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SPARK and Arup create a retrofitted mall and education hub in the heart of Singapore's Selegie Arts District

2023-08-02T15:49:00-04:00

International architectural and design consultancy SPARK, alongside ARUP, has brought an eye-catching, youth-focused mall and education hub to the heart of Singapore’s Selegie Arts District. Situated between the adjacent School of the Arts Singapore (SOTA) and several long-standing shopping malls, this vibrant refurbished space serves as a new beacon for the surrounding area.

Entrance. Image: KhooGuoJie

Called GRiD, the project centered on the purpose of increasing asset value through social interaction, increased accessibility, and the celebration of self and community. The building was deliberately designed to stand out, with its neon-clad façade and supersized graphics. GRiD reimagines the corner that it sits after replacing what the architects described as an “unproductive 4-storey void.”

Atrium view. Image: KhooGuoJie

The new structure has a Tetris-like arrangement of stacked retail and dining volumes and terraces. The voided spaces encourage direct connections to the basement le...

The abandoned mall featured in hit show, The Last of Us, will undergo a redevelopment led by Toronto-based practice DIALOG

2023-03-16T18:53:00-04:00

HBO’s The Last of Us has taken the TV world by storm, with its season finale recently airing last Sunday. The show has brought to life the immensely popular and acclaimed video game series, placing viewers into a dire post-apocalyptic, zombie-ridden world.

Following the journey of characters Joel, played by Pedro Pascal, and Ellie, played by Bella Ramsey, we see them undertake a cross-country trip where they encounter a range of landscapes and urban locations.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Last of Us HBO - Status (@hbosthelastofus)

One of the most memorable is seen in the show’s seventh episode, “Left Behind,” set primarily in an actual vacant shopping mall. This location is Calgary’s Northland Village Mall, which has been partially closed since 2021 as it undergoes a redevelopment plan led by Toronto-based practice DIALOG.

Rendered in courtesy of DIALOG.

The firm has recently shared renderings of the reimagined mall, depicting an open-air, mixe...

Shopping malls are being reimagined as health care centers across the country

2022-04-14T15:11:00-04:00

The hulking Hickory Hollow Mall — a full 1.1 million square feet of retail space in southeast Nashville — was once the largest shopping center in Tennessee. But like dozens of malls, it’s been in a downward death spiral for more than a decade — despite a scrappy revival effort. Now, the mammoth complex surrounded by acres of parking is on track to join the ranks of malls making a transition into medicine.

According to a national database kept by Georgia Tech urban design professor Ellen Dunham-Jones, a total of 32 enclosed malls have shifted to housing health care services, with nearly a third established at the start of the pandemic. Covid lockdowns had a tremendous impact on brick-and-mortar retailers who were already struggling to stay afloat. As noted by Marketplace.org, the rise of telemedicine and push to outpatient procedures will make malls increasingly attractive sites for healthcare services.

In addition, some disused malls are located in diverse neighborhoods that are in need of increased access to healthcare. Malls can also offer more convenient access compared to traditional hospitals as they’re equipped with large amounts of parking spots and are near major highways and interstates.

Toronto's Eaton Centre to undergo $77 million revitalization led by Zeidler Architecture

2022-01-21T12:55:00-05:00

Canadian commercial real estate company Cadillac Fairview (CF) has announced a $77 million revitalization of the CF Toronto Eaton Centre.

The project will see a $60 million refurbishment of its iconic galleria skylight roof. According to CF’s announcement: “The existing glass will be replaced with the latest materials and technologies to improve energy efficiency while maintaining its classic design aesthetic.”

News of this endeavor came just days after the passing of famed Canadian architect and the shopping center’s designer, Eberhard Zeidler. The refurbishment will be led by eponymous firm Zeidler Architecture Inc. and Read Jones Christoffersen consulting engineers, with construction overseen by EllisDon Corporation. The project will be carried out in two phases, starting with the south end of the mall in mid-January 2022, followed by work on the north end beginning in March 2023.

“As the original architects of the galleria, we’re honored to play a continuing role in one of the...

Third-biggest mall in North America makes its New Jersey debut

2019-10-28T13:30:00-04:00

Visitors finally took their first steps inside the American Dream mall on Friday. The mall, located by MetLife stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, was once called “the ugliest damn building in New Jersey and maybe America,” by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Construction has been on and off for several years, after hitting several road blocks in everything from funding to lawsuits from the NFL.

The American Dream complex is located at the Meadowlands in Bergen County, New Jersey. The mall is designed by GH+A Design and Adamson Associates Architects and will ultimately dedicate 55-percent of its floor area to entertainment uses and 45-percent to retail.

Eventually, the mall will contain a LEGOLAND theme park, a water park, an aquarium, a massive observation wheel, and a kosher food hall, among many other components.

Photo of the American Dream mall. Image courtesy of Wikimedia user Brad Miller.

