Richard Zerbe - The Mall
Borrego Springs Shopping Center & Villas Borrego Apartments - 1965
One of the most significant commercial projects in the community, the Borrego Springs Shopping Center and Villas Borrego was the largest development at the time of the DiGiorgio Corporation, which had extensive landholdings in the Borrego Valley, much of it used to grow table grapes. The project development was headed by George Kuhrts with underwriting by Robert DiGiorgio and A.A. Burnand. The Borrego Sun newspaper announced the more than $1 million dollar project in 1965 with a banner headline.
The project featured a shopping mall, bank, gas station and 28 apartment (today condominium units) with two pools on a 20 acre site between Palm Canyon and Country Club Drive.
For this project, Zerbe would collaborate with La Mesa architects Raymond Lee Eggers and Joseph Pisciotti and Associates of San Diego.
Author’s Note: Several years ago my wife and I (along with other members of her family) met with a group of long time friends of Lou and Dorothy Hodgson, my wife’s grandparents. Lou had passed away many years before – this meeting of their group was to remember the recent passing of Dorothy Hodgson, my wife’s grandmother. Among those at the table that afternoon was Lee Eggers, the same Raymond Lee Eggers who more than 40 years earlier had collaborated with Dick Zerbe on the design and construction of “The Mall”. The Hodgson’, Eggers and the rest of their friends met some 50 years earlier – the men of the group all meeting during World War II, while working at Convair. Former NBC News Anchor and Author Tom Brokaw called them “The Greatest Generation”. One of the things that made them great was their friendship – how for more than half a century they lived near one another, supported each other, raised families together and grew graceful as they aged, and mourned (not with sadness, but with joy for their time on this earth) the passing of each member of “their group”. At that meeting I had mentioned I was doing research on Borrego architecture and specifically Dick Zerbe. Lee Eggers said he designed a project in Borrego, along with a Julian architect by the name of Dick Zerbe. Lee remembered Dick - it was the only project that they worked on together. It is truly amazing to think that forty years after Dick Zerbe and Lee Eggers worked together on a project, I would be sitting at a table with friends and family and learn of their collaboration. It is a small world.
Ground was broken for the project in October, 1965. In December, a ceremony was held where a time capsule was buried in the center to be opened in the year 2000. Students from Borrego Elementary and High Schools were invited to compete in an essay contest on “What Borrego Will Be Like in the Year 2000’, with the winners receiving a $100 savings bond and their paper placed into the time capsule. The essay of Levina Houck, a junior at Borrego Springs High School won the contest, envisioning Borrego Springs in the year 2000 as:
having a monorail that crossing the mountains to the coast; towering skyscrapers around Christmas Circle; Clark Dry Lake dry no longer and the state park will be reduced in size
Taking part in the sealing of the time capsule were developers Robert DiGiorgio, A.A. Burnand, and W.A. Patterson, who was President of de Anza Country Club and Chairman of the Board of United Airlines. Also participating in the ceremony were Mr. and Mrs. Kuhrts, Werner Lusardi of Vista, president of P.H. Lusardi Co., the builder, and Richard M. Zerbe of Julian, one of the architects.
Today the shopping center known as “The Mall”, and the Villas Borrego Condominiums, remain a significant element of Borrego’s main street. Ironically the shopping center buildings face the less used Country Club Drive, and turn their back on the busier Palm Canyon Drive. The reason, confirmed by architect Lee Eggers, was that plans called for Montezuma Grade, the new road that cut travel time to Borrego, to end at Christmas Circle, using Country Club Drive. The route for Montezuma Grade was changed, meeting Palm Canyon Drive at Hoberg Road near the entrance to Anza Borrego State Park. The Mall’s relationship to Palm Canyon Drive was left unchanged.
Following the exit of the DiGiorgio Company from Borrego, The Mall was purchased and owned by Cameron Brothers Construction (who also purchased, restored and expanded Borrego Springs Resort). In 2014 local philanthropists Jim and Anne Wermers purchased The Mall and began a substantial renovation, maintaining the mid-century modern design while reversing a backlog of differed maintenance. The Mall remains a critical hub for the community.
