NorthPark Center

In the early 1960s, developer Raymond Nasher leased a {{convert|97|acre|m2|adj=on}} cotton field on the edge of Dallas and hired E.G Hamilton of Harrell+Hamilton Architects. NorthPark Center opened in 1965, anchored by Neiman Marcus (which moved from Preston Center),{{cite web |title=Neiman's First Suburban Store: Preston Road — 1951-1965 |url=https://flashbackdallas.com/2020/08/02/neimans-first-suburban-store-preston-road-1951-1965/ |website=Flashback : Dallas |access-date=9 November 2023 |language=en |date=3 August 2020}} Titche-Goettinger and Penneys, other stores included Woolworth's, Doubleday, Kroger, and more.{{Cite web |date=2022-07-27 |title=How Dallas became the world's capital of the mall |url=https://www.dallasnews.com/arts-entertainment/architecture/2022/07/27/how-dallas-became-the-worlds-capital-of-the-mall/ |access-date=2022-10-25 |website=Dallas News |language=en}}

The first major expansion happened in 1973 when a new wing opened anchored by Lord & Taylor.{{Cite web |last=Postrel |first=Virginia |title=SPACES: NorthPark's Secret |url=https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/2006/april/spaces-northparks-secret/ |access-date=2022-10-25 |website=D Magazine |date=April 2006 |language=en-US}}

In early 2004 Lord & Taylor was repositioned and shuttered after being at the mall for nearly 30 years.

For its first 34 years, NorthPark stood on land leased from the Caruth family's foundation. David and Nancy A. Nasher (Nancy is Raymond's daughter) purchased the property in 1999.{{cite web | title = Nancy Nasher opens up on what it takes to make NorthPark Center a success | access-date = June 4, 2016 | url = http://interactives.dallasnews.com/2015/nancy-nasher/ | work = The Dallas Morning News | date = September 29, 2015}} In 2006, NorthPark opened to an expansion that more than doubled the size of the existing center, adding 88,000 sq ft. For its expansion, NorthPark brought back the same architecture firm that designed the original section to ensure its aesthetic was respected and enhanced. The expansion also included a new collection of specialty retail shops and a third-floor 15-screen AMC theater. The two-story expansion provided for circulation around the Center by forming a continuous loop through the complex.

In November 2007, NorthPark Center was named one of the "seven retail wonders of the modern world" along with the Neiman Marcus’ store at Natick Collection in Massachusetts, Japan's Mikimoto store in Ginza, England's Bullring shopping center, Poland's Złote Tarasy in Warsaw, Apple's flagship store in New York City and Italy's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II .{{cite web |title=Shopping Centers Today Online |url=http://www.icsc.org/srch/sct/sct1107/index.php |access-date=March 27, 2010}}

NorthPark was the home of Texas' first H&M, a fashion label from Sweden. H&M has since closed its NorthPark Center store, and opened other locations in Texas.{{cite web |title=H&M opening first Texas store at Dallas' NorthPark Center |url=http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/102710dnbushm.154fc0d.html |access-date=October 29, 2010}}

The American Film Institute's Dallas International Film Festival was sponsored by NorthPark Center in 2009. The event was held in the AMC NorthPark 15 Theater, which also hosted screenings during the festival's first two years.{{cite web |date=January 15, 2009 |title=AFI Film Fest gains new presenting sponsor |url=http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/stories/2009/01/12/daily47.html |access-date=May 27, 2009 |work=Dallas Business Journal}}

Barneys New York closed in April 2012 after having opened in 2006.{{Cite web |date=2018-02-08 |title=Barneys New York and Dallas don't mix — twice now; store closing |url=https://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/2012/10/08/barneys-new-york-and-dallas-dont-mix--twice-now-store-closing |access-date=2022-10-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208004354/https://www.dallasnews.com/business/retail/2012/10/08/barneys-new-york-and-dallas-dont-mix--twice-now-store-closing |archive-date=February 8, 2018 }} The space is currently split between different stores most notably Arhaus which opened in 2014 and Eataly which opened in December 2020.{{Cite web |last=Abril |first=Danielle |date=2013 |title=northpark center begins replacing |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2013/05/09/northpark-center-begins-replacing.html}}

Northpark Mall has a currency exchange at Travelex and tax free shopping with Texas sales tax refunds at TaxFree Shopping Ltd.{{Cite web|url=http://www.northparkcenter.com/pages/northpark-international-visitors|title=International Visitors {{!}} NorthPark Center|website=www.northparkcenter.com|language=en|access-date=2019-08-03}}

By 2023, NorthPark Center had announced several newest additions, among them are Rhone, Blue Nile, Breitling, Nike Rise, St.John, Buck Mason, Prada, Abercrombie & Fitch, Levi's, Jo Malone, Vuori, and Psycho Bunny.{{cite web | url=https://northparkcenter.com/shops/ | title=NorthPark Center | High Fashion & Luxury Shopping in Dallas }}

File:Mallart 2018.jpg]]

NorthPark Center was designed to include art as integral part of its interior landscape. NorthPark received the American Institute of Architects Award for "Design of the Decade - 1960s" as one of the first commercial centers in the United States to create space for the display of fine art.{{cite web |url= http://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/2007/05/northpark-center-aka-northpark-shopping.html |title= Malls of America |access-date=March 27, 2010 }}

