The Official USA Mall Thread

[dfrench8456]

This is my local mall in Manchester CT, Buckland Hills Mall.

[ramvid01]

It seems like some of those NY mall pictures were taken at off peak hours because from Jamaica Center up, those sidewalks are usually packed after about 2.

[Raymondzhydra]

San Francisco looks terrific (european style, not really malls but commerce streets). For the rest, malls are simply the same all over the world.

[gabo79]

nice malls

[marq.fcb]

in construction Arena Centar

[davsot]

Originally Posted by gars129

Plaza Las Américas is a large and famous shopping mall in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. "Plaza", as known by many Puerto Ricans, is the largest shopping mall in the Caribbean and any Spanish-speaking country and the 2nd in all of Latin America, the first American-style mall built in Puerto Rico and one of the largest malls in southeastern United States. The anchor stores are Sears, JC Penney (largest in the world),and Macy's.

Plaza Las Américas is the largest mall in the Caribbean. 2nd in Latin America!

More photos of Plaza Las Américas:



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Art in the mall
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[davsot]

Wow, the SF shopping district is amazing. It reminds me a lot of Sydney's shopping district.

[skyduster]

Metcalf South Shopping Center, Overland Park, KS (Kansas City)
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Irondequoit's Medley Center, Rochester, NY
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Eastland Mall, Tulsa, OK
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Hawthorne Mall, Hawthorne, CA (Los Angeles)

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Rolling Acres Mall, Akron, OH
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Livonia Mall, Livonia, MI (Detroit)
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Tampa Bay Center, Tampa, FL
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Lakehurst Mall, Waukegan, IL (Chicago)



Landover Mall, Landover, MD (Washington)
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Summit Place Mall, Waterford, MI (Detroit)
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Washington Commons, Green Bay, WI
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Randall Mall, North Randall, OH (Cleveland)
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Woodville Mall, Northwood, OH (Toledo)
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[davsot]

Rolling Acres Mall looks interesting...

well, you know, in a good way

[skyduster]

lol, I think so too davsot

While most of this thread is pretty much a mega-mall worship thread, I think it's important to point out that many malls end up dead and/or abandoned due to poor regional urban planning.

A lot of these malls with their dated 1970s/80s/early 90s architecture, it's important to remember that they were once the "it" mall for a certain metropolitan area, until one of four things happened: A. a neighborhood, or a chunk of a metro area, or an entire metro area went into economic decline, or B. the area lost population to a more distant suburb or the rapidly suburbanizing county next door, or even to another part of the country, or C. a bigger better mall opened down the street (or in the suburb next door) and took away virtually all the business of the original mall, or D, management did not upkeep the mall (through interior decorating and floor space expansions) to keep up with the times and compete with other malls.

While I certainly have nothing against competition and striving to provide better things for consumers, I want to point out the irony that while these malls -constructed in "fad" architecture that was surely going to be dated in just a decade- once pulled away all the business from pedestrian-friendly main street/downtown business districts across America, the same thing was now done to these malls, due to ever larger malls and big-box stores. And what a waste of land space this creates!! It's like: we build a nice new suburb with a nice new mall, and then ten years later a newer better suburb opens up 10 minutes down the freeway, with a newer and better mall, and everyone flees, and the original suburb becomes old, decrepit, and abandoned, and an economic ghetto for those who can't afford to move out. Had there been effective reigonal urban planning, with regional land use zoning, there wouldn't be a newer, better suburb down the street, we'd improve the one we're already in... there wouldn't be suburbs competing with each other, and populations abandoning entire cities (or older suburbs) en masse to move to the newly created suburb. What a waste of land space. Just to put things in perspective.

While there certainly are a lot of malls from the 1960s/70s/80s/early 90s that have survived and have kept up and grown and are now thriving more than ever, just think that some of these wonderful malls featured in this thread will end up dead and abandoned. They may look amazing and dazzling to us today, but so did a lot of these abandoned malls back in the day. And this isn't a purely American phenomenon...it also happens in Canada, and it's starting to happen in other countries too, like China.

[WA]

Originally Posted by skyduster

lol, I think so too davsot

While most of this thread is pretty much a mega-mall worship thread, I think it's important to point out that many malls end up dead and/or abandoned due to poor regional urban planning.

A lot of these malls with their dated 1970s/80s/early 90s architecture, it's important to remember that they were once the "it" mall for a certain metropolitan area, until one of four things happened: A. a neighborhood, or a chunk of a metro area, or an entire metro area went into economic decline, or B. the area lost population to a more distant suburb or the rapidly suburbanizing county next door, or even to another part of the country, or C. a bigger better mall opened down the street (or in the suburb next door) and took away virtually all the business of the original mall, or D, management did not upkeep the mall (through interior decorating and floor space expansions) to keep up with the times and compete with other malls.

