At a nature preserve? Nope! A park service-style bulletin kiosk in a shopping center is much more interesting for being out of context.
I wasn’t expecting much when I met a colleague at a strip mall in Orange County not long ago. But this was an unusual strip mall. “The Camp,” as it’s called, consists of refurbished warehouses landscaped with references to outdoor recreational spaces — Forest Service-style bulletin kiosks and an orientation map that looks like a 3-d campground map. Angular awnings over entryways suggest spacious, airy tents, and one of the shops is housed in a tiny, round-cornered camping trailer.
The shopping center's orientation map.
The campground theme is charming, but there’s more to it than that. As soon as I pulled into the parking lot, I could see that this strip mall was up to something. The word “community” hangs in yellow letters across the wall separating the lot from the busy street. A missive printed on the pavement at the foot of my parking spot urged me to “focus.” Someone else’s parking spot suggested riding a bike instead. Inside the shopping center, a directional signpost points to “Shop local,” and the staircase to the second level offers a series of pledges, in green letters, for your consideration: “Build with recycled materials,” and “Choose the green alternative.” While you might find these trite promptings mildly irritating (I did), the messages and the landscaping add up to give the whole place a sense of purpose — a purpose beyond just shopping. And it works.
Tarp-like awnings over entryways add to the campground feeling.
At one of the shops, Seed, my colleague and I happened to run into Michael Brandon, Director of Leasing and Cultural Development for Lab Holding, the company that owns The Camp. Michael told us that The Camp’s landscaping was designed by Andrew Spurlock, who did the Robert Irwin Garden at the Getty. Michael described some of the company’s current and future projects, and while he didn’t specifically say so, it sounded very much like Lab Holding is attempting to make commercial spaces that are truly community spaces as well: a food court with a community garden, for instance. If The Camp is styled to suggest purpose, these future projects sounded like they would be functionally purposeful as well.
Native Foods lives in a "yurt."
Later, I went across the street to The Camp’s sister shopping center, The Lab, to wait out the traffic before driving back to L.A. The Lab doesn’t have as distinctive an identity as The Camp, but I found what I think was the most effective community-building tool at either of location. It was a long, sturdy glass-topped table set in the center of an open courtyard surrounded by restaurants, a hair salon, a coffee shop, and some offices. Anyone could sit there to work or talk — no purchase necessary. A group of architects sat at one end of the table, with drawings spread out in front of them. During the several hours I sat at the table with my laptop, some students dropped by, a couple of surfers, a mom and two kids. And I was struck by how much more convincingly that table said “community” than the word itself ever does.
"Community," says the parking lot wall.
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What an interesting place. Next time I come to LA , I’m definitely going there. It’s worth supporting an effort like this.
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