How Westfield Valley Fair Mall in Santa Clara, CA Survived Rivals, Recessions, and Reinvention

Westfield Valley Fair, drawn in Gruen ink

On July 20, 1955, a crew started construction on forty acres at what was then the edge of San Jose, about five and a half miles southwest of downtown.

Macy’s California and San Francisco’s Capital Company were building a new kind of shopping center, designed with the bold style of the 1950s.

Victor Gruen, the Austrian architect who helped create the modern shopping center, designed the walkway; the main Macy’s store was designed by San Francisco architect John Savage Bolles…

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