Vintage photos of Twelve Oaks Mall

[bugs1739]

There was once an earlier thread on vintage photos of Twelve Oaks on another website, however, it was deleted[[?). If anyone can find any such pics, try to upload it on this thread.

[RedeemerKid]

http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/...tml?1234763586

[7 & Van Dyke]

All the malls in the burbs looked exactly the same. Lakeside Mall looked the same. I remember when you could still climb on the hippo at Eastland.

[mikefmich]

Somehow I just cannot wrap my head around using the word vintage, in conjunction with Twelve Oaks. :P

[PeteSzerszen]

Hello,

I literally grew up with Twelve Oaks from the time it was new, through two significant renovations. I can tell you just about anything you ever wanted to know about it. I have a very photographic memory and a few old press photos from the late 70s. It has really changed over the years. I am not sure if there are character limits, so I will briefly describe how it has changed. If you want to know more, I would love to tell anyone who is interested whatever they want to know.

August 3, 1977: Mall Opens except for Lord & Taylor which I believe opened in 1978.

The mall had these original defining details:
-Large modern art sculptures in each court
-Mobile-like structures hanging from the ceiling
-Twelve Oaks didn't get the "octa-lift" elevator, but it was a pretty neat exposed hydraulic elevator that I used to watch go up and down all day. One of my first memories.
-Terrazzo flooring that, while dated in the 90s, would look very hip by today's standards. White with orange and brown accents. Was in very good shape, but some idiot decided to lay tile over it during the first renovation in 1996.
-A grand staircase in the center court, removed in 1996.
-An information booth with a beacon sign that was nearly two stories tall with the old chevron tree logo on it, and "information" in a Bauhaus style font.
-Grand "pit" in center court with green carpeting. Excellent for letting young kids run off their energy.

Twelve Oaks was designed, built, and intended for the clientele at the time, which was not upscale, but very family friendly. The mall repositioned itself as "upscale" in the late 90s.

What was changed in 1996 [[I guarantee the renovation was completed in '96, not '94):
-Second elevator added to center court, existing elevator "modernized" to match.
-Tile laid over terrazzo at end of renovation.
-Octagonal columns covered with mirror finish on second floor.
-Wooden/steel railings replaced with glass.
-Entrances rebuilt to "greenhouse" style vestibules.
-Entire interior painted a sterile white, over the antique white. Mall became non-smoking and ashtrays removed.
-Court-side seating areas filled in and furniture replaced.
-Center court "pit" filled in.
-Water tower painted to new copper scheme with new logo.
-Entrance signage replaced.
-Many trees removed, replaced with Starbucks.

I won't even get into the second [[2007) renovation since I think it is very disrespectful to the original design.

In 1994, someone flushed a bomb down a toilet in Hudson's and caused significant damage.

In 1997, on a very hot day, electrical switching equipment located in manholes beneath the parking lot blew up and knocked out power to the entire mall.

The only reason this mall has a water tower and others don't was due to the storage requirements for the massive fire sprinkler system. Novi was very rural when this mall opened and there was no municipal water supply North of I-96 at the time.

Again, if you ever wanted to know more, feel free to drop me a line and I'll share what I know. I am an architect, so I have always had a great respect for structures like this.

[bugs1739]

Hello,

I literally grew up with Twelve Oaks from the time it was new, through two significant renovations. I can tell you just about anything you ever wanted to know about it. I have a very photographic memory and a few old press photos from the late 70s. It has really changed over the years. I am not sure if there are character limits, so I will briefly describe how it has changed. If you want to know more, I would love to tell anyone who is interested whatever they want to know.

August 3, 1977: Mall Opens except for Lord & Taylor which I believe opened in 1978.

The mall had these original defining details:
-Large modern art sculptures in each court
-Mobile-like structures hanging from the ceiling
-Twelve Oaks didn't get the "octa-lift" elevator, but it was a pretty neat exposed hydraulic elevator that I used to watch go up and down all day. One of my first memories.
-Terrazzo flooring that, while dated in the 90s, would look very hip by today's standards. White with orange and brown accents. Was in very good shape, but some idiot decided to lay tile over it during the first renovation in 1996.
-A grand staircase in the center court, removed in 1996.
-An information booth with a beacon sign that was nearly two stories tall with the old chevron tree logo on it, and "information" in a Bauhaus style font.
-Grand "pit" in center court with green carpeting. Excellent for letting young kids run off their energy.

Twelve Oaks was designed, built, and intended for the clientele at the time, which was not upscale, but very family friendly. The mall repositioned itself as "upscale" in the late 90s.

