Two decades ago, when Horton Plaza Shopping Center opened, the brand new retail mecca turned Suburbia’s attention back to the Centre City. Shoppers came to experience its 49 eye-popping colors, its vertical scale, its pedestrian bridges and angled walkways. Wildly eclectic architecture sprawled over more than six blocks. Here was an open-air mall unlike any other. Created by architect Jon Jerde and his talented design team, it took its inspiration from influences as diverse as Old Italy and Pueblo Indians along with San Diego’s historic buildings and domes. The result? A shopping center that cobbled together elements of surprising beauty and whimsy.

Today, between 25,000 and 35,000 shoppers a day visit Westfield Horton Plaza, where they can find 140 specialty stores, three department stores (Macy’s, Mervyn’s and Nordstrom), live theater, 14 movie screens, an abundance of eateries and a fitness center.

This festival marketplace remains a unique urban shopping environment as far from the suburban mall layout as those Italian hillside villages that influenced architect Jerde. Here’s a guide to help you navigate the imaginative world of Horton Plaza.

The Tour Begins

Statue of the late Ernie Hahn stands at entrance to Horton Plaza.

Our tour starts near the mall’s entrance at Broadway Circle (E Street and Third Avenue). Stand in front of the statue honoring Horton Plaza developer, the late Ernest W. Hahn. This is a great spot to take in the confluence of the shopping center and the surrounding city.

Tiled obelisk rises from circular entrance to Lyceum Theater.

Immediately behind the Hahn statue is a 36-foot high tiled obelisk, part of Horton Plaza’s public art program. Look closely at the jaguar design on the obelisk, and you may wonder whether you’re coming or going. Artist Joan Brown’s big cat has its body on the back side of the obelisk, with only its tail facing pedestrians approaching the mall. It’s a hint of the playful spirit awaiting visitors ahead.

The obelisk is set in a circular opening that descends to the Lyceum Theatre below street level. The Horton Plaza theater has two performance areas with a total of 750 seats.

Reproduction of Knights of Pythias Building connects street with mall interior.

Before going inside, observe Horton Plaza’s outer buildings. Note how their sidewalk store entrances help connect the city with the center. Two of the Horton Plaza structures near the shopping mall entrance also help tie the mall to San Diego’s past. From the obelisk, look back and to the left at the ornate gray structure occupied by Citibank. Its façade is a replica of the historic Bradley building, which was demolished to make way for the shopping center. On the E Street side of Broadway Circle behind the obelisk is another nod to history, a blue structure that reproduces the façade of the Knights of Pythias building, which also bit the dust on the Horton Plaza construction site. Check out the interesting western artwork that the building’s major tenant, the Original Levi Store, affixed on the façade.

Tall blue obelisk marks entrance to Westin Horton Plaza Hotel.

Look right toward First Avenue and note another public artwork, a tall blue obelisk standing before the entrance to the Westin Horton Plaza. This hotel was developed specifically as a Horton Plaza shopping center neighbor.

Now you are ready to enter the mall. Note that above the main entrance runs the terracotta-colored arcade structure with two levels of walkways traversing the length of Horton Plaza. These walkways, pointing directly toward the bay, connect with the center’s department stores.

Passageways on right lead shoppers to department stores. Blue pedestrian bridge in background shows Italian hill town influences.

Climb the Grand Staircase. At the top, you will enter the main plaza, lined with stores and crowded with vendor pushcarts and kiosks. The plaza, inspired by the Piazza Bra in Verona, Italy, is the heart of Horton Plaza’s street life.

As you walk through the irregularly shaped plaza, on the right are the stores along the arcade building. To the left is another retail complex housing shops, eateries and the movie theater. This structure’s three levels extend through the mall and are stepped back in a style inspired by Indian pueblo dwellings of New Mexico.

Tourists pose in front of spectacular triangular structure jutting into main plaza. Pedestrian bridge connects it to opposite side of mall.

Continue through the plaza under a blue bridge connecting the upper levels on each side of the plaza. From a distance, it may be hard to recognize it as a bridge, since it was designed to suggest hillside homes in an Italian village, complete with flower boxes at the windows.

Historic Jessop’s clock still accurate after nearly 100 years.

