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.

Black Lives Matter and the politics of protesting in privatized space

2016-01-08T15:15:00-05:00

Mall of America’s ability to so zealously suppress the December 23 [Black Lives Matter] protest there highlights how, in a nation where more and more public life takes place in privatized spaces, the ability to exercise First Amendment rights has become increasingly contingent... Legal arguments that free political speech should be allowed at malls center around the idea that the shopping center has replaced the town square as a place where opinions can be heard and exchanged.

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

Black Lives Matter and the politics of protesting in privatized space