Shopping Malls
Phoenix Mall Sold for Mixed-Use Redevelopment
The former Paradise Valley Mall will undergo a conversion to a mixed-use community with homes, offices, and stores.
Can Mall Redevelopment 'Urbanize the Suburbs'?
Local leaders in Virginia are banking on mall redevelopment projects to revive their tax bases and create more mixed-use neighborhoods.
Innovative Approaches May Save Physical Retail
In places like San Jose, "new approaches to the storefront" are paying dividends for physical retailers willing to experiment.
Are Malls and Streets Destined to Merge?
While much has been made of the suburban shopping mall's decline, successful urban retail spaces are taking their inspiration from the humble city street.
On the Life Cycle of Suburban Malls
Using Greenwood, Indiana as an example, Eric McAfee discusses how the value of individual suburban malls depreciates over time. Shiny new shopping centers compensate for inevitable vacancies in older ones.
On the Legacy and Unfulfilled Potential of Shopping Malls
The origin story of one of the definitively American typologies—the shopping mall—is one of unintended consequences run amok. Could the next chapter of this story come closer to the author's intention?
Death of the Shopping Mall May Be Exaggerated
Despite threats like online retail, upscale sectors of the mall market are prospering. This is good news for what are, perhaps, the only walkable 'streets' in some parts of the country.
America's Oldest Mall Gets a Mixed-Use Makeover
The Providence Arcade, thought to be America's oldest enclosed shopping mall, suffered the same fate as many of its 20th century brethren when it was shuttered in 2008. A developer seeks to revive the building as a mixed-use "micro-loft" complex.
A New Urban Role for China’s Evolving Shopping Malls
As the structure of China’s urban shopping malls evolves into large-scale, multi-use “lifestyle complexes”, so too does their role in the social and cultural fabric of metropolitan society.
What's in Store for America's Shopping Malls?
As America's beloved shopping mall enters its "golden years", Emily Badger considers the astounding anti-suburban ethos of its inventor, and what the future has in store for this "over the hill" retail development model.
Examining Our Now-Fading Mania For Malls
On the sixty-year anniversary of the genesis of the country's first enclosed mall, Mark Hinshaw looks at America's foolish detour into shopping malls.
Vancouver's University in a Shopping Mall
A photo essay by Witold Rybczynski explores how a campus operates in a shopping mall in a suburban community outside Vancouver, British Columbia.
Struggling Centers Revitalized With New Tenants
With the increasing popularity of online shopping, many shopping centers are losing retailers left and right. More unusual tenants are filling in the gaps, like gun ranges and bounce houses.
A Shopping Merry-Go-Round
Modern Mechanics Magazine featured a strange idea for circulating people throughout a shopping mall called the "Revolator" that moved people up and around in glass boxes so they could see into stores.
"The Ugliest Damn Building in New Jersey"
"...and maybe America," added Gov. Christie. The building in question is Xanadu, a brightly-colord mall that was scheduled to open in 2007 and with almost $2 billion spent ran into financing problems. New investment may turn the project around.
China Plans its Biggest Mall
Developers in China are pushing forward plans to build a 4-million-square-foot shopping mall as part of a major cultural center outside of Beijing's Central business district. It will be the biggest mall in the country.
Failures in Thailand's Shopping Mall Urbanism
Shopping malls are scattered all over Bangkok. On one hand they create a distinct urban setting in the city, but they also fall far short of creating actual community, according to this post.
The Wisdom and Future of Short-Run Transit
By looking at three Los Angeles examples of very short rail lines, writer Alissa Walker suggests that seemingly pointless but fun transit systems could be the best way to use transit to improve urban areas.
Downtown Mixed Use Generates More Than 30 Times The Tax Revenue of Malls
Sarasota County, Florida finds that one mixed use building generates 36 times the property taxes per acre as the region's largest high end mall. Mary Newsom reports that "evidence is piling up to show the benefits of compact, in-town development."
LEED Certification For Parking: Reserve Space For Low Emitters
A Marin County shopping mall hopes to be the first LEED-certified mall, partly by reserving parking space for low emitting vehicles. All spaces, for guzzlers and green vehicles alike, are unpriced, perhaps pointing to shortfalls of green building.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Albany
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
