The Corruption of the Shopping Mall

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

The Corruption of the Shopping Mall Search this site: Google A Dragonfly Village Publication Home | News | Directory | Calendar | Classified | Advertise | Archive | Privacy | About Us | Submissions | Site Map Find People and Services in October 2002 The Corruption of the Shopping Mall Search by Deb Olin Unferth Alternative Medical Clinics Arts & Entertainment Austrian Victor Gruen is known as the father of the shopping mall. Gruen holds the world record Business & Professional for building the most shopping space in a single lifetime at 44,500,000 square feet. His designs Certification & Degrees became the mall model and nearly every shopping center in the world bears his mark. Yet in the Conferences & Workshops Counseling & Therapy late fifties and sixties as malls cropped up all over the United States, the great paradox of Victor Healing & Wellness Gruen unfolded. He looked out at his creation and was appalled. The shopping mall, he concluded, Health and Beauty is a powerful evil. Holistic Animal Care Holistic Dentistry His story begins in Vienna where he started out as Victor David Grünbaum, an architecture Intuitive Arts student, an actor, and a Jew in 1930s Austria. Like all Jews in that place and time, he suffered. He Learning was insulted, harassed, and forced into hard labor. Yet the wild, spirited Gruen joined an anti- Life Strategy & Coaching Nazi cabaret and strode the stage in Nazi uniform, imitated Hitler, and performed satiric skits. Massage & Bodywork Movement & Fitness Then one day in 1938, the Gestapo closed in on him. Natural Foods Natural Home Later his daughter-in-law would record the harrowing tale, how the Nazis took over his office, lay Nonprofits in wait for him at his home. Alone and desperate, Gruen found himself fleeing, sprinting through Nutrition & Dining the streets. He ran to the little theater where he performed and pulled a uniform out of a trunk. In Parenting & Family the disguise of a Nazi lieutenant he made it to an airstrip and flew out of the country with nothing Sexuality but his trade tool T-square, a dog-eared book by Voltaire, and eight dollars. Spiritual Practices Travel & Retreats Yoga Gruen left Europe, that world of old cities, winding streets, and teeming plazas. He changed his name and came to the U.S., arriving only a few years before the population shift of post-war New! Reach Millions of America. These were the years of the automobile, of new highways, the GI bill, single-family tract Values-Based Consumers housing and the advent of suburbia. Advertisers: - Access our publisher From his Los Angeles office, Gruen watched the suburbs grow. He watched the inevitable database FREE for a problems develop, the lack of places to shop, and the strips of stores thrown up along streets limited time - Get a 20% discount on optimistically called "miracle miles." These strips became slums choked with cars. ads during our beta period - Save time with our self - Gruen had a solution. What the suburbs are missing, he said, is a city center. People in the city serve system stroll from shop to shop, play chess in the park, visit museums, or simply sit on benches in public Publishers: squares and chat. The city, as Gruen framed it, is a place where chance encounters occur and - Get FREE membership small events blossom into friendship, love, art, change. The city is a place where ideas spread. for a limited time - Sell more online ad In the suburbs, Gruen lamented, people live in isolated plots and move quickly from car to house, inventory bundled against the elements. Importantly, they have no place to build a community. Gruen - Provide your audience more high-quality wanted a gathering center for people in the suburbs akin to the downtown city square. It would be advertisers aesthetically beautiful like the old cities of Europe. There would be light, water, nature — and www.GreenAds.com plenty of parking. His great breakthrough came in 1956 when he built the Southdale Center outside Minneapolis. He Reach Millions of Values- put in sky-lights, fountains, magnolia trees, and orchids. Canaries flitted about in a giant elegant Based Consumers... cage. But what made Southdale different from anything before it, so different that it would change ...here and on other sites within the GreenAds the suburban landscape forever, was that it was seventy-two degrees Fahrenheit. He enclosed the Network. Find out more, mall and made the first year-round, climate-controlled shopping center. click here! www.GreenAds.com In his book Shopping Towns, U.S.A. he described his mall as a town with libraries and art and orchestras, with neighbors and families and lovers. But it is more than a town, better than a town. In Gruen's town, no one gets cold and there's always a parking space. How did he come