Generations of shopping malls
Generations of shopping malls
My Mom sent me a note with a whole bunch of trivia about Michigan (stuff like the first stop light, first freeway, birthplace of Charles Lindbergh, etc.) The one I am gonna comment on is that Northland Mall, just south of 8 Mile in Detroit, was supposedly the first shopping mall, built in 1954, Following is what I sent to my mom:
I have a personal classification system for malls, developed as I experienced the malls being built when I was a kid. I usually put malls like Oakland as first generation malls, but I need to add a 0th generation for stuff like Northland. Second generation malls are like Fairlane - they innovated by adding a second story. I get a little fuzzy on the third generation, but things like how Twelve Oaks became a mall of malls (where a mall was at first an intentional aggregation of stores which provided exclusive parking for the mall - as distinguished from the commercial spaces of old where it evolved over time rather than being built as a planned unit) 4th generation malls include things Flatirons Crossing and Park Meadows (also in Denver). One of the first generation malls in the Denver area, Cinderella City, has been turned into the Englewood Municipal center. Boulder just demolished its first generation mall. An interesting economics model consequence of Boulder’s low-growth policies is that because the only place in town where a mall could have been built was taken up by a failed first-generation mall, the whole flatirons crossing complex was created just outside the zoning controls of the Good People of the People’s Republic of Boulder. It’ll be interesting to see what they build up in the now gravel-filled lot that was Crossroads.