After we left the horror that was the Albertville "outlet" mall, we stopped at Maple Grove on the way back, looking for a particular store. Past the usual agglomeration of freestanding chain stores appeared a new mall made to simulate a downtown: parking broken up into clumps, sometimes even angled along the sides of buildings; generous sidewalks; facades broken into "human-scale" rhythms evoking an olde tyme downtown shopping district; antiquey lamposts and flower baskets and benches. Even the municipal offices. A sort of a street grid fashioned out of parking aisles.
Is this the best we can do for New Urbanism? It seems to have the style but not the substance. Is this so much better than the conventional suburban enclosed mall that we should consider it a victory for enlightened design? I hope the rhetorical style of my questions indicates that I find this particular manifestation to be highly problematical.
Posted by otto0114 at August 29, 2004 11:56 PMMy mother-in-law refers to that area of Maple Grove as "Pleasantville," to denote the looks-right-but-doesn't-feel-right sense of the place.
Although I have no great love for enclosed malls, I think it's pretty silly to abandon them in a climate where being outside is frequently painful during several months of the year.
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