Fashion Island
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Fashion Island is an open-air lifestyle center in Newport Beach, California (located at (33.616065, -117.876147)GR1). Fashion Island is owned by the Irvine Company.
Fashion Island contains asbestos. A memo concerning the existence of the cancer-causing chemical within Fashion Island's structures was sent to store managers in Winter of 2006. There was no solution offered in the memo. {fact}
[edit] History
As part of Newport Center, and opened in 1967 with four department stores: Buffum's, Robinson's, The Broadway, and J.C. Penney. These four initial buildings were designed by architects William Pereira and Welton Becket, and were flanked by several smaller stores. The Spanish architectural theme which would later define the mall was evident in the Robinson's building. A few years later, I. Magnin and Neiman Marcus were added. In the early 1980s, J.C. Penney moved out, and the building it occupied was reconstructed and reopened as "Atrium Court", which contained numerous smaller shops and a food court on the lower level.
The southwest entrance to Robinson's features a bronze wind-chime sculpture by mural artist Tom Van Sant, installed in September of 1967, that was recorded by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest wind chime.
In 1988, the center underwent a major expansion and renovation based on the design of Jon Jerde, adding the Island Terrace Food Court, an eight-screen movie theater, and three new avenues of shops, all of which converge in a circular courtyard with an animated fountain that shoots jets of water up to 30 feet high. This fountain is known as the "Iris Fountain" because of the radial-leaves pattern of its marble lining coupled with the jets of water that suggests the iris plant.
Federated stores which owned I. Magnin closed the chain in the early 1990s, and the store was replaced with a Bullock's Women's Store. When Federated shuttered the Bullock's Wilshire chain, the store was replaced again by Macy's as a Macy's Women's Store. After the consolidation of Robinson's and May Company, the Robinson's store became a Robinsons May. Buffom's eventually closed, and its space was subdivided into smaller stores. The Broadway, also owned by Federated was done away with in the mid-1990s, and was replaced by one of the first Bloomingdale's stores on the West Coast.
In the early 2000s the mall underwent additional minor renovations resulting in the alteration and replacement of landscape elements, building facades, outdoor furniture ,and floor materials to better reflect the Mediterranean theme. Included in this renovation was the installment of a carousel and a new wing with restaurants and shops.
The Federated-May merger in 2006, greatly affected Fashion Island, resulting in closure of the 80,000 sq. ft. Macy's Women's Store and conversion of the Robinsons May into a Macy's.
The large courtyard outside the Bloomingdale's building is occupied annually by a large Christmas tree, which is usually the tallest in the nation. {fact} The trees are taken from a private timber area near Mount Shasta, and shipped to Fashion Island in several pieces, which are then re-assembled using steel rods and a large crane.
[edit] Anchors
- Bloomingdale's (187,534 sq. ft.)
- Bloomingdale's Home Store (62,000 sq. ft.)
- Macy's (224,219 sq. ft.)
- Neiman Marcus (153,000 sq. ft.)
