DEATH OF MALLS today....Tom Scott expert of everything
Brandt Van Der Westhuizen
https://youtu.be/4F7WCutpsJw
DEATH OF MALLS today....Tom Scott expert of everything
"An interesting video about shopping malls by Tom Scott"
The Man Who Invented, Then Hated, Shopping Malls
Who is this YOUNG EXPERT about EVERYTHING?
When I was in architecture school in one of my classes, planning or architectural history class we did learn a little about Victor Gruen, a name I haven't thought about in decades.
In 1955 the first McDs came to my part of Detroit in the northeast part of the city.
On the northwest side just north of the famou main east west road that runs from the Detroit River 25 or more miles to the west
8 Mile Road
Eminen made it famous in his movie of the same name
I grew up on Joann Street in the first block south of 8 Mile Road or the last block of Detroit on the Northside.
At 8 Mile Road and Northwestern Hwy (one of the first super highways carved through the city on the westside)
the first MALL, similar to what probably was more like Victor Gruen's concept.
A couple years later EASTLAND was built along 8 Mile on the far east part of 8 Mile.
It also was the collection of buildings with large parking areas surrounding the complex.
These popped up around the USA and the world
I have visited samples in almost all of the 93 countries on 6 continents that I have traveled to and/or worked in the past 42 years.
Initially most SHOPPING CENTERS were "strip centers" with several stores in a straight line with one large ANCHOR store and one large grocery store on th other end and various commercial shops in between: book stores, pharmacies (that turned into department stores selling everything from a to z), clothing stores, shoe stores, etc.
From 1966 to 1979 I worked for 9 architectural firms and my own until I moved to Athens, Ga with my goal to become a CREATIVE THINKING CONSULTANT. For a few years I did freelance architectural work in Athens, what often might be called moonlight work because I had an architectural license in Georgia, Florida and Michigan. That was all before ICAD and other computer software or apps replaced my drafting boards or tables and my straight edges, drafting tools and mechanical pencils, yellow tracing, sketch paper.
Over the past couple decades of the internet, www and computers to smart phones and tablets that have mostly replaced laptops and table top computes....
ONLINE SHOPPING
Amazon, eBay and all the others
Yesterday I heard a judge rule in favor allowing SEARS to lose 200 of its stores.
They were anchor stores for hundreds to thousands of shopping centers, strip centers, MALLS.
Malls were teenagers hung out for decades
Malls were moms spent so much time and often met friends
Malls were the centers with the movie houses, ice rinks, clubs, and other forms of entertainment that
Victor Gruen and others...conceived in the 50s
that now people no longer want
???? not so sure about that
Northland and Eastland
were enjoyable places to go in the 50s, 60s
where the shops and large stores had only walking places, spaces, streets and NO CARS.
All the cars and delivery trucks were separated from the shoppers.
Yes as the young EXPERT said in his video
cities have been going back to
WALKING STREETS in the open
away from total enclosed WALKING STREETS
that have been called MALLS since the 60s
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