It is hard to overlook Plaza Escuela. The 164,900 square foot shopping center – the largest development of its kind in downtown Walnut Creek in half a century – occupies much of one block and all of another. Its stucco walls rise to nearly 55 feet in places and encompass two parking garages.

Plaza Escuela's dimensions place it among a handful of prominent developments – under way or completed in recent years – that have substantially changed streetscapes and skylines in Central Contra Costa.

Plaza Escuela, which sits on 5 1/8 acres that had been the site of a hardware and building supply store since 1961, adds new buildings to an already thriving downtown.

If all goes as planned, Plaza Escuela will dovetail with Walnut Creek's established retail scene. Facades, sidewalks, windows and other design elements will be distinctive while orienting the center, like much of downtown, to the convenience and interest of pedestrians. "We definitely want to fit into an urban fabric," said Plaza Escuela's architect, David Johnson of Johnson Lyman Architects. "We tried to give identity to the buildings but tie it all together. That's not an easy feat with a project this size."

Downtown Walnut Creek has the advantage of having been on the map for decades. Still, Plaza Escuela's designers faced challenges similar to those in Pleasant Hill – such as where to put parking spaces - if the shopping center was to meet expectations.

City planners are counting on it to serve as another link between the southern and northern ends of downtown's pedestrian-retail core. The historical dividing line is Mt. Diablo Boulevard, a block north of Plaza Escuela.

Extending Locust Street south through Plaza Escuela to Botelho Drive, for example, opens another visual and physical avenue. Aspects of Plaza Escuela's architecture intentionally echo the look of the Broadway Pointe retail complex, which opened at Main Street and Mt. Diablo Boulevard in 1998.

Plaza Escuela designers did not want merely to copy other downtown buildings. "We want the downtown to look like it developed over time – that it evolved as a downtown and not have the look and the feel of a specific design motif," said Paul Richardson, the city's top planner.

Although Plaza Escuela's buildings were erected simultaneously, each is designed to set it apart from its neighbors. "We wanted to create a style of architecture that didn't have a 'style' but that was as timeless as possible," Johnson said.

Buildings rise to different heights and are set back from the street to different depths. Store-fronts are different colors and feature distinct friezes and cornices.

Window shapes differ from building to building. Awnings, columns and arches of different colors and styles also distinguish buildings from each other.

"We wanted to break up the facades as much as possible," Johnson said. "Our goal was to try to bring the buildings down to a scale that wasn't too overwhelming."

Large windows are intended to draw pedestrians' interest as they stroll along the sidewalk. At the northern end of the center, Andronico's has windows along nearly the entire length of its exterior walls. Relatively wide sidewalks are paved with bricks and dotted with trees and benches.

"Giving the pedestrian a lot of choices makes it much more interesting, and I think they're trying to do that here," Davis said. "I can sit on the bench and watch the world go by, or I can be the world going by."

Locust Street, which has two lanes and parallel parking in Plaza Escuela, is intended mainly as a pedestrian thoroughfare. It also serves as a vehicle route to the center's two garages.

Making room for the garages without letting them dominate Plaza Escuela was a major design challenge, Johnson said. One garage takes up half of one block. "Parking was certainly a driving factor in this project," he said. The solution was to put the garages behind and above stores along Locust Street. Garage levels higher than stores are set farther back from the street, making them less obvious from the ground. The garage facades also are designed to blend in with the storefronts.

"I think it's really a great thing for the street, because you're not confronted with walls of garages," Davis said.

Work on Plaza Escuela is not quite complete. The true measure of its design will be taken after more shops open, street side trees spread their canopies and shoppers prowl the sidewalks, said Davis and city planners.