Fashion Square Goes Solar as Work Starts on Food Court

If you’ve parked your car on the upper level of Westfield’s Fashion Square Mall lately, you might have been grateful to be under what look like shade structures. But they’re actually “solar trees,” part of an energy-saving project that began in July and is nearing completion.

Meanwhile, expansion of the mall's food court is getting started, to increase seating from the current 215 to 700 and bring in a fresh design.

These two projects, along with the current revamping of the children’s play area, are not part of the ambitious, 235,000-square-foot expansion that Westfield presented to the community two years ago. The downturn in the economy put those plans on hold.

But the smaller projects represent Westfield’s ongoing efforts to improve the 51-year-old mall and, in the case of the solar project, earn it a spot as one of the largest solar energy projects for retail malls in the United States.

Solar Project

“I know of only one other mall in the country with a solar project bigger than Fashion Square,” said Jonathan Krausche, Westfield’s director of sustainability.

Westfield did smaller solar projects at its malls in San Diego and Culver City and began construction in July on solar projects at Fashion Square and the Topanga Mall. Putting solar panels on malls is tricky, Krausche said, because of all the electrical equipment and skylights on the roofs that limit placement.

Fashion Square has about 3,000 modular panels, Krausche said, with two-thirds of the panels out of sight and lying flat, eight inches off the mall roof. These panels could be energized in another two weeks. The panels on the solar trees on the parking structure will likely be energized in December.

Altogether, the panels will generate 1.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually, 48 percent of the power used by equipment to light, heat, cool, clean and maintain the mall’s common spaces.

“That’s a pretty good number,” Krausche said, adding that it’s equivalent to eliminating the release of 1,012 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Food Court

The food court expansion includes creating an indoor dining terrace where the walkway to the parking structure now exists. It will provide space for single seating, communal tables and children’s tables.

“Instead of a cafeteria feel, it will be more like a chef’s kitchen,” said Fashion Square marketing director Juliet Mothershed, who called the design “old-school Hollywood, atomic ranch look.”

Two new restaurants will open in the food court: Great Khan’s, which offers Mongolian-style meat, noodles and vegetables, and Stone Oven, which serves artisan bread, salads and sandwiches. About three of the mall's 11 existing restaurants will revamp their storefronts and a new store, Lids, selling sports caps and apparel, will move close to the new food court.

Construction is expected to begin in earnest in January with completion by May 2012, but the food court is to remain open during construction.