Westfield In San Francisco

PSFK was on the scene recently when the global shopping conglomerate Westfield Group opened their latest venture. the project located on San Francisco’s iconic Market St was a massive undertaking that reportedly cost more than $450 million(US). While not a fan of mega-malls, or malls in general, much effort was put into trying to be hip and very San Francisco about the whole thing.

There were numerous artists, DJ’s and fashionistas set up to show off and entertain giving the place an open-air feel. Interestingly and to their credit the developers renovated an existing historic building instead of bulldozing and re-building something new. The cavernous dome (pictured above) retains it’s history and reminds of grand projects of architecture past. They have a nice architectural fly through for those who are interested.

While there were numerous boutique stores and showy set ups, a
couple things stood out.The lower level is not only a top notch food
court but a full range grocery store. For city dwellers this is kind of
interesting. Large grocery stores can be inconveniently placed or hard
to get to in large cities due to the space needed to house them.
Perhaps placing one in a prime retail spot in a world shopping
destination is evidence of something the future holds as more of the
population urbanizes.

Another notable element was the opening of the first west coast store for Montreal based fashion label Parasuco.
Parasuco is run by founder and Italian born lead designer Salvatore
Parasuco. The label is a forward thinking and rather unusual with a
growing cult following. With more than thirty years under their belt
Parasuco’s future is looking brighter all the time as Canada’s first
international denim label. We made plans to speak further with Parasuco
and hope to be bringing you more on them soon.