The Daily Mall Reader

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A Pall Over the Suburban Mall
Burlington, Vt., defeats a competing shopping center

TIME Magazine - Time Inc. - Nov 13, 1978
Excerpt:

They had glamorous names like the Miracle Mile, Fashion Island and Greenacres. Away from decaying downtowns, offering ample parking space, often lined with shaded walkways, they were gleaming oases of retail chic among the growing, monotonous tracts of ranches and split-levels that spread out from the nation's cities after World War II. Now, more than a generation after the first sprawling shopping centers began sprouting up in suburbia, these great concrete meccas of merchandising are coming under increasing attack.

Many of the malls were convenient, innovative and handsome. Indeed, the shopping center became a glittering symbol of a modern, efficient America. But even some of its early promoters have had a change of heart. Architect Victor Gruen, who designed suburban Detroit's Northland and Eastland, Chicago's Randhurst and Philadelphia's Cherry Hill, as well as other successful shopping centers, is disillusioned with the ugliness and fast-buck approach of many projects. Says he: "I refuse to pay alimony for those bastard developments."

Read the full article here.