Arcaded walkways turn inward off the sidewalk at El Paseo Village, 73375 El Paseo, a courtyard shopping centre rebuilt in the 2010s into a Spanish-influenced block. The pattern repeats the length of this street: interior courtyards, shaded arcades, and shopfronts that turn inward off the sidewalk. That is not really a style choice, it is a climate one.
An arcade drops the temperature beneath it by ten or fifteen degrees, and a courtyard with water in it does more again, so the buildings that last on El Paseo are the ones that manufacture their own shade. Set it against the enclosed mall you passed earlier: the same goal by the opposite method — one seals the street out, the other pulls the street in. The galleries here are the other half of the street's economy.
El Paseo carries a dense concentration of art dealers, and the sculptures out in the median are the free, public version of what is being sold indoors. Step into the courtyard and the temperature drops.