up with the concept? Gruen's model for the shopping center was based on the ideas of Le Corbusier, the radical French architect. Le Corbusier believed in the automobile but with its advent he saw that the tight winding cities of Europe would have to be drastically reconstructed to make way for it. He envisioned tall sparkling towers connected by super highways surrounded by park-like open spaces. The towers would come in two sizes: sky-scraper for commercial use and medium-height for residences. The residential buildings would be complete communities with schools and gardens and more. The landscape would be formally and geometrically beautiful and at the same time functional and respectful of nature. One of Le Corbusier's visionary residential buildings is in Nantes, France — the only one, in fact, still being used as he intended. The building has community rooms, a library, a school on the roof. The two-floor apartments are ingeniously designed to span both sides of the building so that every apartment gets both southern and northern light. The indoor corridors are called rues, or streets, to emphasize the community feel, as later Gruen will give the same name to his line of indoor storefronts. Le Corbusier's ideas take some getting used to. A commentator writes in the introduction to one of his books, "The result may seem a little terrifying at first sight." Indeed, the Le Corbusier building — the precursor to the modern mall — looks bizarre against the French landscape. It juts fiercely, a heavy concrete block looming over the charming tangle of little houses and narrow winding streets. To this model, Gruen added the ideas of Le Corbusier's contemporary and competitor, Camille Sitte. Sitte envisioned a technologically modern city with old world architecture — the plazas and ornamentation of the medieval and Renaissance periods, the corridor streets that create a sense of intimacy. From Sitte, Gruen took the image of the town squares of Europe and he learned to introduce adornment. He insisted his malls have fountains, statues, and commissioned artwork. When Gruen arrived in the U.S. in 1938, there were only four structures that could be called shopping centers. Developers copied his model and malls began to spring up around the country. The profit-obsessed imitators threw out the Sitte designs, disregarding Gruen's insistence on beauty and natural light resulting in stark and colorless malls. They took out the comfortable seating areas (people who are sitting aren't shopping) and expertly hid exits so that confused shoppers would have to pass more stores. It is difficult to say exactly when Gruen first felt the shudder of remorse over the corruption of his mall concept. It came gradually but with increasing force and urgency. Some commentators say he had doubts from the very beginning. They call it "the Gruen guilt" that eventually overcame him. He saw no budding community, no town, no orchestra. "I refuse to pay alimony for those bastard developments," he said miserably. Years later, in 1999, U.S. News and World Report will use that quotation ironically as they name him one of the twenty-five shapers of the modern era. Today, of course, developers claim to be bringing back the Gruen ideal. Malls have merry-go- rounds, waterfalls, ice-skating rinks. Teenagers roam in packs and senior citizens take mall-walks. One reporter wrote, "One would like to bring Victor Gruen back to life for just a day" in order to take him to the modern mall. He would be proud. But arguably, today's malls are a far cry from Gruen's original concept that was less about recreation and entertainment. Rather, his concept promoted sustainability. He lamented that building suburbs enabled us to gobble up the landscape mowing down everything natural and beautiful. "It is the unique accomplishment of our era," he wrote, "that, for the first time, we are able to destroy faster than nature can replenish." All that said, the mutation of his mall concept may also have wounded Gruen on a deep and personal level. Malls, contrary to the architect's vision, are not public spaces where people roam freely any time of day. Malls are privately owned, managed, and policed. Their locations are chosen along racial and economic lines. Many city elements are not welcome: the beggar, the stray piece of garbage, the religious pamphlet, the protest, the political speech — what else and who else could be excluded? Chain stores have replaced independent businesses so wares look the same across the mall, the country, the world. "Hell," Gruen wrote, is "inescapable sameness." He called malls "concentration camps" and wrote that they may eventually cause "civic unrest." Gruen began to see his miscalculation not long after his first couple of malls were built. But then, of course, it was too late. People streamed to the suburbs, abandoning downtowns.
