I've recently been commissioned to help a client who's buying and old (late 50's, early 60's) covered mall in the suburbs of Pittsburgh. Since there are no original drawings, nobody knows exactly when it was built, but it has the clear hallmarks of that early transition period from suburban strip malls to covered malls al la Victor Gruen.
I'm looking for other examples of early mall redevelopments for ideas of what might be successful strategies. Back in 2006 REC did a case study at the San Antonio convention on two adjacent malls, one of which is very much like my current project (sadly never repositioned successfully, at least at that point).
Neither scrape and re-do nor historic preservation is a realistic option (I think), but will be included as bookends in our recommendations none the less.
If anyone has examples of others, I'd be very interested in your thoughts.
Ed
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Edward Shriver FAIA
Principal
Strada Architecture, LLC
Pittsburgh PA
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