Few places have been as nostalgized, or as maligned, as malls. Since their birth in the 1950s, they have loomed large as temples of commerce, the agora of the suburbs. In their prime, they proved a powerful draw for creative thinkers such as Joan Didion, Ray Bradbury, and George Romero, who understood the mall's appeal as both critics and consumers. Yet today, amid the aftershocks of financial crises and a global pandemic, as well as the rise of online retail, the dystopian husk of an abandoned shopping center has become one of our era's defining images. Conventional wisdom holds that the mall is dead. But what was the mall, really? And have rumors of its demise been greatly exaggerated?

In her acclaimed The Design of Childhood, Alexandra Lange uncovered the histories of toys, classrooms, and playgrounds. She now turns her sharp eye to another subject we only think we know. She chronicles postwar architects' and merchants' invention of the mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. In Lange's perceptive account, the mall becomes newly strange and rich with contradiction: Malls are environments of both freedom and exclusion--of consumerism, but also of community. Meet Me by the Fountain is a highly entertaining and evocative promenade through the mall's story of rise, fall, and ongoing reinvention, for readers of any generation.

REVIEWS

“A smart and accessible cultural history-outlining the social, economic and architectural forces that led to the creation of U.S. malls as we know them … Lange doesn't have a false nostalgia for malls. Meet Me by the Fountain is frank about how they have usurped public space. But at a time when malls still serve the function of bringing us together, Lange's book is a thoughtful guide to helping them do what the best of them already have-but better.” ―Los Angeles Times

“Artfully elucidates the 70-year history of the mall ... Lange asserts that malls, as 'blank boxes in the middle of the big empty parking lots,' can 'serve as a land trust' for the 21st century. This sounds like a stretch, but it proves to be true. Some malls die, but most don't…Ms. Lange's elegant conclusion: The mall is dead; long live the mall.” ―Wall Street Journal

“A fantastic examination of what became the mall ... envision[ing] a more meaningful public afterlife for our shopping centers.” ―Vulture

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

She is the author of Writing About Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012), a primer on how to read and write architecture criticism, as well as the e-book The Dot-Com City: Silicon Valley Urbanism (Strelka Press, 2012), which considers the message of the physical spaces of Facebook, Google, and Apple. She has long been interested in the creation of domestic life, a theme running through Design Research: The Store that Brought Modern Living to American Homes (Chronicle Books, 2010), which she co-authored with Jane Thompson, as well as her contributions to Formica Forever (Metropolis Books, 2013) and Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future (Yale University Press, 2006).

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Bloomsbury Publishing
• Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 5, 2023
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Print length ‏ : ‎ 336 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1639732055
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1639732050
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.25 inches