...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.”
— The Guardian
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.
7 Comments
WTC Oculus must be a success since everyone is using it for their "hey look, capitalism is everywhere" thinkpieces
It has to be understood that "malls" have always been generators and weavers of public life with public space.
*The reason suburban malls and suburbia in general is on a decline is due to designed lack of spontaneity/chance/risk involved in the suburban living model. Growing up with the internet--the digital version of urban living--has helped to condition suburban people to expect more than what the suburban model could ever give. Coupling the digital experience with the removal in cities of any heavy industry has reopened cities to a broader swath of people.
*totally unsubstantiated, but probably true claims
I have to wonder if some of these retail venues in airports and in transit hubs in the US are self sustaining in their sales revenue versus labor, and often very high rents or are these shops there to sell the brand that someone might order online later on or have a loyalty to such as a food or coffee shop chain.
Some of the rents in airports are very high and the shops have to pay a percentage of revenue on top of the lease per square foot in many cases. Labor cost are higher at airports and transit hubs too as you have to screen your staff and your goods.
The other concern is the blurring of the lines of public and private space. This can potentially lead to arrest and entrapment when someone protesting or engaging in some other free speech activity steps over the threshold between public and private and then is subject to arrest and prosecution.
Over and OUT
Peter N
Totally agree Peter.
But with public space in America evacuated in the post war period, we are reaping what we sowed for our current public life context. My optimistic side hopes that the mall/commercial context is just a step--a public life jump start--on the way to commercial/controlled spaces moving from the foreground to the background. I see a positive future in which public space as a place of citizen engagement and expression will again be pushed for, paid for, and built by the people/citizens. Right now, people are just waking up again and looking for open-ended/spontaneous spaces in which to engage each other....or at least be in public...
It'd also be interesting to see the rules of governing the Westfield owned Oculus building. It's located very close to the publicly funded subway system, though still a bit separated by some stairs.
Not only are malls dying so are primo shopping streets like Fifth Avenue in NYC, at least according to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal. On-line shopping is the reason, not some inner urge to flee the suburban malls in order to rush to downtown Baltimore, Maryland, or Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to interact with the locals.
Hi Volunteer,
I'd love to read that article if you could provide a link for me.
As far as I am aware, I've heard that large department stores are feeling a hit more than smaller boutique stores. The trend towards more experiential, meandering, and personal shopping has been hurting larger stores, since they are slower to adapt to changes in pop culture shifts.
Additionally, the Oculus further expresses the symbiotic relationship between public life and public space. Though a private enterprise owns the Oculus space, the WTC plaza at the ground level is a public space. The two feed and depend on each other.
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