Country Club Plaza opened in 1922 as the first outdoor shopping center in the United States designed specifically for the automobile. Developer J.C. Nichols looked at the growing number of cars on American roads and made a bet that people would drive to shop if the experience were beautiful enough. He won that bet spectacularly.
Nichols modeled the Plaza's architecture on Seville, Spain — the terra-cotta tile work, the ornate towers, the wrought-iron lanterns, and the bronze statues are all direct homages to Andalusian design. Fountains punctuate every corner. The result is a shopping district that feels more like a European city center than an American strip mall, and it has influenced retail design across the country ever since.
Every Thanksgiving, the Plaza lights are switched on in a ceremony that has become one of the city's most beloved traditions. It is worth noting, however, that Nichols was also the architect of racially restrictive covenants in the surrounding residential neighborhoods — legal agreements that barred non-white residents from buying homes — a shadow that still shapes the city's residential geography today.