Why did cities build downtown malls?
video description
Date: 2021-08-27
Related videos
Comments and reviews: 9
Ill
I'm reading The Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin which looks at how modern urban life came to be by using the original arcades in Paris as a case study. I previously lived in Hamilton, Ontario, one of those Canadian cities that has a struggling downtown city center mall. Now I live in Reno, Nevada, and I belong to an artist workshop and makerspace that's moving into a new 40k sq ft space as part of a larger mixed use redevelopment project to transform an abandoned Lowe's building. The project will include a micro brewery/pub, our artist makerspace, an outdoor sculpture park, a local theater production company, 10 studio apartment units, and a collection of other small businesses. The project also organizes these elements around two arcades. I'm both excited and concerned to see how this project goes. It's being done in a car-dependent neighborhood full of empty strip malls. These videos have helped me learn how to think through planning so we can work with the developers and community stakeholders to make this ambitious project of ours a success!
reply
I'm reading The Arcades Project by Walter Benjamin which looks at how modern urban life came to be by using the original arcades in Paris as a case study. I previously lived in Hamilton, Ontario, one of those Canadian cities that has a struggling downtown city center mall. Now I live in Reno, Nevada, and I belong to an artist workshop and makerspace that's moving into a new 40k sq ft space as part of a larger mixed use redevelopment project to transform an abandoned Lowe's building. The project will include a micro brewery/pub, our artist makerspace, an outdoor sculpture park, a local theater production company, 10 studio apartment units, and a collection of other small businesses. The project also organizes these elements around two arcades. I'm both excited and concerned to see how this project goes. It's being done in a car-dependent neighborhood full of empty strip malls. These videos have helped me learn how to think through planning so we can work with the developers and community stakeholders to make this ambitious project of ours a success!
reply
George
I worked at the Shops at Liberty Place in Philadelphia. This is a small enclosed mall between One and Two Liberty Place which is basically Philadelphia's twin towers. This place works because Chestnut Street is also filled with street facing retail. The amount of pedestrian traffic on Chestnut street can be so large one may have to walk in the street at times and going inside can be a nice break from the hectic crowds, we also had a ton of traffic from the workers in the towers. Philadelphia also has a much larger suburban style shopping mall not connected to office space in Center City built on top of a Regional Rail station recently renamed Fashion District Philadelphia. That mall used to be anchored by major local department stores but they all went out of business in the 2000s. I have not been to Fashion District since they rebranded and renovated it but would be worth checking out after they tried to reinvent a struggling downtown mall.
reply
I worked at the Shops at Liberty Place in Philadelphia. This is a small enclosed mall between One and Two Liberty Place which is basically Philadelphia's twin towers. This place works because Chestnut Street is also filled with street facing retail. The amount of pedestrian traffic on Chestnut street can be so large one may have to walk in the street at times and going inside can be a nice break from the hectic crowds, we also had a ton of traffic from the workers in the towers. Philadelphia also has a much larger suburban style shopping mall not connected to office space in Center City built on top of a Regional Rail station recently renamed Fashion District Philadelphia. That mall used to be anchored by major local department stores but they all went out of business in the 2000s. I have not been to Fashion District since they rebranded and renovated it but would be worth checking out after they tried to reinvent a struggling downtown mall.
reply
Lady
My city in brazil has three downtown malls and it worked. The shopping malls are complemented with the traditional stores of the downtown (which has a high density of homes and offices. There are traditional markets and old shopping galleries too. There are several popular malls that are shopping malls with sellers of cheap and pirated products as well (typical in a developing country.
In fact, there is a stratification by class: the elite and the middle class frequent the shopping malls, the middle class and the working class frequent the traditional stores and the popular malls are frequented by the working class, who do not have the money to go to the shopping malls.
I think that's why shopping malls haven't fallen into decay in Brazil, they are a space of ostentation for the white elite who spend a lot of time inside them taking photos for Instagram.
reply
My city in brazil has three downtown malls and it worked. The shopping malls are complemented with the traditional stores of the downtown (which has a high density of homes and offices. There are traditional markets and old shopping galleries too. There are several popular malls that are shopping malls with sellers of cheap and pirated products as well (typical in a developing country.
In fact, there is a stratification by class: the elite and the middle class frequent the shopping malls, the middle class and the working class frequent the traditional stores and the popular malls are frequented by the working class, who do not have the money to go to the shopping malls.
I think that's why shopping malls haven't fallen into decay in Brazil, they are a space of ostentation for the white elite who spend a lot of time inside them taking photos for Instagram.
reply
AnonUnited
Miami has 2 good examples of downtown malls. One shown in the video that's literally in Downtown, Bayside Marketplace and then there's Brickell City Center, maybe 10 minutes down the road in Brickell. Brickell isn't technically downtown but most people consider it to all be part of the Miami core. Brickell City Center a mix between a suburban mall and as its open air but also has multiple stories, escalators and elevators and private parking structures. But because its open air and no walls that block it off from the city streets, you can easily go from Brickell City Center stores to walk across the street to local restaurants without much problem. I would put Brickell City Center somewhere in between the Festival Marketplace and the San Luis Obispo examples.