Recommended publications
  • The New Yorker Fact
    THE NEW YORKER FACT A?dUAX.J (.I} S’OMMt J\C t: THETERRAZZO JUNGLE by MALCOLM GLADWELL Fifty years ago, the mall was born. America would never be the same. issue of 2004-03-15 Posted 2004-03-08 Victor Gruen was short, stout, and unstoppable, with a wild head of hair and eyebrows like unpruned hedgerows. According to a profile in Fortune (and people loved to profile Victor Gruen), he was a “torrential talker with eyes as bright as mica and a mind as fast as mercury.” In the office, he was famous for keeping two or three secretaries working full time, as he moved from one to the next, dictating non-stop in his thick Viennese accent. He grew up in the well-to-do world of prewar Jewish Vienna, studying architecture at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts-the same school that, a few years previously, had turned down a fledgling artist named Adolf Hitler. At night, he performed satirical cabaret theatre in smoke-filled cafes. He emigrated in 1938, the same week as Freud, when one of his theatre friends dressed up as a Nazi Storm Trooper and drove him and his wife to the airport. They took the first plane they could catch to Zurich, made their way to England, and then boarded the S.S. Statendam for New York, landing, as Gruen later remembered, “with an architect’s degree, eight dollars, and no English.” On the voyage over, he was told by an American to set his sights high-“don’t try to wash dishes or be a waiter, we have millions of them”-but Gruen scarcely needed the advice.
    [Show full text]
  • Victor Gruen Papers [Finding Aid]. Library of Congress. [PDF Rendered
    Victor Gruen Papers A Finding Aid to the Collection in the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 1995 Revised 2010 April Contact information: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/mss.contact Additional search options available at: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms001017 LC Online Catalog record: http://lccn.loc.gov/mm92081474 Prepared by Harry G. Heiss Collection Summary Title: Victor Gruen Papers Span Dates: 1886-1991 Bulk Dates: (bulk 1960-1980) ID No.: MSS81474 Creator: Gruen, Victor, 1903- Extent: 30,450 items ; 88 containers plus 83 oversize ; 123.6 linear feet ; 1 microfilm reel Language: Collection material in English, German, French, and Dutch Location: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Summary: Designer, architect, and urban planner. Personal and business correspondence, project files, speeches, writings, biographical material, and scrapbooks documenting Gruen's career in architectural design, city planning, and environmental counseling, with special emphasis on architectural and land use projects undertaken from 1960 to 1980 by his firms, Gruen Associates, headquartered in New York, New York, and Los Angeles, California, and Victor Gruen International, centered in Vienna, Austria. Selected Search Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein. People Baumfeld, Rudolf L., -1988. Belle, John. Berg, Betty--Correspondence. Beyer, Jack. Branigan, Daniel. Brisker, Sydney H., 1914- Contini, Edgardo. Gooch, Mel, 1923- Gruen, Margaret, 1944- --Correspondence. Gruen, Michael Stephen, 1941- --Correspondence.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding the Resiliency of the Kalamazoo Mall
    Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Master's Theses Graduate College 4-2020 Understanding the Resiliency of the Kalamazoo Mall Emily Szymanski Western Michigan University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses Part of the Geography Commons, and the Urban Studies and Planning Commons Recommended Citation Szymanski, Emily, "Understanding the Resiliency of the Kalamazoo Mall" (2020). Master's Theses. 5119. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/masters_theses/5119 This Masters Thesis-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Master's Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UNDERSTANDING THE RESILIENCY OF THE KALAMAZOO MALL by Emily Szymanski A thesis submitted to the Graduate College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Science Geography Western Michigan University April 2020 Thesis Committee: Benjamin Ofori-Amoah, Ph.D., Chair Lisa DeChano-Cook, Ph.D. Rebecca Harvey. Copyright by Emily Szymanski 2020 UNDERSTANDING THE RESILIENCY OF THE KALAMAZOO MALL Emily Szymanski, M.S. Western Michigan University, 2020 The Kalamazoo Mall is the first pedestrian mall in the United States. Since then the Mall has gone through many changes. The Mall was first created to be a completely pedestrian-friendly space closed off to cars and to help revitalize the downtown after suburban mall competition. However, the Mall did not keep people downtown as expected, resulting in the reintroduction of automobile traffic in two of the four blocks of the Mall.
