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went to the documentary about this at a local theater a few days ago. was good, even kept my 10 yo niece’s attention. for years i had been wondering why we di

by toofy 1y ago

went to the documentary about this at a local theater a few days ago. was good, even kept my 10 yo niece’s attention. for years i had been wondering why we didn’t have apartments/condos directly attached to malls, particularly in cold climates, so when the articles first started coming out about this it definitely scratched an itch. the movie has a ton of video footage they filmed back when they were using the space, including footage of them sneaking the couches, furniture, and 1000s of pounds of cinder blocks in. it’s pretty gripping in that “omg can they pull this off!!??” kind of way.

ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago
In Japan (Tokyo, at least), they have buildings with apartments, and hotels, directly attached to shopping centers. I have heard that Manhattan has buildings like that, as well.
- skwashd 1y ago
  Not just Tokyo or Japan. It is the same in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, big cities in China and more.
  - globular-toast 1y ago
    We even have this in the UK. I lived in one. It was funny to me to live in the shopping centre.
- noir_lord 1y ago
  They have a few of them in very cold climates as well, schools, shops, medical clinics and housing all in one building. For the simple practical reason of going outside is somewhere between deeply unpleasant and actually dangerous. Whittier, Alaska is a good example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naPguX84Amg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naPguX84Amg
rufus_foreman 1y ago
That's what I was wondering, do I get the whole story from the movie review, or should I actually watch the documentary?
stego-tech 1y ago
There's some in the US, but they're often considered "luxury" and significantly more expensive than comparable housing because of their "convenience" factor. Having never seen the movie myself, I can sympathize to the take in the linked article. Once I finally spent time in a major city as someone who grew up in more rural suburbia, I could see how entire buildings and districts "switched off" for certain parts of the day or week, disused, underutilized, and segmenting society off into neat little pockets of specific activities - just like suburbia does. It's cold and lifeless, compared to the "lived-in" feelings of more international metros (NYC springs to mind as the only American equivalent, and even that's disappearing one building at a time), and I could totally see why a rebellious artist (or several) might protest a building designed to operate for a third of the week just to remain lifeless the other two-thirds.
nradov 1y ago
In Silicon Valley, Santana Row has been highly successful as an outdoor mall with apartments on the upper levels. https://santanarow.com/ https://santanarow.com/
neilv 1y ago
IIRC, this was regarded as a failure, but looks like it's still operating: https://www.luxuryboston.com/Nouvelle-Natick https://www.luxuryboston.com/Nouvelle-Natick More recently, an early mall in Providence (within walking distance of the mall in the article) was converted to tiny apartments: https://www.businessinsider.com/americas-first-shopping-mall-is-now-micro-apartments-2016-10 https://www.businessinsider.com/americas-first-shopping-mall...

by toofy 1y ago

ChrisMarshallNY 1y ago

In Japan (Tokyo, at least), they have buildings with apartments, and hotels, directly attached to shopping centers. I have heard that Manhattan has buildings like that, as well.

skwashd 1y ago
Not just Tokyo or Japan. It is the same in Singapore, Hong Kong, Bangkok, big cities in China and more.
- globular-toast 1y ago
  We even have this in the UK. I lived in one. It was funny to me to live in the shopping centre.
noir_lord 1y ago
They have a few of them in very cold climates as well, schools, shops, medical clinics and housing all in one building. For the simple practical reason of going outside is somewhere between deeply unpleasant and actually dangerous. Whittier, Alaska is a good example. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naPguX84Amg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naPguX84Amg

rufus_foreman 1y ago

That's what I was wondering, do I get the whole story from the movie review, or should I actually watch the documentary?

stego-tech 1y ago

There's some in the US, but they're often considered "luxury" and significantly more expensive than comparable housing because of their "convenience" factor. Having never seen the movie myself, I can sympathize to the take in the linked article. Once I finally spent time in a major city as someone who grew up in more rural suburbia, I could see how entire buildings and districts "switched off" for certain parts of the day or week, disused, underutilized, and segmenting society off into neat little pockets of specific activities - just like suburbia does. It's cold and lifeless, compared to the "lived-in" feelings of more international metros (NYC springs to mind as the only American equivalent, and even that's disappearing one building at a time), and I could totally see why a rebellious artist (or several) might protest a building designed to operate for a third of the week just to remain lifeless the other two-thirds.

nradov 1y ago

In Silicon Valley, Santana Row has been highly successful as an outdoor mall with apartments on the upper levels. https://santanarow.com/ https://santanarow.com/

neilv 1y ago

IIRC, this was regarded as a failure, but looks like it's still operating: https://www.luxuryboston.com/Nouvelle-Natick https://www.luxuryboston.com/Nouvelle-Natick More recently, an early mall in Providence (within walking distance of the mall in the article) was converted to tiny apartments: https://www.businessinsider.com/americas-first-shopping-mall-is-now-micro-apartments-2016-10 https://www.businessinsider.com/americas-first-shopping-mall...