes, and national brand eateries. Transformed from a regular side street into a festive

outdoor mall, Third Street Promenade demonstrates how marketing is effectively compounded with

architecture to create a financially flourishing commercial environment, which not only draws local

residents to downtown Santa Monica to shop, but also many tourists from across the United States and

abroad. A combination of entertainment, dining, and retail creates a synergetic trinity of interrelated

spending patterns that not only promote rapid turnover of profit but also encourage return business. From

a crafted overlay of regional as well as fictional elements an identity is created, which is best described as

a “European-style walking street with a California flair.“

Historically, Third Street Promenade has been a testing ground for almost every major urban planning

movement of the 20th century. Originally, in the 1950’s, at about the time when many suburbs of Los

Angeles were incorporated into the metropolitan area, Third Street was a classic downtown business

street with pedestrian and automobile traffic, which supported the main business district of the city.

People lived, worked and played close to their home and close to downtown. Eventually, with the baby

boom of the 1960’s, the growing prominence of automobiles, and the rapid development of highways,

traditional downtowns like Third Street were loosing business to commercial strips like Santa Monica

Boulevard. With the convenience of one-stop shopping and expedient parking, the strip became the

preferred shopping location for a more mobile suburban culture. In an effort to counter this trend and to

bring people back into the downtown area, the city of Santa Monica decided to convert Third Street into a

pedestrian outdoor mall. This project, however, included no particular tax incentives for new businesses

to move in, nor did it put forth any effort to regulate the programmatic mix of businesses. In short, the city

just removed the street, made some cosmetic changes and left traditional downtown businesses as they

were. With the pedestrianization of the road, however, all parking was removed, and therefore

discouraged people to visit the neighborhood. The area, then called the Third Street Mall, actually

distanced the shops further from the people of the city who loved their cars and were not willing to park

and walk five blocks to go to their bank or their local drugstore. With no car traffic and a dwindling

pedestrian presence, the area was becoming a ghost town.

Ten years later, when Santa Monica, like many other downtowns in the United States, was virtually

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abandoned, the city decided to support the construction of an indoor shopping mall on the end of Third

Street. The project, called the Santa Monica Place Mall and designed in part by Frank Gehry, was expected

to bring people back to Santa Monica and therefore also invigorate the commercial activities of the

surrounding districts. The mall, however, was from its conception destined to failure. Instead of attracting

people to the outdoor streets of Santa Monica, the mall kept people in the air-conditioned interior of the

mall. The downtown had even fewer visitors, which simultaneously lessened the likelihood of new

businesses moving in. Ultimately, the area attracted a lot of crime and became even more unattractive to

the residents of the city. It was evident that a solution to the problem of Third Street needed more than

financial support from the city, it needed private sector help.

By the end of the 1980’s, the City of Santa Monica decided to renew the downtown area in a last effort to

bring local residents and shoppers back to Third Street. The city created the Bayside Development

District, a private-public partnership between the planning commission of the city and the Chamber of

Commerce to oversee and replan the nine-block area. With a minimal $13 million investment by the city to

repave Third Street and enlarge one parking garage, the rest of the development costs, including

hundreds of millions of dollars in building and garage redevelopment was funded by the private sector.

Ultimately, the problem of Third Street was addressed from several vantage points, combining marketing

and architecture into a winning enterprise: public and private sector investment, planning and tax break

incentives, urban design and landscaping, densification of built fabric and program, along with a

concentration on local character and draw were strategically amalgamated to lend the area a new image.

In order to implement and further develop these strategies into an urban planning proposal, the city of

Santa Monica hired the Roma Design Group from San Francisco. The solution according to Roma was

the conversion of the street into an Urban Entertainment District. In order to achieve a more experiential

appeal for residents, visitors and tourists alike, Roma redesigned the street once again as an outdoor

pedestrian mall, this time however with the overlay of atmospherically enhanced themes in an effort to

rebrand the area. The primary theme rested on the image of a medieval European street in an effort to

increase density and to achieve a more sensual feel. To accomplish this goal, Roma ironically had to first

create an abundance of parking immediately adjacent to Third Street knowing that if people did not find a

parking space within five minutes upon arrival they would simply leave and never return. Secondly, Roma

Design reconstructed the actual roadbed, in an attempt to persuade people to walk on the "sidewalk"

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despite the fact that the entire street was conceived as a pedestrian environment. This move however not

only promoted a feeling of urban density but furthermore enabled other activities to take place in the

roadbed, which from its onset was lined with cart vendors and street performers along with urban

elements such as fountains, plantings, kiosks and newsstands to provoke a feeling of urban liveliness and

congestion. On the sidewalk, Roma set aside areas to be used for outdoor dining and sidewalk sales in

order to increase the intimacy of the space. The actual buildings on the street were densified

programmatically and with increased FAR allowances enabled a higher concentration of commercial

activity. Commercial activity, in this regard, was carefully planned to achieve a mix of interlinking

entertainment options. The key element of entertainment rested primarily on the introduction of large

cinema complexes, which served as anchors and encouraged people to visit, stay and to return

periodically because of their changing offerings. In order to achieve an interesting blend of shopping

venues, the Bayside Development District encouraged a mix of local eclectic businesses and national

flagship stores. Furthermore, the city severely restricted all drive-through businesses on the Promenade

and eliminated all banks from Third Street because of their high square footage, minimal business hours

and pure functional purpose. Conversely, stores like bookeries and cafes were encouraged and recruited

because of their ability to make customers linger. The provision of outdoor dining became a must for all

restaurants on the Promenade.

To effectively promote business growth over time, the city offered low taxes, relaxed parking assessment

fees and lease benefits. By 1995, Third Street Promenade was an overwhelming success with rental rates

above 95%.

