I’m reading Meet Me By The Fountain by Alexandra Lange, a book that traces the architecture and cultural history of shopping malls in the United States. It’s been a fascinating read; malls are something so very common place but also one that is taken for granted by the popular imagination. In her foreword, Lange describes malls as “…ubiquitous and underexamined and potentially a little bit embarrassing as the object of serious study” due in no small part to it being “dominated by women and children” (Lange, 4). All the better then to find out more.
As it happens, malls have their own storied origin story. They are rooted both in the post-war economic boom in the United States and the rapid construction of suburbs and highways. Intended initially as a shopping hub for the folks in those suburbs, they evolved into a place for people to go, replacing the emptying main streets. For someone like me who was a teenager in the 00’s, this makes sense and has me looking closer at my own teenage memories and the role the mall played. Lange places those memories in a larger cultural context, showing how the mall came to be that place and even the tense relationship the mall has with its reputation as a center of teenage activity.
I’ll admit that I’m not someone who’s thought too closely about shopping malls. After a friend visiting Singapore observed that our traipsing around the city kept taking us to malls I did notice how Singaporean malls were pointedly different from their American counterparts. Besides Singaporean malls being easily accessible through a neighborhood’s public transit, they are also usually home to general amenities like a grocery store, post office, or library (plus the all-important food court). And in a nation with weather that oscillates between hot and rainy, the climate-controlled space offers a welcome reprieve.
But I didn’t apply that same level of thinking to the nearby mall in Arcadia I frequent, besides that the opening of a 99 Ranch grocery store echoed a Singaporean mall. As I read Lange’s book, however, I find myself looking more closely at the shopping center and its architecture. The mall map becomes a fascinating document illustrating the flow of traffic and, combined with the Wikipedia article, a demonstration of how it has evolved over its fifty-year history. Obvious as it feels, there is an intentionality behind it and a history to its skylights and open areas. To learn more about it all has me curious about the myriad malls I’ve visited throughout my life and wondering about how they came to be.
Essays, Not Rants! 