File:NP Dillards.jpg

NorthPark Center was designed by Omniplan in the early 1960s. For its recent expansion, NorthPark's owners returned to the architectural firm responsible for the 1960s design. The expansion turned NorthPark's original U-shape into a square design surrounding a {{convert|1.4|acre|m2|adj=on}} landscaped garden known as "CenterPark." Featuring a series of lawns, 41-year-old live oaks and red oaks, seasonal flowers, crushed granite walkways, and a small collection of art, CenterPark doubles as a park area for visitors and customers.{{Cite web |url=http://northparkcenter.com/press_release/050307b.html |title=NorthPark Center - the Premier Shopping and Dining Center in Dallas |access-date=November 11, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090308050202/http://www.northparkcenter.com/press_release/050307b.html |archive-date=March 8, 2009 |url-status=dead }}

NorthPark Center received both the Texas Society of Architects' annual Design Award and the 25-year Design Award in 2007 for the original design.{{cite web | title = Texas Society of Architects - News & Events | access-date = May 27, 2009 | url = http://www.texasarchitect.org/news_detail.php?news_id=116&sess_id=900072c31c3e3de1591ed1cb2965e3ab }}

After a major expansion, at {{convert|2350000|sqft|m2}}, it is now the second-largest mall in Texas and the 21st-largest in the U.S. based on total square feet of retail space (gross leasable area) according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.{{cite web |url=http://www.icsc.org/apps/dmmdisp.php?dispid=TX0520 |title=Directory of Major Malls |access-date=2007-03-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930185302/http://www.icsc.org/apps/dmmdisp.php?dispid=TX0520 |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |df=mdy-all }}{{Cite web |url=http://www.northparkcenter.com/NorthParkFacts.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=November 11, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081120062505/http://www.northparkcenter.com/NorthParkFacts.pdf |archive-date=November 20, 2008 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.cmcalamosteel.com/projects/northpark.aspx|title=Projects - NorthPark Center |publisher=Commercial Metals Company|website=www.cmcalamosteel.com}}

NorthPark Center hosts Bookmarks, a {{convert|1993|sqft|m2|adj=on}} Dallas Public Library branch for children 12 years and younger. Bookmarks is the first children's library in the United States to be in a shopping center.{{Cite web

|work=Dallas Morning News

|url=https://www.dallasnews.com/place/cGVnYXN1czpwbGFjZQ-MTM1NjI-TVRNMU5qSQ/

|title=Bookmarks Library

|access-date=May 26, 2023 }}

The Center is at the intersection of the Central Expressway and Loop 12/Northwest Highway, located to the east and south of the center respectively. NorthPark is also across the freeway from The Shops at Park Lane, a mixed-use development with which includes shopping. NorthPark Center is the most popular shopping center in North Texas, with over 27 million visitors a year.{{cite web |url= http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6574016.html |title= Make It New: the Queens Library for Teens and Dallas's Bookmarks |access-date=March 27, 2010 }}

NorthPark's interior has been a location for scenes in television and film productions.

Dr. T and the Women, a Robert Altman film, has a scene in which the character Kate (Farrah Fawcett) visits stores in the area of the Neiman Marcus court, then is seen around the Dillard's court fountain—which she eventually finds herself in, frolicking and splashing in the buff.{{cite web |url=http://retailtrafficmag.com/mag/retail_mall_coming_theater/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613224813/http://retailtrafficmag.com/mag/retail_mall_coming_theater/ |archive-date=2011-06-13 |title=The Mall Coming To A Theater Near You |work=Retail Traffic Magazine}}

True Stories, a 1986 movie co-starring David Byrne, with one scene of a fashion show held at a mall in Virgil, Texas (the movie's fictional setting) during a town celebration; the interior portion of the scene was filmed in a mid-court area between Neiman Marcus and Dillard's. Byrne and co-star John Goodman were also filmed walking down one of the mall's corridors.

File:NP AMC.jpg

When the mall reopened in 2006, The Dallas Observer used the mall's ambiance as documented in the film as a source of comparison. "The place looks like a tricked-out spaceship compared to the stark, cold NorthPark in which True Stories was filmed exactly 20 years ago. It looks like the old NorthPark—damned if you can tell difference between the old bricks and the new ones; this thing looks like it was built in a time machine—yet it's brighter too, a friendlier version of the same ol' place."{{cite news |work=Dallas Observer's Unfair Park |title=The Mall: It's a Good Thing |url=http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2006/05/the_mall_its_a_good_thing.php |date=May 2006}} The exterior of Virgil's mall wasn't of NorthPark—the producers used the outside of the former Big Town Mall in nearby Mesquite.{{cite news |work=City Paper |url=http://www.citypaper.com/film/review.asp?rid=9953 |title=Review: True Stories directed by David Byrne}}

• List of shopping malls in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex
• List of largest shopping malls in the United States

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.northparkcenter.com/ NorthPark Center Official Site]

{{Dallas_malls}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=March 2012}}

{{Commons category|NorthPark Center}}

Category:Shopping malls in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex

Category:Economy of Dallas

Category:Buildings and structures in Dallas

Category:Shopping malls established in 1965

Category:1965 establishments in Texas