Qualla: Six Blocks That Bet on Walking

Six Blocks That Bet on Walking: Introduction

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Bryan Harley, CC0. More than fifty cities sent official delegations to Fresno to see it. That sentence alone should tell you how different America's expectations were in 1964, when a Central Valley farming town closed six blocks of its main commercial street to cars and declared the future had arrived. The Fulton Mall was not just a pedestrian corridor -- it was an argument, made in stained concrete, curvilinear walkways, and nineteen free-standing sculptures, that downtowns could thrive without automobiles. The argument was designed by Victor Gruen, the Austrian-born architect who had essentially invented the indoor shopping mall, and landscaped by Garrett Eckbo, one of the most influential landscape architects of the twentieth century. Only Kalamazoo, Michigan, had tried anything like it before. Fresno's version was grander, more ambitious, and ultimately more tragic.

Image: Bryan Harley | CC0

Six Blocks That Bet on Walking: Gruen's Gamble

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michelle Baxter, CC BY-SA 3.0. Victor Gruen had a theory about American cities: they were dying because they had surrendered their streets to cars. The solution, he believed, was to reclaim public space for people. He had already tested the idea in Kalamazoo and proposed it for Fort Worth, but Fresno gave him ...

Image: Michelle Baxter | CC BY-SA 3.0

Six Blocks That Bet on Walking: An Outdoor Gallery

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Patricia Wolk, CC BY-SA 4.0. What set Fulton Mall apart from other pedestrian experiments was its commitment to public art. Private donors funded nineteen sculptures and installations scattered across the six blocks, turning a commercial street into an open-air gallery. Clement Renzi's bronze sculpture "The ...

Image: Patricia Wolk | CC BY-SA 4.0

Six Blocks That Bet on Walking: The Slow Emptying

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michelle Baxter, CC BY-SA 3.0. Fresno's problem was the same problem that afflicted almost every American pedestrian mall: the suburbs kept growing. Fashion Fair Mall opened six miles to the north in 1970, pulling shoppers away from downtown. Fresno's population was expanding northward, and the commercial cent...

Image: Michelle Baxter | CC BY-SA 3.0

Six Blocks That Bet on Walking: The Battle Over Cars

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michelle Baxter, CC BY-SA 3.0. In 2002, a city redevelopment agency proposed the obvious solution: let the cars back in. The Downtown Fresno Coalition fought back, and the debate became one of the most contentious civic arguments in the city's history. In 2008, preservationists nominated the Fulton Mall for th...

Image: Michelle Baxter | CC BY-SA 3.0

Six Blocks That Bet on Walking: What Remains

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Michelle Baxter, CC BY-SA 3.0. The sculptures are still there, lined along the sidewalks of what is now a conventional downtown street. The trees Eckbo planted have matured. The stained concrete walkways are gone, replaced by asphalt and lane markings. Whether the reopening saved downtown Fresno or simply ackn...

Image: Michelle Baxter | CC BY-SA 3.0