reply
Miami has 2 good examples of downtown malls. One shown in the video that's literally in Downtown, Bayside Marketplace and then there's Brickell City Center, maybe 10 minutes down the road in Brickell. Brickell isn't technically downtown but most people consider it to all be part of the Miami core. Brickell City Center a mix between a suburban mall and as its open air but also has multiple stories, escalators and elevators and private parking structures. But because its open air and no walls that block it off from the city streets, you can easily go from Brickell City Center stores to walk across the street to local restaurants without much problem. I would put Brickell City Center somewhere in between the Festival Marketplace and the San Luis Obispo examples.
reply
Major
Interesting. In European cities, these malls are popping up like crazy, to the point where former shopping streets are transforming into streets lined with small indoor-malls. I guess the major differences are that they are always located right next to transit stops (especially renovated train stations) and that they usually have office spaces on top of them. I'm not sure if that's important for the neighborhood character though. People do complain that they force local stores out of business, but I guess from a pure efficiency perspective centralizing shops next to well frequented transit stops is a good idea. I feel like between transit-accessible downtown malls and exclusively shopping online I still prefer malls, despite their lack of local businesses.
reply
Interesting. In European cities, these malls are popping up like crazy, to the point where former shopping streets are transforming into streets lined with small indoor-malls. I guess the major differences are that they are always located right next to transit stops (especially renovated train stations) and that they usually have office spaces on top of them. I'm not sure if that's important for the neighborhood character though. People do complain that they force local stores out of business, but I guess from a pure efficiency perspective centralizing shops next to well frequented transit stops is a good idea. I feel like between transit-accessible downtown malls and exclusively shopping online I still prefer malls, despite their lack of local businesses.
reply
Zach
We have some of those walking malls in Culver City here in the west LA Area. Culver City is currently undergoing rapid urbanization as it embraces upzoning more than the city of LA which surrounds it. Culver City has long been unapologetically suburban but now they are focusing on 5+ story mixed use developments usually at a larger scale, meaning developers get a whole block or more. As a result we get a lot of those walking malls which in my opinion are great because they get shoppers back out of the car on the streets. They are much better than the fortress-style malls of years past like the ones you showed in the video or Beverly Center on La Cienega and 3rd. I will add that they work best when they are not hard to get to by non-car transportation
reply
We have some of those walking malls in Culver City here in the west LA Area. Culver City is currently undergoing rapid urbanization as it embraces upzoning more than the city of LA which surrounds it. Culver City has long been unapologetically suburban but now they are focusing on 5+ story mixed use developments usually at a larger scale, meaning developers get a whole block or more. As a result we get a lot of those walking malls which in my opinion are great because they get shoppers back out of the car on the streets. They are much better than the fortress-style malls of years past like the ones you showed in the video or Beverly Center on La Cienega and 3rd. I will add that they work best when they are not hard to get to by non-car transportation
reply
RL
Great video. Thank you. The best downtown malls I've seen are in two smaller Scottish cities: Sterling and Perth. Both are well disguised from the outside, with only their entrances visible from the sidewalk or pedestrianized street. Go through the doors and they appear as any other mid-sized mall with both national and local outlets and food courts. They were clearly purpose built behind the major shopping streets to hide how the building differs from the older and/or historic structures in the front. I have not seen anything like these in the US, but there are many parts of the country I haven't seen.
reply
Great video. Thank you. The best downtown malls I've seen are in two smaller Scottish cities: Sterling and Perth. Both are well disguised from the outside, with only their entrances visible from the sidewalk or pedestrianized street. Go through the doors and they appear as any other mid-sized mall with both national and local outlets and food courts. They were clearly purpose built behind the major shopping streets to hide how the building differs from the older and/or historic structures in the front. I have not seen anything like these in the US, but there are many parts of the country I haven't seen.
reply
We
The Arndale centres in the UK are a great example of how unsuccessful in the centre shopping malls are in the long run, the only successful one had to be bombed by the IRA to work (Manchester Arndale that is. One in Bolton (called Crompton place) is to be demolished very soon, as it really effected foot traffic flow as it blocked access to the other side of the town centre. In the UK malls there are more shops on the exterior and more chance people will go out into the wider area, it's just the footfall overall hadn't increased, therefore not helping the town.
reply
The Arndale centres in the UK are a great example of how unsuccessful in the centre shopping malls are in the long run, the only successful one had to be bombed by the IRA to work (Manchester Arndale that is. One in Bolton (called Crompton place) is to be demolished very soon, as it really effected foot traffic flow as it blocked access to the other side of the town centre. In the UK malls there are more shops on the exterior and more chance people will go out into the wider area, it's just the footfall overall hadn't increased, therefore not helping the town.
reply
rjh00
I suggest to not use such a hard blurring effect in the background on your talk to the camera sections (I think depth of field is what affects that, not sure, not really into cameras. Because of how harsh the blurring is on the background when you were talking to the camera is made me feel like you were in my face talking to me, instead of next to me and talking to me, it made me really uncomfortable and made me want to lean back away from you. Some blurring is fine and actually should be used because it adds to the video, but this was was way too high.
reply
I suggest to not use such a hard blurring effect in the background on your talk to the camera sections (I think depth of field is what affects that, not sure, not really into cameras. Because of how harsh the blurring is on the background when you were talking to the camera is made me feel like you were in my face talking to me, instead of next to me and talking to me, it made me really uncomfortable and made me want to lean back away from you. Some blurring is fine and actually should be used because it adds to the video, but this was was way too high.
reply
Add a review, comment
Other channel videos
