Anyone remember when almost every shopping mall resembled a medieval rec room? They were dark, had cobblestone floors, lots of dark wood, flickering lamps, even the Orange Julius had iron bars.
Author Pagan Kennedy breaks it down beautifully in her book Platforms.
By the early seventies malls were built on a grander scale... now they were upscale, modular, Brady-esque. I'm talking imitation gas lamps, I'm talking ferns. It was in this era that the mall became an enclosed ecosystem, layered with mezzanines...By the 1980s, the economy was soaring and malls got bright, glossy and pompous. They resembled big habitrails with crystal walkways. Nowadays, I guess even these are fading away in favor of the strip mall: mega-stores like Best Buy flanked by their minions of smaller retailers.
(sigh) I miss the 1970's medieval rec room mall...
