In the 1920’s, The Van Sweringen brothers asked Phillip Small and Charles Bacon Rowley to design Shaker Square to serve as the commercial and social hub for the neighborhoods of Shaker Heights and Cleveland that were sprouting all around the Square. Inspired by the eight-sided plaza at the center of Amalienborg Palace in Copenhagen, Denmark, Small and Rowley set about to design the second planned shopping center in the United States, after Country Club Plaza in Kansas City.
Shaker Square’s planning may have been influenced by the City beautiful movement, popular in the first half of the 20th century and emphasizing an architecturally unified set of buildings enclosing a formal open public space and intersected by broad tree-lined streets.
The Georgian Revival design of Shaker Square is expressed in four quadrants, each containing a central pavilion flanked by lower wings, square towers at the ends of each quadrant, a central village green, and landscaped lawns in front of each quadrant. The original radial design was adapted to an octagonal design to accommodate car parking in front of the shops. The Colony Theatre was completed in 1937, marking the completion of the original design for the Square.
The Square has been adapted over the years to serve the changing needs of merchants, businesses, and visitors. Recent adaptations include construction of a 30,000 square foot grocery store in the southwest quadrant, Atlas Cinemas interior remodeling, addition of intimate, outdoor dining patios throughout the Square, and creation of a corridor linking the northeast parking lot with the Square.