Dead Malls

Stephanie Clifford documents the extraordinary lengths malls across the country are going to in hopes of attracting customers in the face of e-commerce and a battered economy.

New South China Mall in Dongguan, China has been 99% vacant since it was built in 2005. Is Chinese development running amok? Sarah Goodyear looks at a recent documentary that explains why the mall was built.

That's what Richard Reep proposes in this article looking at reuse options for vacant retail properties from strip malls to megamalls.

Photographer Brian Ulrich has been taking pictures of dead mall and big-box retail across the country. The Morning News presents a photo gallery of his work.

Mark Dery looks back at the birth and death of the mall, from Victor Gruen to the present collapse, then beyond to proposals for reusing and revitalizing mall spaces.

Failing malls didn’t get into trouble overnight: most began their descent long before the tough climate.