Quote:
Originally Posted by andrewkfromaz
I agree about indoor shopping malls. This weekend I had the opportunity to spend some time on Chicago's Michigan Avenue, and then some friends wanted to drop by Water Tower Place, a fairly massive 7-story indoor mall. Despite the frigid weather outdoors, the mall lacked the vitality of the open street, "managed" only by the city and the free market.
The one cool thing about the mall, that made the whole experience worth it for me, was visiting the bathroom and finding a Dyson Airblade in place of traditional hand dryers. Awesome.
I do wonder what the difference is between indoor malls and the newer outdoor malls. There's really nothing that sets them apart, other than the "newness" factor.
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The main difference is simply that: one's outside, the other inside. As obvious as that is, we can still miss its significance. There's something about being outside that's freeing. The simple act of going inside and then going outside is really fundamental to our human experience.
Those vertical malls on Michigan Avenue are dead, too. The street itself is great, but imagine how much better it would be if all those stores were on the street instead of being inside some airy box. Many downtown Chicago streets are dead because of too little retail.
CityScape could possibly fill in some of the blanks by having great exterior spaces. The retail will probably be standard-issue corporate behemoths, but if there's ample shade and water, the chemistry could well make up for that. Good design could go a long way to making CityScape more than another bland mega-project.
BTW, it's arguable that Arizona Center probably failed because the 400 E Van Buren building blocks the sun for too much of the day. Shade is great, but it becomes oppressive when there isn't enough sunlight close by. The most salient feature of the project - the gardens and waterscape - feel too dark. There are all sorts of ways to mediate the harsh sun with landscaping and shade screens. What a pity Arizona Center wasn't more sensitive to that issue.