Just past the pedestrian bridge, a stunning triangular structure, the “palazzo” building soars from the center of the plaza. Its walls are covered with a million one-inch tiles in black, white and brown. The building was modeled after a similar triangular building Jerde photographed near the Grand Canal in Venice, Italy.

Keep walking in the direction of Nordstrom. Where the plaza narrows, view the historic Jessop’s clock, a landmark set in the plaza floor. Operating since 1907, the clock designed by Claude Ledger stands 21 feet high and has 20 dials giving the hour in time zones around the globe.

“Magic Boat” public art suspended above First Avenue entrance into the mall.

Continue past Jessop’s clock to a wide ceremonial staircase that descends from the main plaza to the mezzanine. A few steps later, you will reach a second flight of steps. At the bottom is a small ground-level plaza sandwiched between Beach City Market and 24 Hour Fitness. The plaza opens onto First Avenue, helping its businesses capitalize on the residential boom going on around the mall. It is an inviting space with tables for the outdoor lunch crowd and a piece of public art work, Loren Madsen’s “Magic Boat,” a curved sculpture suspended by wires.

View from the top shows walkway fronting shops, eateries on right, Moorish-style dome on restaurant plaza, left, and city highrise towers in background.

Backtrack to the main plaza and continue your walk in the direction of Nordstrom, which is on the G Street end of the mall. Use the escalators in front of the department store to ascend two levels to the top, where you take a hard left into the restaurant plaza. Take a moment to absorb the sweeping panorama of the shopping center’s fanciful architecture and the Downtown highrises beyond it.

From this vantage, you can see that the two sides of the mall are not aligned. That’s for practical as well as design reasons. On the arcade building side of Horton Plaza, department stores required 18 feet between floors, while the shops on the other side needed only 14 feet.

Domed structure vertically connects restaurant plaza with Mervyn’s entrances below.

Before proceeding, note the large dome decorated with red and maroon tiles. Under the dome at the top level are tables and chairs for an outdoor lunch or a quick rest, but this structure has other functions. Its columns and structure extend all the way down to the mezzanine and serve as an entrance to Mervyn’s department store on the lower levels. The dome also leads to one of several pedestrian bridges linking the two sides of the mall. Horton Plaza is big on connections, although the destinations aren’t always obvious.

Panda Inn, an original mall tenant, operates on top-level restaurant plaza.

Walk around the semicircular restaurant plaza, where you will pass the Napa Valley Grille and the Panda Inn, a fixture in Horton Plaza since it opened. Look over the railing, where the plaza opens up the next level down. There gaslamps and hanging flower baskets give mood to the space. Above the semicircle rises an industrial-looking structure, a modern touch in a center embracing the ancient.

Once past restaurant plaza, continue along the arcade walkway toward the mall’s front entrance. Cross the space above the main plaza at the blue pedestrian bridge. You will reach the other side at the fast food walkway. Take a left, and after passing the movie theater box office, go down the short flight of steps. These will lead you to a tall escalator, which descends to Fourth Avenue and exits into the Gaslamp Quarter.

Ornate Balboa Theatre under renovation.

At ground level on Fourth Avenue, look right to see the vintage 1924 Balboa Theatre, with its distinctive dome and façade. The 1,534-seat theater is undergoing renovation and will be ready to open with live performances in the summer of 2007.

Former Robinsons-May building fronts on Horton Plaza Park, with its historic domed fountain.

There’s one more stop on our tour. Go left on Fourth Avenue to Broadway and walk into the raggedly landscaped Horton Plaza Park. Like the Balboa Theatre, this historic park offers an authentic and beautifully wrought dome, part of a historic fountain designed by Irving Gill. From the fountain, you get a different view of Horton Plaza’s Bradley Building knockoff. In the corner of the park, on the Broadway Circle side, is the Arts Tix kiosk, which sells discount performance tickets.

Note how Horton Plaza Park serves as a front yard for a peach and green building that juts toward Broadway from the central part of Horton Plaza. The Jerde team modeled the architecture on the Renaissance Palladian basilica in Vicenza, Italy. Originally built for Robinsons-May department store, the building is currently occupied by Sam Goody’s and several other Horton Plaza tenants.

For a grand entrance into the mall, all you have to do is round the corner and head for the obelisk and the Grand Staircase.

You have now come full circle.