    [Show full text]
  • Victor Gruen – Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress
    Victor Gruen A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress Prepared by Harry G. Heiss Manuscript Division, Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 1995 Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2001 Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mss/eadmss.ms001017 Latest revision: 2004-09-21 Collection Summary Title: Papers of Victor Gruen Span Dates: 1886-1991 Bulk Dates: (bulk 1960-1980) ID No.: MSS81474 Creator: Gruen, Victor, 1903- Extent: 30,450 items; 88 containers plus 83 oversize; 123.6 linear feet; 1 microfilm reel Language: Collection material in English, German, French, and Dutch Repository: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Abstract: Designer, architect, and urban planner. Personal and business correspondence, project files, speeches, writings, biographical material, and scrapbooks documenting Gruen's career in architectural design, city planning, and environmental counseling, with special emphasis on architectural and land use projects undertaken from 1960 to 1980 by his firms, Gruen Associates, headquartered in New York, New York, and Los Angeles, California, and Victor Gruen International, centered in Vienna, Austria. Selected Search Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein. Names: Gruen, Victor, 1903- Baumfeld, Rudolf L., d. 1988 Belle, John Berg, Betty--Correspondence Beyer, Jack Branigan, Daniel Brisker, Sydney H., 1914- Contini, Edgardo Gooch, Mel, 1923- Gruen, Margaret, 1944- --Correspondence Gruen, Michael Stephen, 1941- --Correspondence Guttman, Herman, 1918- Harle, Abbott, 1923- Hotchkiss, Frank E.
    [Show full text]
  • Victor Gruen, Visionary Pioneer of Urban Revitalization
    TEE ARCHrrECT AS CREATOR OF ENWRONMENTS: VICTOR GRUEN, VISIONARY PIONEER OF URBAN REVrrALIZATIONS by DAVID J. AZRTELI, B.A. A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulnllment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Architecture School of Architecture Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario ApnI 1997 PART 1 National Library Bibliothèque nationale I*!of Canada du Canada Acquisiîions and Acquisitions et Bibliographic Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395. rue Wellington Ottawa ON KIA ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada Ywrfik Vmnifémca Our nk, None rélihenar The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, disûiiute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/f3m, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format élecironique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Carleton University Ottawa, Canada K 1S 5J7 Thesis contains black and white and/or coloured graphs/tables/photographs which when microf ilmed may lose their signf- f icance. The hardcopy of the thesis is available upon request from Carleton University ~ibrary.