While I certainly have nothing against competition and striving to provide better things for consumers, I want to point out the irony that while these malls -constructed in "fad" architecture that was surely going to be dated in just a decade- once pulled away all the business from pedestrian-friendly main street/downtown business districts across America, the same thing was now done to these malls, due to ever larger malls and big-box stores. And what a waste of land space this creates!! It's like: we build a nice new suburb with a nice new mall, and then ten years later a newer better suburb opens up 10 minutes down the freeway, with a newer and better mall, and everyone flees, and the original suburb becomes old, decrepit, and abandoned, and an economic ghetto for those who can't afford to move out. Had there been effective reigonal urban planning, with regional land use zoning, there wouldn't be a newer, better suburb down the street, we'd improve the one we're already in... there wouldn't be suburbs competing with each other, and populations abandoning entire cities (or older suburbs) en masse to move to the newly created suburb. What a waste of land space. Just to put things in perspective.

While there certainly are a lot of malls from the 1960s/70s/80s/early 90s that have survived and have kept up and grown and are now thriving more than ever, just think that some of these wonderful malls featured in this thread will end up dead and abandoned. They may look amazing and dazzling to us today, but so did a lot of these abandoned malls back in the day. And this isn't a purely American phenomenon...it also happens in Canada, and it's starting to happen in other countries too, like China.

I agree 100% well put.

[davsot]

great analysis skyduster

[Gunder]

Awesome, that's sweet!

Wealthiest people in the world

[NovaWolverine]

Landover Mall in Landover, MD has been torn down. I have a lot of childhood memories getting lost in that place. We also got our car stolen there once....yes...those were the good old days. If you're putting dead malls up, this one is about to be dead.

Landmark Mall, Alexandria, VA


It's prime real-estate off of I-395 less than 10 miles from DC with a metro stop not too far away. They want to make it more urban. Here's a drawing, pretty generic right now



This area has some of the densest census tracts in the metro area, lots of highrise apts. in this area so it'll definitely be something dense.

[cwilson758]

Here is a cool site I found:

http://mall-hall-of-fame.blogspot.com/

[cwilson758]

Indiana's first enclosed shopping Mall, Anderson's Mounds Mall:



The original footprint of Indy's -and Simon's- first interior mall. The J.C.
Penney was a latter addition to the circa-'65 center. I am presuming that
the store would have been completed by the date of this drawing (1968).


MOUNDS MALL
South Scatterfield and Mounds Roads
Anderson, Indiana

Melvin Simon and Associates' first mall was also the first enclosed shopping center in Indiana. MOUNDS MALL was constructed on a 32 acre tract, located 2.5 miles southeast of downtown Anderson.

The center opened for business in January 1965. It was originally anchored by Montgomery Ward and Indianapolis-based H.P Wasson. A full-line, J.C. Penney was eventually added.

Charter tenants included the MCL Cafeteria, F.W. Woolworth, Hoyt, Wright and Company and Zales Jewelers. A combination Kroger and Super X Drug served as a junior anchor.

MOUNDS MALL had no major retail rival, as it was (and is) the only mall-type center in -or around- Anderson. Moreover, the malls nearest to it, MUNCIE MALL (1970) -in Muncie- and Indianapolis' CASTLETON SQUARE (1972), were also Simon-owned.

Anchor store rebrandings at the 407,400 square foot complex were many. The 66,700 square foot, H.P. Wasson morphed into an Anderson-based Weiler's, Terra Haute-based Meis and, finally, a Dayton-based Elder-Berrman (in 1989).

The Montgomery Ward space became a Sears. J.C. Penney closed in May 2002 and was demolished. The newly-built, Mounds Mall 10 Theatre opened (on its space) in April 2004. The old Kroger / Super X eventually became an Elder-Beerman Home Store.

The mall was acquired by Coral Gables, Florida-based Bayview Financial Corporation in January 2003. They initiated a renovation soon after, which included new skylights, signage and an updated Food Court.

Sources:

"Mounds Mall" article on Wikipedia
www.moundsmallanderson.com
"Mounds Mall Still Courting Customers" / The Herald Bulliten / December 9, 2007 / Neal McNamara

FYI, Mounds Mall is barely a mall in the sense anymore. I would say a 1/4 of the mall is empty and when its only 400,000 sf, that is a lot.

[Rasputin1970]

Very interesting. more pictures anyone?

[mhays]

Wow, that sure is a lot of horrible stuff.

[weava]

Battlefield Mall (Springfield, MO)


Branson Landing

[-Corey-]

Westfield Plaza Bonita, San Diego, CA

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