Design Observer :: Join the Discussion http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/ en-us Design Observer Group 2010-04-01T10:03:48-05:00 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/1.0 Garrett http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2010-04-01T10:03:48-05:00 BDD http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2010-03-17T06:40:39-05:00 Mall-Lover 1972 http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2010-03-05T01:56:18-05:00 Lori http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2010-01-11T13:11:21-05:00
However, there is a big failure. A town square has offices and residences on the upper floors.

Most malls don't. Malls should have a multi-use to them, not single-use.]]> W. K. Lis http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2009-11-29T10:33:56-05:00
But really, aren't most of us just against them because they're tacky and we'd like to think we're cooler than that? Be honest, now.

Besides, this isn't about the death of consumerism. GET REAL! It's just like the older inner suburbs being abandoned in favor of newer outer suburbs. Older malls are being abandoned for newer ones (usually more strip-style) or just Big Box stores. No one wants to rebuild or take care of the old when they can have the new for so cheap (the way local governments fund new infrastructure more than they do repairing old, is partly to blame).

Besides, consumerism is all about the NEW, so why would you want to buy it somewhere old? Then again, there are still plenty of malls that are thriving. Maybe they just built too damn many, like housing and just about everything else. I suppose it would help if things were built based on actual demand and not pure fantastical speculation. But then we wouldn't be able to delude ourselves into believing economic growth and consumption can fix all our problems then, could we?]]> Emily B http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2009-11-29T03:00:54-05:00
To have to resort to this non-geographical shell is numbing. Everyone in the space seems confused, lost, and empty.]]> a http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2009-11-29T02:06:09-05:00
The high street chain crashed spectacularly, and this time last year I went and quickly shopped in it's last days of life, picking up that last 5 pound cafetiere and checking out it's crappy plastic toys for the stocking.

Somehow, the woolworths of today is the epitomy of what might be called "green shoots of recession" - I was there, in what was once woolworth's upstairs warehouse, now an east european cafe, surrounded by workmen from the nearby road works, looking up job ads in the local paper, while next to me there was all the buzz of the market, equalled in Bristol only by our traditional covered market in the city centre, St Nicks, which has been going at least since the middle ages. Jewellery stalls, bookshops, clothes shops, even typical high street second hand shops had all managed to get themselves a tiny slice of the dead chain.

In the corner, someone had put a macintosh computer, and a sign advertising "photo software lessons" for £10 an hour. Chatting to the book shop owner, a space was still going, and it was all really cheap startup, and all really cheap rent. Downstairs, a local greengrocer was selling "student veg boxes" also a bargain, with all the most tasteless vegetables for the non-cooking masses.

"Woollies", the new incarnation of the old woolworths, doesn't exactly produce much, but is 10 times better than what it used to be, and aside from thinking of how easy it would be today to set up a little stall and make a bit of money in a nice enviroment, I just generally felt emotional staring at a big box of carrots, thinking this is exactly what every dead woolworths needs, and feeling sad that in some spaces, that energy to rebuild and reuse just isn't there. The woolworths down in Broadmead, once a bustling christmas budget shopping experience, is still closed and empty since last year. But on Saturday, Bristol Dorkbot will be busking outside it with circuit bent musical instruments built from scaveneged microprocessors and bits of old bikes. I hope they bring the sound of the future to that much bigger, but still dying mall.]]> Ale Fernandez http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2009-11-26T17:36:23-05:00
http://www.griffithreview.com/current-edition/228-reportage/687.html

]]> Mark Welker http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2009-11-25T20:08:21-05:00 Grogan12 http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2009-11-25T17:12:22-05:00
The major sins of the mall are that they are not "town centers" as originally envisioned where multi-use; shopping, living quarters, public square, ruled the day. Also, although they closely cluster the shops together, They are pedestrian unfriendly islands surrounded by vast asphalt deserts of parking lot. Surface parking lots large enough to hold all of the cars neccesary to fill the mall with people, both seperates itself from the surrounding community, and insures that cars will be the prefered mode of travel over pedestrians.

I like the idea of repurposing a failed mall. It would be useful to a town or community as its city hall. The abandoned movie theatre as a community theatre. However, the horizontal space used as parking must be diminished. Adding parking garage towers could achieve this. The outlying parcels could then be used as apartments, parks, or even more mall space. The object is to create an attractive, walkable, community enviroment.]]> GMDuggan http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2009-11-20T18:31:54-05:00
While I hate advertising and chintzy goods, they do mean that you can go and buy a blender for $30, that a working family can afford luxuries that would have dazzled the wealthiest kings and industrialist 100 years ago. A consumer society also means jobs for people, and though they aren't always good jobs, more often than not, a job is better than no job.

What would be lost in shifting away from this model is, 1) affordable consumer goods: prices would have to rise, as lower volume would mean fewer companies and smaller inventory, 2) slower technological progress, as consumption drives most of the innovation people experience in their everyday lives. While this may be fine for the majority of college-educated culturally-endowed individuals who are concerned with things like locally-grown produce, it would be a definite hinderance for most working Americans. Too often, its assumed that we can have less crap to buy, fewer advertisments, small shops, etc. and still enjoy the lifestyle that we do now, and I do not think that is possible.

Big box stores are ubiquitous because they're better than small stores. I grew up in a small town in Vermont with a great deal of small shops, most of them sold knick-knacks to tourist who came through, and the only reliable play to buy toys or games or anything that would interest a young boy, was a five-and-dime next to the movie theater. The selection was small, the store was dirty and cramped and the prices were, in restrospect, pretty outrageous. If I could have, I would have gone to the Ames (not quite a big box store, but close), which had better selection and better prices. I cannot imagine how my life would have been different if there was a Target in my town. The five-and-dime was quaint, but now, as then I would have gone to the Target, because there's no reason to pay more for something, to subsidize quaintness, and I think that's how most American's feel.

I think reusing and greening up dilapidated mall space is a noble endeavour, and I whole-heartedly agree that the brand of capitalism we practice(d), with high capacity production and out of control debt and borrowing is highly volatile and ruins the environment. I do not find the vision of greener, smaller future distasteful. But these visions are drafted and designed for well-heeled, upper-middle class families and creatives (assuming that the creatives will be able to afford this life as well, as most design and art jobs are related to advertising. Perhaps we'll have to go back to patronage) the kind of people who do not regularly worry about putting food on the table. The future needs to be the future, not a regression to simpler times paid for by further disenfranchsing the bottom rung.]]> William http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2009-11-17T13:48:14-05:00
-First of all its like backwards progress - we went from shopping centers to malls and then back to bigger shopping centers.

-Malls weren't able invade downtown urban areas as well as big box shopping centers - exp area around NYU looks like any suburb

-Big box shopping centers don't allow the more creative type stores in due to size - exp the crappy art seller, the ball cap store, and the half-ass seasonal holiday store

-Hanging out at Target vs the mall?
]]> mxs http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2009-11-17T04:14:59-05:00 ]]> Ted James Butler http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2009-11-16T16:22:26-05:00 Sammie http://changeobserver.designobserver.com/feature/dawn-of-the-dead-mall/11747/#comments 2009-11-16T12:23:43-05:00