    [Show full text]
  • September 30, 2014 HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP 12 S
    City of Glendale South Glendale Historic Context Statement September 30, 2014 HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP 12 S. Fair Oaks Avenue, Suite 200, Pasadena, CA 91105-1915 Telephone 626-793-2400, Facsimile 626-793-2401 www.historicla.com PREPARED FOR City of Glendale Planning Division 633 E. Broadway Glendale, CA 91206 Attn: Jay Platt, Senior Urban Designer City of Glendale South Glendale Historic Context HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP TABLE OF CONTENTS Project Summary 4 Project Introduction 5 Guidelines for Evaluation 9 Historic Context 18 Context: Early History & Development (Pre-1771-1881) 24 Theme: Native Americans: The Gabrielinos (Pre-1771) 24 Theme: Spanish Colonization and The Mission San Gabriel Arcangel (1771-1822) 25 Theme: Rancho San Fafael and the Great Partition (1822-1871) 25 Property Types & Registration Requirements 26 Context: Early Development & Town Settlement (1872-1918) 28 Property Types & Registration Requirements 57 Context: Single-Family Residential Development (1919-1979) 61 Theme: Pre-World War II Automobile Suburbs (1919-1944) 61 Sub-theme: 1920s Hillside Development 69 Property Types & Registration Requirements 74 Theme: Post-World War II Single-Family Residential Development (1945-1979) 79 Property Types & Registration Requirements 85 Context: Multi-Family Residential Development (1910-2000) 89 Theme: Pre-World War II Multi-Family Residential Development (1910-1944) 89 Property Types & Registration Requirements 96 Theme: Post-World War II Multi-Family Residential Development (1945-1979) 99 Property Types & Registration Requirements
    [Show full text]
  • Papers of Victor Gruen
    Victor Gruen A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress Prepared by Harry G. Heiss Manuscript Division, Library of Congress Washington, D.C. 1995 Contact information: http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/mss/address.html Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2001 2004-09-21 converted from EAD 1.0 to EAD 2002 Collection Summary Title: Papers of Victor Gruen Span Dates: 1886-1991 Bulk Dates: (bulk 1960-1980) ID No.: MSS81474 Creator: Gruen, Victor, 1903- Extent: 30,450 items; 88 containers plus 83 oversize; 123.6 linear feet; 1 microfilm reel Language: Collection material in English, German, French, and Dutch Repository: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Abstract: Designer, architect, and urban planner. Personal and business correspondence, project files, speeches, writings, biographical material, and scrapbooks documenting Gruen's career in architectural design, city planning, and environmental counseling, with special emphasis on architectural and land use projects undertaken from 1960 to 1980 by his firms, Gruen Associates, headquartered in New York, New York, and Los Angeles, California, and Victor Gruen International, centered in Vienna, Austria. Selected Search Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein. Names: Gruen, Victor, 1903- Baumfeld, Rudolf L., d. 1988 Belle, John Berg, Betty--Correspondence Beyer, Jack Branigan, Daniel Brisker, Sydney H., 1914- Contini, Edgardo Gooch, Mel, 1923- Gruen, Margaret, 1944- --Correspondence Gruen, Michael Stephen, 1941- --Correspondence Guttman, Herman, 1918- Harle, Abbott, 1923- Hotchkiss, Frank E.
    [Show full text]
  • Appendix A: Biographies of Local Practitioners
    APP-A-1 Appendix A: Biographies of Local Practitioners These biographies are intended to provide brief information about known architects, designers, builders, and landscape architects practicing in Palm Springs These are not definitive histories of each practitioner. Information is derived from a variety of primary and secondary sources including the Pacific Coast Architecture Database; the AIA Historical Directories and Membership Files; finding aids for architect archives; and publications of the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation, the Palm Springs Modern Committee, the Palm Springs Historical Society, and the Cultural Landscape Foundation. FINAL DRAFT – FOR CITY COUNCIL APPROVAL City of Palm Springs Citywide Historic Context Statement & Survey Findings HISTORIC RESOURCES GROUP APP-A-2 Ainsworth, Robert (1895-1970), AIA Born: Shawano, WI Education: University of Michigan, B.S. Architecture (1922) Firms: Robert H. Ainsworth, Architect (1932-1963); Ainsworth, Angel and McClellan, AIA (1963-1966) Wisconsin-born architect Robert H. Ainsworth, AIA, graduated from the University of Michigan with a B.S. in Architecture in 1922. Prior to opening his own practice he worked for Chatten & Hammond in Chicago, Marston & Van Pelt in Pasadena, and was chief draftsman in the office of Wallace Neff. Ainsworth went on to establish a practice in Pasadena. Early in his career, he designed a number of large estates in period revival styles for wealthy clients in the Pasadena area. In the postwar period Ainsworth’s designs shifted toward the Mid-century Modern aesthetic. In 1963, Ainsworth joined forces with Herbert W. Angel and Robert B. McClellan in the firm of Ainsworth, Angel and McClellan, AIA. Armét, Louis L.
