On Thursday, the mayor renewed his criticism of plans to redevelop the church's Crossroads Plaza and ZCMI Center malls as an enclosed center. Pointing out the city's "tremendous opportunity" - with nearly 20 acres ripe for redevelopment across from Temple Square and the church's willingness to spend $500 million on downtown - Anderson said the church should invite urban designers and downtown-redevelopment specialists to help it think outside the mall box.

"There ought to be consideration of what it really takes to build a great city. Take a look at what's worked around the world," he said. "I'm concerned with the concept of an enclosed mall serving as the main focus of our downtown. There's not a great city in the world that relies upon an enclosed mall as the main feature of its downtown."

Anderson's comments were made to reporters after he spoke at the University of Utah about challenges facing the city.

The LDS Church, which declined to comment, is plowing forward with its plans to rebuild the malls, signing a letter of intent with national mall developer Taubman Centers Inc.

Anderson initially supported the church's plans when they included tearing down the malls, rebuilding streets to break up the blocks and adding street-level shops. But those ideas were quickly dropped after a church consultant said an open-air market wouldn't work with Utah's weather - despite the open-air Gateway just west of downtown.

Taubman has recently opened an open-air market and is experimenting with hybrid designs. Taubman officials have said that while the Salt Lake City mall will be enclosed, it will have a lot of glass, sidewalk dining and a design that drives pedestrians to surrounding blocks. There will be 900 units of housing on the blocks, something the mayor heartily endorses.

Because enclosed malls are allowed downtown, Anderson acknowledged the city may have only one trump card: forbidding the church from building a skybridge across Main Street to physically connect what are now Crossroads and ZCMI.

A skywalk isn't allowed downtown. Besides blocking mountain views, it would pull people off the street, the mayor said.

People on the street make downtowns vibrant, agrees Brenda Case Scheer, dean of the U.'s College of Architecture and Planning.

"I admire Rocky's stance on this. I don't know that it's realistic," she said. Since the church hired a mall developer, "it's unlikely that they'll come up with anything that's not an enclosed mall."

In Norfolk, Va. - where Taubman has another downtown mall - critics also feared an indoor shopping center wouldn't help surrounding businesses, and they came up with their own design that re-created streets with storefronts. Taubman rejected it, adding outdoor dining and fake windows as a compromise.

The pictures of Taubman's Norfolk mall that ran in The Salt Lake Tribune Sunday worry Scheer, Anderson and others because it showed a boxy development.

"There's not even a hint you're downtown. That's a real problem," Scheer said. "The whole idea of a downtown is to sort of have people spread out a little bit more and be on the streets and not be captured in that enclosed [mall] environment."

Scheer remains hopeful Taubman will open up the new mall, though she and others would like to see the design to be able to suggest improvements before it is a fait accompli. But the church hasn't even shown designs to the city's planning department, noted the frustrated mayor.

Michael Beyard, a senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C., who has visited Salt Lake City, said Anderson is correct that few downtowns have enclosed or outdoor malls.

But he said the redeveloped mall won't be the focus of downtown as Anderson fears. Temple Square will continue to hold that spot. To make downtown a success, Beyard suggested that the city strengthen each element - from the new mall, to Gateway to its emerging entertainment district on 300 South.

(While Anderson envisions the church's two blocks turning into something like San Diego's Gaslamp District - with independent stores, restaurants and clubs - Beyard said the city should instead encourage it on 300 South, where it's already happening.)

And Beyard agrees Crossroads and ZCMI must be rebuilt "inside out" with storefronts facing Main Street.

"You've got two enclosed malls there and that's what you've got to work with. The way to do it is to reconnect to the street, draw [pedestrians] through and out the other side and so forth. The challenge there is how to do that."

hmay@sltrib.com