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Southdale was the brainchild of Victor Gruen, a Austrian immigrant to the United States. It was never his intention to design an icon of capitalism. Gruen was a European style socialist; he hated the suburban lifestyle of fifties American, and wanted to design a building that would bring people together into a community, by providing a meeting place that American towns lacked. They would come together to shop, and stay to talk, drink coffee and socialise. He modelled the design of Southdale on the arcades of European cities, although his original version was never achieved. Gruen also saw the mall as the centre of a community. When he first drew up the plans for Southdale, he placed the shopping center at the heart of a tidy 463 acre (1.9 km²) development, complete with apartment buildings, houses, schools, a medical center, a park, and a lake. Southdale was not a suburban alternative to downtown Minneapolis. It was the Minneapolis downtown you would get if you started over and corrected all the mistakes that were made the first time around. Gruen planned for an atmosphere of leisure, excitement, and intimacy was created. To achieve this he placed works of art, decorative lighting , fountains, tropical plant s, and flowers throughout the mall.
Groundbreaking for Southdale took place on October 29, 1954. 800 construction workers were needed to construct the 4-story 800,000 ft² (74,000 m²) center, complete with 5,200 parking spaces and 72 spaces for tenants.
It was envisioned that Southdale would become the central gathering place not only for the residents of the city of Edina, but also for the greater Twin Cities area. Southdale was designed from the viewpoint of the future. The creators of Southdale understood that in the future, consumers would demand convenience and variety. To this end, Southdale was designed to provide many useful services all under one roof. These services included everything from a Post Office, to a grocery store, to an up-scale apparel store .
When Southdale opened, it became a gathering place for area residents, just as was envisioned. Over the years, Southdale hosted gem, boat and fine art shows, as well as served as host for charity and community events. Southdale was even the host-site for an episode of the Truth or ConsequencesTruth or Consequences was a quiz show, originally hosted on radio by Ralph Edwards and later on television by Bob Barker. On February 16, 1986, the producers told the American public that the show was a set up. Truth or Consequences is also the name of a game showA game show is a radio or television program involving members of the public or celebrities, sometimes as part of a team, playing a game, perhaps involving answering quiz questions, for points or prizes. In some shows contestants compete against other pla. However the full scale of his plan was never realized. There were no parks or schools or apartment buildings - just that big box in a sea of parking. Nor, with a few exceptions, did anyone else plan the shopping mall as the centerpiece of a tidy, dense, multi-use development.
Southdale was the site for many firsts in the shopping mall arena. Besides being completely enclosed and climate-controlled, Southdale was also the first United States shopping mall to feature two competing department storeA department store organizes its goods by departments, such as women's clothes, home furnishings, electronics, and the like. Department stores range from collections of elaborate, fancy shops to practical outlets for ordinary merchandise. They differ froms under the same roof, as well as the first to feature original works of art hanging on the walls.