What Joanna Gaines' Magnolia Can Teach Us About Cities
A few months ago, I moseyed my way through downtown Waco, Texas, across the railroad tracks and through the gated entrance to the Silos at Magnolia. Run by celebrity couple Chip and Joanna Gaines—owners of the home remodeling company Magnolia and stars of the TV show Fixer Upper—the Silos is a shopping complex and event space that millions of Fixer Upper fans have come to visit. When the weather is nice, you can see dozens, if not hundreds, of visitors (75% of them women) waiting for their chance to enter the bakery housed inside historic cottonseed Siloes.
A few years ago, the Gaines cemented the village’s attractiveness by expanding the Magnolia grounds, creating a little town square complete with “houses” (more shops), a food truck court, a stage for concerts, a historic chapel and a micro-sized ballpark.
The destination quickly became popular, and understandably so. All around me mingled multigenerational families, moving at the leisurely pace of vacationers, inspecting food truck menus, watching children in the ballpark, or simply lounging at picnic tables under the shade.
This $10.4 million expansion to the Silos has only been open since 2020, and it’s served to further cement Magnolia’s identity as one of the most magnetic tourist attractions in the entire state of Texas. With more than two million annual visitors, it’s clear they’ve designed a deeply appealing environment, but it may not be immediately clear why it’s such a success.
The answer can be found in a few principles of urban design. If you’re visiting Magnolia anytime soon, here are three design decisions to pay attention to that explain part of why the village is such an enjoyable experience.
First, the Gaines designed it in a way that connects visitors with Waco’s history. For example, Joanna explained in a company blog that it would go on the same spot as the historic Katy Park, where Waco’s home team played against Babe Ruth in 1929. Controversially, the Gaines also moved parts of Waco’s oldest church to the site. And, of course, the giant Silos themselves point to Waco’s agricultural origins.
As humans, we gravitate to history like moths to light. Historic places are not only interesting, but they ground us. Even if the history around us is unpleasant or uncomfortable to confront, it’s comforting to be in places that connect us to those who came before us. It gives us the sense that we’re participating in something bigger than ourselves.
Second, the Gaines integrated traditional design principles that have a proven track record of transforming spaces into loveable places: density, mixed-use and walkability. Even though the village is tiny, it contains all of these features and is designed at a human scale. Moderate levels of density make streets feel safer due to an increased sense of enclosure, while providing plenty to explore.
In contrast to single-use environments (like residential-only neighborhoods), streets that feature a variety of business types (i.e., cafés, laundromats, barber shops, shoe stores, schools), attract a variety of different kinds of people and activities, making streets more dynamic and interesting, while providing practical solutions to our various needs and interests.
Perhaps most important, designing for people on foot rather than people in cars leads to safer, more relaxing and more visually attractive environments. Spaces designed for cars typically feature plenty of open space for parking, lots of unpredictable driveways for entering and exiting and the kinds of roads that are suitable for driving quickly. Few people enjoy strolling leisurely around such environments, especially if they have kids in tow.
It’s worth noting that the Gaines didn’t introduce or create these principles, they simply applied those that have a historical track record of working. In this way, the “village” can serve as a reminder of how American cities used to be designed and the responses these places evoked. By copying an older version of place-building and urban development that American cities were doing before the introduction of the automobile, the village reminds us of how we used to build cities. They also seem to suggest that perhaps there’s wisdom in learning from the past as we think about how to strengthen our cities for future financial and climate challenges.
The popularity of places like the village at the Silos seems to indicate there's a bottled-up demand in the U.S. for dense, walkable, public places where moms and their families can explore, stroll about and relax. The Gaines are smartly tapping into that demand. The question is if city leaders can learn from the success of places like Magnolia and realize that Americans want walkable, interesting cities that can be passed down and treasured for generations. These places should not be available to vacationing tourists only, but for all of us.