The 3 million-square-foot complex is set to become the third largest mall in North America, falling behind the Jon Jerde-designed Mall of America, the largest mall in the United States, and the West Edmonton Mall in Canada, the largest on the continent, designed by Canadian architect Maurice Sunderland.

Staten Island outlet mall is a mysterious black hole for public funds

2019-08-28T15:00:00-04:00

The Cuomo administration is tapping two discretionary funds to steer nearly $47 million to an outlet mall on Staten Island, a multi-pronged subsidy that increased after the developers contributed $85,000 to the governor's campaign. The Empire State Development corporation last month approved $21.9 million in subsidies for Empire Outlets [...] That's on top of a $25 million grant awarded last April by the state's Dormitory Authority.

The recently-opened mall, designed by SHoP Architects, is part of a larger collection of waterfront revitalization and densification projects taking shape on Staten Island.

New Jersey's long-delayed American Dream mega-mall set to open

2019-08-22T19:45:00-04:00

The megamall, built by Canadian developer Triple Five, will include a Nickelodeon Universe theme park, DreamWorks water park, professional-size skating rink, indoor ski slopes and, of course, shopping. Participating retailers include Saks Fifth Avenue, Tiffany & Co., H&M , Zara and Uniqlo. Some stores won’t be open until next year. The mall is expected to bring 17,000 jobs in total to the area, an American Dream spokesman said.

The project was first proposed in 2003, fittingly, under the name "Xanadu," according to The Wall Street Journal.

According to an American Dream spokesperson, the mall is expected to bring 17,000 jobs to New Jersey's Meadowlands area.

Jennifer Bonner's award-winning Office Stack reimagines the perception of mid-rise office design

2019-02-27T13:51:00-05:00

A growing household name within the profession and in academia, Jennifer Bonner's whimsical and highly technical design approach has enabled her to create and re-work traditional design methods. Her creative practice, MALL, is a compilation of playful approaches to "ordinary architecture." The name itself is an acronym with its own flexible meaning, similar to Bonner's design process. By focusing on everyday materials and familiar architecture motifs, the Alabama native architect seeks to perceive and portray architecture through whimsical discourse.

Best Sandwiches by Jennifer Bonner, MALL. Image by Adam DeTour

Office Stacks - Picnic Model by Jennifer Bonner, MALL. Image by Adam DeTour

Recently a winner of the 2019 Progressive Architecture Award, Bonner used her original project study, Best Sandwiches to help create her award-winning project Office Stack. The architectural stack may seem like a conventional building process. However, Bonner allows for each layer of the structure to ...

Rem Koolhaas' theories on Junkspace are the inspiration for this Synth-pop album (and music video!)

2019-02-02T21:29:00-05:00

Seventeen years after publishing his thoughts on 'Junkspace' in October Journal, Rem Koolhaas is seeing his theories reprised through an unexpected medium. The Tempers, the New York-based Synth-pop band, dedicated their latest album to Koolhaas' cynical paper in which he defined much of contemporary architectural production and consumption as Junkspace, the "residue mankind leaves on the planet."

Screenshot from Love at the Mall, by the Tempers.

The music video for The Tempers' song, Love at the Mall, begins with a clip of Koolhaas speaking in an interview about the text: "The essence of shopping is to eliminate reality as much as possible." It then follows the loose narratives of CGI mannequins, plastic flamingoes and synthetic palm trees in a sparse mall setting, adopting several of the themes of Koolhaas' text, such as alienation, conspicuous consumption and artificiality.

Other songs on the album, including Air Conditioner, Desire and All That is Solid Melts into Air dive deepe...

David Chipperfield Architects completes unifying renovation for Selfridges department store in London

2018-09-12T13:24:00-04:00

David Chipperfield Architects recently completed Selfridges Duke Street, a new entrance building and accessories hall for the Selfridges department store in London.

The new Duke Street entrance by David Chipperfield Architects, located in London. © Simon Menges

The department store is housed in a beaux-arts style building on Oxford Street completed in 1929. Selfridges eventually expanded into a new art deco style building to the north, and developed into a hodgepodge of styles mixed together.

The accessories hall in the original Selfridges building facing Oxford Street by David Chipperfield Architects, located in London. © Simon Menges

The firm's goal is part of a larger redevelopment plan for Selfridges to establish architectural continuity and fluidity throughout the entire complex.

The accessories hall in the original Selfridges building facing Oxford Street by David Chipperfield Architects, located in London. © Simon Menges

The accessories hall, looking south towards the link bu...

Moshe Safdie discusses the donut-shaped Jewel addition to the Changi Airport in Singapore

2018-05-31T15:47:00-04:00

A 250-meter-long bouncing net three stories above ground. A 50-meter-long suspended bridge with glass-panel flooring. Walking trails amongst a lush jungle of animal-shaped topiaries in a five-story terraced garden. A 40-meter-tall waterfall cascading from an opening in a vaulted glass roof canopy. An art sculpture made up of four giant, integrated slides. And that's just scratching the surface.

