The American mall

In this post-boom era, the so-called dead mall is a growing phenomenon. A quintessentially American icon, the shopping mall arose in a time of prosperity, and was a central component of the pre-fab utopia of suburban life. The shopping mall was conceived to create a new and improved town center. As indoor private properties, developers attempted to engineer the conditions to instill a state of euphoria in shoppers, which would fuel the need to spend in order to heighten that satisfaction. But ultimately, just as the gratification was temporary, so too is the mall.