    [Show full text]
  • American Architects Directory Furey, W. R.* Aia 52
    — AMERICAN ARCHITECTS DIRECTORY GABRIEL FUREY, W. R.* AIA 52. Connecticut Chapter b. Lima, Ohio, 1918. Pres. Firm: Peter J. Futymoski, org. 60. Reg: Ind, 308 Enfield St, Enfield, Conn. 06082. Mich; NCARB Cert. Prin. Wks: Adams Electronics, Bangor, Mich, 63; Oak- wood Jr. High Sch, Kalamazoo, 66; Greenfield Shores Fire St, Kalamazoo, 67; FURLEY, E. JR.* AIA 56. Houston Chapter B. Gardner Res, Kalamazoo, 69; Kalamazoo 44 Proj. 2, Low Cost Housing, 5659 Valkeith, Houston, Tex. 77035. 70. Pub. Serv: Dir, Kalamazoo Inst. Arts, 65-68, v.pres, 67-68. Govt. Serv: U.S.A, 41-46. FURLONG, EDWARD J. AIA 56. Chicago Chapter Federal Housing Administration, 219 S. Dearborn St, Chicago, m. 60604. FYBUSH, D. F.* AIA 66. Rochester Chapter Home Add: 2742 Hampton Pkwy, Evanston, 111. 60201. 154 Croydon Rd, Rochester, N.Y. 14610. b. Chicago, Educ: B.S, Univ. HI, Urbana-Champaign, 51. Pres.Occup: Supvry. archit, Fed. Housing Admin. Reg: 111. Govt. Serv: U.S.N, Lt, 43-47, Res, 47- G FURMAN, LAWRENCE HARRISON. AIA 65. Long Island Society Chapter GKK: GRIGGS, KALEC, KURTICH. Joseph J. Furman & Lawrence H. Furman, 303 W. 42nd St, New York, N.Y. t 218 S. Wabash St, Fourth Floor E, Chicago, 111. 60604. Prins: Joseph 10036. O.C. Griggs, Donald G(ordon) Kalec, John Kurtich. Home Add: 631 Powells Lane, Westbury, N.Y. 11590. b. N.Y.C. July 14, 23. Educ: B.Arch, N.Y. Univ, 46. Pres. Firm: Partner, GAARDER, LeROY. AIA 55, E. Minneapolis Chapter Joseph J. Furman & Lawrence H. Furman, org. 49, joined firm, 49.
    [Show full text]
  • Adaptive Reuse of Shopping Malls: Case Study of the Foothills Mall in Tucson Page 2 of 43
    Adaptive Reuse of Shopping Malls - Case Study of the Foothills Mall in Tucson, AZ Item Type text; poster; thesis Authors Brown, Ian Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture, and the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 24/09/2021 12:16:09 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/641116 Adaptive Reuse of Shopping Malls: Case Study of the Foothills Mall in Tucson, AZ University of Arizona Senior Capstone Sustainable Built Environments 498 April 23, 2020 Ian T. Brown Approved by: Joey Iuliano College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture Adaptive Reuse of Shopping Malls: Case Study of the Foothills Mall in Tucson Page 2 of 43 Abstract Dead and dying shopping malls are pervasive in the United States and abroad. What were once proxy town centers, created with the best of intentions during the expansion of cities into suburbs after World War II, are now often a blight on the communities they once served. Although malls remained vibrant hubs of activity for decades, drawing in ever more development around them, the model became diluted, focusing far too much on retail and profit. Ultimately, consumers tired of the mall and directed much of their spending to big box stores, the “category killers,” and their free time to a new “third place,” outdoor lifestyle centers.
