The Lighting Practice’s business colleagues, David Kitchens and Angelo Carusi of Cooper Carry, describe the rise of the mixed-use developments, in The Re-Malling of America. Malls are now becoming a landmark urban destination.
The re-envisioning of traditional malls is prompted by the growth and development of sustainable neighborhoods that require a higher quality of urban design. The individuals populating these new neighborhoods demand accessible amenities nearby.
TLP is honored to work with Cooper Carry in redeveloping the Landmark Mall (highlighted in the article) into a mixed-use retail and residential center. Live, work, play and shop was the driving concept behind the mid-20th century shopping mall’s transformation into a landmark urban destination. TLP is providing lighting design for the residential building façades, promenades, balconies, outdoor dining and parks surrounding new retail and residential development. The team’s approach was to create an inviting feel while maintaining a high quality of urban design. TLP supported this effort by designing a warm, contemporary, main street atmosphere. Light sources were selected to reduce energy and maintenance costs for the new space.
The Re-Malling of America
Shopping Business Center | December 2015 | David Kitchens and Angelo Carusi
The American mall as we know it today — defined as an “enclosed shopping gallery” — became a household term in the 1960s with the rise of suburban, car-dependent culture. People began moving out of cities and into the suburbs where they settled down and started families. Malls became the new town square — a place to shop, eat, gather and meander — sprouting up across the country in almost every city during a movement many call “the malling of America.”
In the millennium, many thought that with the rise of technology and a new generation, the American mall as a real estate class would most likely reach its maturity and begin to see challenges to its position as the epicenter of retail in suburbia. In the U.S., 2007 marked the first year since the 1950s that a new mall wasn’t built. But that was short-lived as retail giant, Taubman, opened City Creek Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 2012 and The Mall at University Town Center earlier this year in Sarasota, Florida. Despite the enormous impact the 2008 recession had on the American mall system, there’s no evidence that Americans are turning away from malls in such high numbers as to destroy its place in Americana. What is happening, however, is a ‘re-malling’ or re-tooling of the classic enclosed shopping haven.
To read the full article continue here: The Re-Malling of America