This trope runs so deep that it’s begun feeding on itself. Good riddance to these cathedrals to capitalism, many think, as they pore over apocalyptic photos of abandoned malls in ruins. * The reasons are many, including economic downturn, the rise of internet commerce, the decline of the suburbs-even just the opening of newer malls, which cannibalize older ones.Īmericans loved malls, then they loved to hate them. Precious few have been erected in the last decade, but plenty have been shuttered, and as many as half of the remaining could close within the next 10 years. In the six decades since, up to 1,500 malls were erected across the country. It was the first enclosed shopping mall in America. Two years later, in 1956, the Gruen-designed Southdale Center opened in Edina, Minnesota. In 1954 he designed the first outdoor suburban shopping plaza, near Detroit. Victor Gruen, an Austrian-born architect, emigrated to the United States after Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938. The tragic story of the American shopping mall is well-known by now. Contrary to popular opinion, malls are great, and they always were. When all is said and done, it turns out to be a strange relief. Usually I get in and out as fast as I can. The Apple Store is one of the only reasons I go to the mall anymore. But a lot of the stores are located in shopping malls. Apple operates some stand-alone retail locations, including a glass cube entrance in midtown Manhattan and a laptop-shaped location on Chicago’s Michigan Avenue.
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