    [Show full text]
  • LAM 07Jul18 Victor-Gruen-Book
    THE BACK / BOOKS DREAMS AND REGRETS SHOPPING TOWN: DESIGNING THE CITY IN SUBURBAN AMERICA BY VICTOR GRUEN, EDITED AND TRANSLATED BY ANETTE BALDAUF; MINNEAPOLIS: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA PRESS, 2017; 325 PAGES, $29.95. REVIEWED BY KELLY COMRAS, FASLA ictor D. Gruen (1903–1980) was one of the most infuential of her discovery of Gruen’s memoirs (housed in the Library V architects of the 20th century, a powerful visionary who of Congress) and explores the context of consumerism and combined social criticism, persuasive charm, ambition, and suburbanization during the postwar era in which he worked. talent. Known as the father of the shopping mall, he envisioned a cure for the banality of postwar American suburbia and Gruen’s memoir is a combined autobiography and account of neglected city centers that profoundly altered the landscape his perceptions about architecture, urban planning, and the of postwar city development. He suggested “shopping towns,” environment. Born Viktor David Grünbaum in 1903, Gruen new community centers that would contain a rich mix of civic grew up in an upper-middle-class Jewish family in the city and commercial spaces and activities, and the introduction of of Vienna. He played a prominent role in the socialist youth pedestrian zones within the core of older city centers. Later in movement in the early 1920s and was part of a radical cultural life, he criticized that his ideas had been co-opted by develop- environment that sought social change. From 1926 to 1934 he ers, commercialized by economic, political, and cultural forces became deeply involved in the Political Cabaret, a theatrical beyond his control, which thereby emerged on the postwar troupe that wrote and performed political satire as a form of landscape as an unintended archetype: the enclosed, inward- social critique.
    [Show full text]
  • Bowker 1962 S.Pdf
    AMERICAN ARCHITECTS DIRECTORY SADLER RYAN, MILTON A(SBERRY).* AIA 45. San Antonio Chapter 40; Alpha Rho Tau, Spurs, F.S.T. Present Firm: Anne J. Rysdale, A:-cht & t Milton A. Ryan, 601 Elizabeth Road, San Antonio, Texas, Assocs, Inc, org. 49. Reg: Ariz; NCARB Cert. Prin. Wks: Seba Dall.ai, Navajo b. Rockdale, Tex, Jan. 16, 04. Educ: Univ. of Tex, 3 1/2 yrs. in Sen. of Bus. Reserv. Indian Sch. & Bdg. Facil. Alpha Delta Pi Sor, Tucson; Tucson Inn & Admin, 21-24. Arch. Dftsmn, Harlandale Bldg. Co, 27-31. Present Firm: Mil­ Baghdad Rm, Tucson; Co. Club Apts, T, 58; Sun Bldg, & Oxford Plazi. Regl. ton A. Ryan, Archt, org. 31. Reg: Tex. Gen. Types: 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,13,16. Prin. Ctr, T, 61. Hon. Awards: Hon. Men, Nat Assn, Home Bldrs, 55; Award of Merit Wks: Res, 735 Elizabeth St, San Antonio, 51; Res, 105 Nadine, & Ch, Victoria, Ariz. Assn of Realtors, 60. Cit, ARA, 60. 52, Res, 105 Newbury, S.A, 53; Ch, & Bk, S.A, 54; all Tex. Hon. Awards: Merit Award, Parents Mag, 49, Res; 2 Awards of Merit, Tex. Arch, 52; Res; 1st Hon. Award, Tex. Arch, 53, & Award of Merit, ALA Hon. Awards Prog, 54, 1st Ch. of Christ Sc; Award of Merit, Tex. Arch, 54, Res. Educ. Act: Occl. Lectr. Gov. Scrv: Plan. Sect, Dist. Engrs, U.S, 43-44. RYAN, PAUL A(NTHONY). AIA 43. Northern California Chapter SABAROFF, BERNARD J(OSEPK). AIA 49. Northern California Chapter t Paul A. Ryan, 305 Grant Ave, San Francisco 8, Calif.
    [Show full text]