 Southdale Center was developed by the Dayton Company and designed by Victor Gruen , an Austrian immigrant and socialist . Gruen was a European @-@ style socialist ; he found individual stores in downtown venues to be inefficient , and the suburban lifestyle of 1950s America too " car @-@ centric " and wanted to design a building that would be a communal gathering place , where people would shop , drink coffee , and socialize , as he remembered from his native Vienna . Southdale Center was loosely modeled on the arcades of several heavily populated European cities and purposely included " eye @-@ level display cases " to " lure customers into stores " . Gruen imaged that Southdale would eventually include " a medical center , schools and residences , not just a parade of glitzy stores . " The first plans unveiled for the shopping center were announced in 1952 by Gruen and Minnesota native , Donald Dayton . 
