I'm in love with how the foreclosed-upon, near-dead, anchorless Lloyd Center mall in Portland OR has been chaotically and ad-hoc reclaimed for weird retail, art installations and semi-performance participatory art
The city keeps trying and failing to figure out ways to destroy the mall, previously for a boondoggle MLB expansion stadium, currently for a LiveNation venue that's slowly spawning a protest movement against non-local venue management. In turn, the mall's rents have dropped such that the artists who used to haunt Central Eastside warehouses have started renting spaces for pop-up galleries and interactive installations, and niche crafters (an off-brand lightsaber store, for instance, and a pinball arcade) have moved in longer-term. There's an 80s-themed exercise group who revived mall-walking. Something like 60 small businesses taking advantage of the low rents.
gedy · 1h ago
I don't have links handy but afaik this was the original idea of early malls, like an enclosed town center that could handle various needs.
The city keeps trying and failing to figure out ways to destroy the mall, previously for a boondoggle MLB expansion stadium, currently for a LiveNation venue that's slowly spawning a protest movement against non-local venue management. In turn, the mall's rents have dropped such that the artists who used to haunt Central Eastside warehouses have started renting spaces for pop-up galleries and interactive installations, and niche crafters (an off-brand lightsaber store, for instance, and a pinball arcade) have moved in longer-term. There's an 80s-themed exercise group who revived mall-walking. Something like 60 small businesses taking advantage of the low rents.