Factoid #1
America’s first enclosed shopping Mall opened in 1956 in Minneapolis.

Factoid #2
At last count, there are 1,175 enclosed malls in the U.S.

Factoid #3
In the early 70’s a poll by U.S. News and World Report found that the average American spent more time in Malls than anywhere else than home or work.

Source: Call of the Mall, Paco Underhill

Once the Holy Grail for interiorscapers, today the Mall has fallen on hard times. In the beginning, the basic design was to simulate Main Street, USA. Shoppers strolled under large ficus trees or palms, in ground planters were loaded with greenery and color and individual containerized plants accented seating areas, retail stores, and food court entrances.

Today, many center’s specimen plant material has been replaced with silk or preserved, replaced with kiosks, or just removed entirely.

Does This Mean You Don’t Want the Work?
Of course not. Just be aware that as malls lost tenants, the national commercial real estate companies that own them have become firmly fixed on two things-generating the most revenue per square foot and aggressive cost cutting. You, as the intriorscape salesperson, have to look to value engineering to maximize profits and sharpen your pencil to get and keep the job.

The New Shopping Destination
The post mall version of a pre mall suburban fixture, the strip shopping center is the newest design. According to Paco Underhill, today’s version is what is called an “affinity center”. Bigger than their predecessors, more sophisticated in design and layout, these venues usually have five or six national chain stores, so called “category killers”. Roofless, these spaces do not offer much opportunity for the interiorscaper although containerized exterior plays a big part.

A second innovation and one with more openings for interiorscapers, is the “neo village”. These are attempts to recreate urbanesque shopping with lots of stores housed in “old time” replica shops. Underhill refers to them as “charmingly artificial…almost like movie sets. Again the opportunity for exterior containerized.

The Once Great Opportunity
Just a good example of how we have to keep on top of design and architectural trends and changes and adapt to them with innovation and flexibility. How are you keeping up?