Shopping Centers

Ohio Suburb Reenvisions Car-Oriented Shopping Center
Garfield Heights wants to transform a 1960s complex nestled in a sea of surface parking into a walkable, mixed-use development.

Retrofitting D.C.’s Suburbs for a New Era
How to equip suburban sprawl for a different future.

Three Planning Innovations, a Century Later
Three events turning 100 this year have had a long-lasting impact on the shape of American urban design and land use.

New York City's First Outlet Mall Still a 'Ghost Town'
Perched on the northeastern tip of Staten Island next to the ferry terminal, Empire Outlets has only filled 26 of its 75 storefronts since a grand opening in May.

Are Malls and Streets Destined to Merge?
While much has been made of the suburban shopping mall's decline, successful urban retail spaces are taking their inspiration from the humble city street.

On the Life Cycle of Suburban Malls
Using Greenwood, Indiana as an example, Eric McAfee discusses how the value of individual suburban malls depreciates over time. Shiny new shopping centers compensate for inevitable vacancies in older ones.

Death of the Shopping Mall May Be Exaggerated
Despite threats like online retail, upscale sectors of the mall market are prospering. This is good news for what are, perhaps, the only walkable 'streets' in some parts of the country.
1954 Report Explains a lot About Parking Requirements, Shopping Centers
Historic planning documents, like those found in the APA's Planning Advisory Service, are full of lessons about how past planning doctrines failed their intentions, and it's always a good time for planners to re-evaluate their antecedents.
A Tale of Two Shopping Centers
As the global recession continues to hit the global economy, shopping centers take on two distinct development patterns in developed and developing nations.
Shopping Center Tracking System Raises Privacy Concerns
A new technology enables pedestrian behavior and flow to be monitored continuously using mobile phone technology. Its use in US and UK shopping centers has consumer rights activists worried.
Disney-Adjacent Development, For Sale By Owner
Built during the height of the boom, GardenWalk in Anaheim was a can't-fail mixed-use shopping center with condos. The retail opened just as the recession hit, and this week the developer has put the condo construction rights up for sale.
Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Box?
As a young kid, skirting aimlessly throughout my suburban municipality from one car-optimized shopping center to the next on my bicycle in search of stimulation (and perhaps trouble), I vividly recall - though I likely didn't describe it as - the internal conflict between interesting commercial destinations on the inside, and the banal, cruel approach to these places on the outside. Although the primitive human desires of my psyche subconsciously longed for a central place to congregate with other lost children of the suburbs, I never had a downtown; I never had a community center. In this vacuum, I compensated with all that was available.
Dead Malls: Suburban Planning Nightmare or Opportunity?
Failing malls didn’t get into trouble overnight: most began their descent long before the tough climate.
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Brookings
City of White Salmon
Harvard GSD Executive Education
Chaddick Institute at DePaul University
M-NCPPC Prince George's County Planning Department
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service