The Westfield Garden State Plaza in Paramus, New Jersey has undergone a major renovation and remodel. When it came time to update the food court and play area, they wanted to do something fun and special. The food court was given an urban aesthetic and the feel of a Parisian bistro, and Soft Play was hired to create a brand new state-of-the-art play area with a Jersey Shore theme. Let’s take a closer look at how Soft Play accomplished this stunning update.

New Jersey’s Largest Mall Gets an Update

The Westfield Garden State Plaza is New Jersey’s largest mall. The new food court and play space, completed last September, are just a part of a major remodel of the 2.1 million square foot mall announced in January 2017. The renovation project was intended to refresh the look of the 60-year-old mall that draws 20 million visitors a year. The Plaza is one of 16 shopping centers that Westfield considers flagship properties and one of nine Westfield malls with annual retail sales greater than $1 billion. Even though the mall is closed on Sundays because of Bergen County blue laws, the Plaza’s sales figures still beat those of most other Westfield properties as well as the majority of other US shopping centers.

The mall hopes the updated elements will appeal to all their potential visitors, but they were particularly eager to draw in the desirable demographic of millennial shoppers with school age children. When companies focus their investments where they will have the biggest impact on the customer, they create a positive “Return on Experience”. If a family is out shopping, for example, there is nothing more convenient than a play area at that precise moment when parents need a break and kids need to blow off some energy. Consumers will likely choose this location over others based on the play features alone and stay longer when they visit.

Soft Play Brings the Jersey Shore Indoors

The Westfield design team hired Soft Play to execute their design of the play area. Plaza management proposed that the new 1685 square foot space have a Jersey Shore theme. The designer of The Bistro and the play space, John Reistetter, vice president of interiors for Westfield, loved the idea. Reistetter grew up in nearby Monroe, NY, and spent many memorable summers at the Jersey Shore, even working as a lifeguard in Belmar. The design carried design elements from “The Bistro” over to the play area, including lighting and tile, so that the entire area had a cohesive look.

The space recalls summers at the shore, with Boardwalk-themed signage and wall surrounds and columns wrapped to resemble piers. Soft Play used soft flooring designed to look like sand dunes and grass, with room for running, jumping and climbing. There are many activities for kids from toddler to pre-teen, including a Ferris wheel graphic featuring digital interactive games and a wall of colorful badges that illuminate when kids touch them. There is a pirate ship to interact with and virtual aquariums throughout the play area have screens featuring digital schools of fish swimming around that react when someone waves their hand or body in front of them.

Soft Play also created a fishing net climber that provides a memorable experience for kids of all ages. The net is the first of its kind to be built inside of a shopping center location. This unique, organic structure is built entirely with netting and not supported by beams or poles as in more traditional contained play structures. It allows for using a wider variety of gross motor skills because kids have to use their arms and legs to push and pull themselves, as opposed to simply crawling on their hands and knees. The structure uses more authentic and environmentally friendly materials instead of plastics, while at the same time honoring safety requirements for fall heights and other ASTM safety standards.

Amazon Sponsors the Play Area

The 1,425 square foot play area is currently sponsored by Amazon, which hosts story time in the play area every Saturday at 11:00 am. In addition, children’s programming from Amazon Studios will be shown on screens surrounding the space.

The play area also features characters from the Amazon Studios original series Tumble Leaf, an animated series for pre-school children. Since the sponsorship is not permanent, Soft Play designed the Amazon aspects in such a way that the Tumble Leaf characters and signage could be removed at a future date without adversely affecting the design integrity. Video content can be easily swapped out as well.

The Tumble Leaf characters were easily integrated into the New Jersey Boardwalk theme since they also live and play by the ocean. Creating the 3D representations of the characters presented a challenge, however, since Soft Play’s coatings are not suited to simulating hair, fur, and textiles, a prominent part of the Tumble Leaf characters. To address this challenge, the shapes of the characters were sculpted, and then Soft Play’s amazing airbrush artists completed the illusion of each texture to recreate the characters that children know and love.

Soft Play is proud of its role in the project.

Soft Play began working on the project in April 2017 and designs were completed by the end of August. It was a longer design process than a typical project because of the number of parties involved, as well as the complexity and design of the netting structure. The schedule for completing the play area was tight, but Soft Play was able to meet the deadline of a September installation.

Soft Play is proud of its role in completing this unique and engaging project for the Westfield Garden State Plaza. Thanks to recent renovations including the updated play area, shoppers may find themselves – and their children – having a lot more fun at the mall than they expected.

Soft Play designs and manufactures indoor, outdoor, and water play areas in retail spaces, restaurants, parks and recreation centers, water parks, and amusement areas. Soft Play is ranked in the top three requested amenities by shoppers and has become a standard in a variety of locations worldwide, serving many different market segments. The experience of a fun, inviting play area invites people to come visit your retail environment and stay longer once they are there. This allows retailers to succeed by generating a positive “Return on Experience” for their customers.