 Influences were the Tuscan hill town of Volterra, with its central piazza containing, along with the usual shops and cafes, an Etruscan museum and a large fresco-adorned municipal building; and the 1948 neighborhood shopping center, The Brentwood Country Mart.Sher purchased the Edgemar Farms property in October 1984, and retained the use of the name, Edgemar, for the development.In the early 1980s, the model of melding art with commerce was being widely explored as a way to support art institutions.