What was changed in 1996 [[I guarantee the renovation was completed in '96, not '94):
-Second elevator added to center court, existing elevator "modernized" to match.
-Tile laid over terrazzo at end of renovation.
-Octagonal columns covered with mirror finish on second floor.
-Wooden/steel railings replaced with glass.
-Entrances rebuilt to "greenhouse" style vestibules.
-Entire interior painted a sterile white, over the antique white. Mall became non-smoking and ashtrays removed.
-Court-side seating areas filled in and furniture replaced.
-Center court "pit" filled in.
-Water tower painted to new copper scheme with new logo.
-Entrance signage replaced.
-Many trees removed, replaced with Starbucks.

I won't even get into the second [[2007) renovation since I think it is very disrespectful to the original design.

In 1994, someone flushed a bomb down a toilet in Hudson's and caused significant damage.

In 1997, on a very hot day, electrical switching equipment located in manholes beneath the parking lot blew up and knocked out power to the entire mall.

The only reason this mall has a water tower and others don't was due to the storage requirements for the massive fire sprinkler system. Novi was very rural when this mall opened and there was no municipal water supply North of I-96 at the time.

Again, if you ever wanted to know more, feel free to drop me a line and I'll share what I know. I am an architect, so I have always had a great respect for structures like this.

That's very interesting to know what Twelve Oaks looked like. I guess Twelve Oaks was different than Fairlane and Lakeside, did Twelve Oaks get the spiral-like staircase like other Taubman malls?

[DetroitPlanner]

12 Oaks was much smaller than Fairlane or Lakeside. It was more like a 2 story Briarwood. Both Fairlane and Lakeside had two interior courts, they also were built with more brutalist queues than 12 Oaks. The upper floors of 12 Oaks were not set back like the other two malls so the second floor is much more enclosed in 12 Oaks. Fairlane differed from Lakeside in that it had a section with three stories. Both Fairlane and Lakeside had been built for five anchor stores, and kept them until relatively recently. The old Crowleys at Lakeside is now an annex of Macy's while Fairlane's Saks was town down and the entire Lord and Taylor wing of Fairlane was walled off. This was borrowed from another Taubman mall named Woodfield in Schaumburg IL. Woodfield was once the largest mall in the world and was listed in the Guiness book of world records until the Edmonton Mall was completed. Now Woodfield is just a big mall, but it is nowhere near the largest any longer.

[Brich]

Thank you for the details. I am a student of history and you have greatly made more sense of suburban sprawl with your post. Thank you again.

[Danny]

Twelve Oaks Mall have a movie theater called "The Movies at Twelve Oaks" The lobby had hot red neon art deco look leading to the snack bar and theaters. The theater is small. There were no stadium seating at that time. The theater was still brand new when I went there for my class trip from 1986 to 1991. Sadly the theater became United Artists and it ran into the ground. By 1997 United Artists Theater closed its doors and years later converted into a food court.

[gazhekwe]

What I remember most about Twelve Oaks when it was new is that odd fountain at one end which looks like several 2001 Space Odyssey obelisks lined up peeing on a wall. Very strange.

[bugs1739]

Twelve Oaks Mall have a movie theater called "The Movies at Twelve Oaks" The lobby had hot red neon art deco look leading to the snack bar and theaters. The theater is small. There were no stadium seating at that time. The theater was still brand new when I went there for my class trip from 1986 to 1991. Sadly the theater became United Artists and it ran into the ground. By 1997 United Artists Theater closed its doors and years later converted into a food court.

I thought it was always a UA theater. Lakeside and Fairlane also had a movie theater, the latter remains, rebuilt as a AMC-Star theater.

[Danny]

I thought it was always a UA theater. Lakeside and Fairlane also had a movie theater, the latter remains, rebuilt as a AMC-Star theater.

Yes they did until 1990 when United Artists brought all of them. They ran those mall theaters to the ground by 1997 United Artists closed those theaters down for good.

[FlyingJ]

Yes they did until 1990 when United Artists brought all of them. They ran those mall theaters to the ground by 1997 United Artists closed those theaters down for good.

I dunno what you mean by ran to the ground, since UA built them in he first place. The Achilles Heel about those mall theatres is they got KILLED on the per-square-foot rental costs. That ate them alive...just think of all the wasted space in there...@ least in Hudson's you could move a fur coat. If you're gonna have a mall theatre stick it out in the parking lot, that way you'll get the best of boh worlds

[cmubryan]

Star GLC and Stair Fairlane seem to be doing okay. I think the problem with UA 12 Oaks was that it was not competitive anymore because of stadium seating movie theatres becoming mainstream throughout the area. The old style theatres either became second-run theatres, operating on a much lower budget or went out of business altogether.