In recent times, however, a growing trend is emerging where large multinational franchises increasingly

displace the colorful mix of counter and high culture businesses that created the unique value of Third

Street. One of the primary concepts that set Third Street apart in its early first four years was precisely the

delicate equilibrium between eclectic retailers and national franchises, which lent it an image of diversity

and street life. The space resembled a "vivacious marketplace" where the Diesel store needed the vintage

clothing store next door for the character and experience. With the increasing economic success of the

area, however, large brands saw the potential to earn over $1200 per square foot per month for a retail

store on the Promenade and started to buy out the local retailers. As a consequence, Third Street

progressively looses this carefully crafted balance due to a rapid take-over by large corporations such as

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Old Navy, Starbucks, and Adidas. The result is a growing loss of local character and social diversity. With

more and more chain franchises moving in, Third Street increasingly resembles other shopping venues in

the area loosing its competitive edge.

Gradually, large corporations come to realize that cultural diversity might add another layer of experience

from which they could ultimately benefit. Hence, the question presents itself if Third Street could be

restructured in a way to account for this "flattening of the urban landscape" by international franchise

stores, and recognize a next phase in branded space where “brand backlash and counterculture could
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potentially become a branded urban experience in itself.”

Conclusion

In conclusion, it could be argued that UEDs encourage urban revitalization possibly even beyond the

boundaries of the projects themselves. Visual choreography, architectural drama, and a diversity of

experiences succeed to bring a social dimension to what might otherwise be a dull commercial

environment. The reciprocal creation of communal spaces along with creation of economic value is a vital

prerequisite for the recovery of urban spaces. Using consumption as a driving force for urban renewal has

proven to be quite successful, assisting the financial success of the tenants as well providing a new

identity for formerly depressed downtowns. So why do most architects have an innate feeling that

something is wrong? Perhaps to architecture academia, any project that is driven by commercial

objectives is seen as problematic. The didactic role of architecture is replaced here with a commercial

objective – the city as another object for consumption. Hence, we must not forget that, UEDs represent

spatial marketing tools, which cater their designs on the presumed preferences of a selected target

market.

In most cases, the concept of local culture is simply equated with readily understood images to achieve an

"instant identity". In other cases the iconography might rest on elements that introduce foreign cultures as

a cliché of three-dimensional images ranging from the remix of medieval Italian hillside towns, Islamic

Bazaars, or European marketplaces, which are reconstructed as atmospheres. Many UEDs therefore,

take on a cartoon-like quality, which like advertisements reference the urban fabric in its rhetoric but not in

its spatial practices. This simulation manifested in collaged iconographies, signs, and flattened facades,

does not address the “why” but rather the consequence of the social and urban condition. While

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presenting an economically sound way of designing it is doubtful that these mix-use projects will ever

extend beyond the choreography of commercial plazas and themed shopping environments. Even as they

effectively amalgamate several inherently commercial activities in the effort to produce a social space

UEDs can never encompass a true urban situation as they generally remain largely unaffected by the

particularities of the social context and therefore neglect potentials for new uses and forms of urbanity.

And yet at the heart of these projects lies a strategy which, when viewed critically, can provide information

that proves to be beneficial for city development. In the vacuum of a lack of identity, theme-oriented

projects reconstruct urban identities and provide the opportunity of temporary group membership, by

creating access to highly differentiated, animated locations. In the worst case scenario however, theme-

oriented identity bestowal can rewrite the history of a place, adding historical values and forms regardless
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of whether these had ever actually existed.

Finally, it could be argued that brandscapes, both literal and phenomenal, provide miniaturized models for

an urbanistic trend that is driven by the economic principles of a multinational late capitalism. This

urbanism affects economic monocultures of consumption, which are highly differentiated according to

consumer behavior - where public space is privately financed and hence increasingly tailored to the needs

of selected target groups. Architecturally and urbanistically, these privately financed public spaces are

conceived as commercially driven experiences, - where spatial categorizations as we know them are

dissolved through a space-time compression manifest in the mixing of different scales, narratives, and

programs.

This condition ultimately yields to a new definition of place where places no longer apriori exist as part of a

local culture but are deliberately constructed based on economic needs of consumption. In this

connection, Hans Mommaas argues there are three areas of tension: “the tendency to gear city brands to

the dynamic of an external cash-rich market rather than to that of internal cultural practices and feelings;

the tendency to objectify and generalize specific cultural meanings by means of ‘brands and then to link

these meanings materially to spectacular places and projects; and the possible danger that ‘brands’

preclude renewal rather than stimulate it, the long-term effect being that urban practices are dragged
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along on their necessary inflation.”

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While guaranteeing a seamless experience on the inside these themed environments manifests severe

cuts and peripheral conditions on the outside - a backstage condition that will need to be addressed in

some way. While on a formal level brandscapes form coherent experiences - at a deeper level they cause

a social bifurcation that is less obvious but very much in place. Inside and outside are conceived in a

larger sense: who’s inside and who’s outside the system of consumption, who constructs these realities

and who simply participates.

i
Quote by Martin Pawley in World Architecture, 2000
ii
Gottdiener, Mark, The Theming of America, Second Edition, Westview Press, Cambridge, MA, 2001, pp 73
iii
Libbit, Bryan, Evolution into a Flattened Branded Landscape, Term paper for Toward a New Architecture, Anna
Klingmann, Cornell University, 2001

Hackenbroich, Wilfried, 'Design from Images' in Event City, Bittner, Regina (ED.), Campus: Edition Bauhaus 2000
Mommaas, Hans, ‘The Necessity of Socio-Cultural Goals’ in City Branding, Patteeuw Veronique (ED) NAI Publishers,
Rotterdam 2002, pp 38

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