The American Mall: Now The Public Space Of Choice?

Lage lifestyle centers are serving as defacto urban streets in urban areas such as Los Angeles, writes Virginia Postrel, social critic, author and columnist for the Atlantic. Critics who condemned malls like Los Angeles' often-maligned City Walk as "fake spaces" have turned out to be wrong, and these spaces have become an important part of the city's fabric.

From the article:
"In fact, CityWalk says far more about the state of shopping centers than it does about the state of cities. Over the last decade and a half, the once-monolithic mall has become more diversified, more aesthetically appealing and more porous. Outdoor "lifestyle centers," often without department stores, are reinventing the city street, while traditional malls revamp to provide more entertainment, more restaurants, more appealing public spaces and more reasons to linger. After five decades of experiment and evolution, the American shopping center is finally beginning to fulfill its inventor's dream: to re-create the human-scale European city "filled, morning and evening, day and night, weekdays and Sundays, with urban dynamism."

Peter Gordon comments on the article on his blog:

"Public sector planners go on and on about "the need for open space" -- and about their unique ability to provide it. But they are no match for the private providers. L.A.'s Rick Caruso and his work are noteworthy examples. (He writes "Listen and they will come" in the same section.) We somehow get the open spaces we want in spite of, and not because of, the prominent public sector actors."