Safdie Architects's $1.27 billion Jewel Changi is the latest addition to Singapore's impressive Changi Airport. This donut-shaped structure will function as a central hub connecting three of the airport's current four terminals. Safdie's design features five stories of retail, gardens and restaurants, as well as a hotel with a five-story underground parking lot.

Safdie Architects's Jewel Changi addition to the Singapore Changi Airport. Image: Jewel Changi Airport Devt.

The domed structure consists of glass panel latticework framed in steel, producing a delicate covering over the space and allowing in plenty of light for the expansive gardens within.

Jewel Changi by Safdie Architects section view.

Jewel Changi also boasts a large mall within the gardens to attract both visitors and locals, further solidifying the airport as not only a function of travel but also a destination. T...

MVRDV's porous shopping mall in France breaks ground

2018-03-13T14:20:00-04:00

Construction has just begun on MVRDV's Lyon Part-Dieu, a shopping mall located in Lyon, France. The new design features a porous facade breaking up the exterior pattern and allowing for greater fluidity with its surrounding environment.

Lyon Part-Dieu Shopping Center by MVRDV, located in Lyon, FR. Image: Kréaction.

Dissolving the facade allows for a subtle shift from concrete to glass while also enhancing the pedestrian flow. The renovated facade features a depolluting coating on the concrete panels to improve air quality of the area.

Lyon Part-Dieu Shopping Center by MVRDV, located in Lyon, FR. Image: Kréaction.

MVRDV's competition-winning design aims to transform one of the largest downtown shopping center's in Europe.

Lyon Part-Dieu Shopping Center by MVRDV, located in Lyon, FR. Image: Kréaction.

Founded in 1975, Lyon Part-Dieu Shopping Center was an introverted complex built for the car century. The new design opens up the entire space through revitalizing and re-organizing the m...

Improbable transformations of a Venezuelan architectural icon, as reported by CityLab

2017-06-02T20:53:00-04:00

Sometimes called a tropical Babel, the one-time symbol of the country’s progress wound up converted into a prison and, according to some of its former inmates, a torture center for political prisoners.

The Helicoide's design was initiated in mid-fifties, the times of Venezuela's economic prosperity. Grandiose, ambitious and strange, the project proposed a first drive-through mall with over 300 stores, a car showroom, gas station, car wash and even a repair shop. However, the building's destiny, was much more complex and chaotic than originally planned. Its long transformation from the intended techno-utopia to a functioning prison is regarded by many as a cruel irony symbolic of the country's's dramatically unstable political climate.

Stefan Al on why the shopping mall isn't dying

2017-03-24T19:41:00-04:00

...it is not the mall that is declining, but suburbia. The mall, meanwhile, is becoming urban. In fact, a new breed of shopping centre is integrating so seamlessly into its urban surroundings that it can be difficult to draw any line between city and mall whatsoever. On both sides of the Pacific, the mall is not “dead”. It has simply transformed...[but] “While the idea of the shopping mall becoming ‘urban’ has a certain appeal, the net effect is to turn the city into a shopping mall.”

Stefan Al, author of Mall City: Hong Kong's Dreamworlds of Consumption, writes about how shopping malls in places such as New York, Melbourne, and Hong Kong are increasingly blending into the cities themselves — transforming into “a new breed of shopping centre”, Al writes.

"Hugely overwrought": Oliver Wainwright on the newly-reopened Les Halles

2016-04-06T12:31:00-04:00

Unveiled this week, the €1bn redevelopment is the largest infrastructure project that Paris has undertaken in decades, aiming to fix the messy tangle where Europe’s biggest underground station disgorges 750,000 passengers a day into a labyrinthine warren of shops [...] It is hugely overwrought, the layered steel roof pulled to and fro in tortured twists and turns, forming a contorted rollercoaster of curved trusses and angled bracing...

"The whole thing has a forlorn droop when seen from the west, as if sagging under the weight of expectation. Nor does the colour help. Ranging between sand and rancid butter depending on the light, the yellow steelwork casts a jaundiced pallor across the scene, lending the interiors a decidedly institutional air."

From marketplace to open pit to "custard-coloured flop" – more on Les Halles here:

Leaking water delays opening of World Trade Center Transit Hub's luxury shopping mall

2015-11-16T15:54:00-05:00

A persistent water leak is among the problems that have delayed the opening of the mall, which was supposed to be operating by now, to the first half of 2016. It is the latest setback to bedevil the World Trade Center Transportation Hub, the $3.7 billion rail terminal that will also house Westfield’s $1.4 billion shopping center. [...] The latest twist involves water penetration around the construction site of 3 World Trade Center, an office tower abutting the hub, which began in late summer.

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