This is our walkthrough of the Fashion District (formerly The Gallery at Market East) mall in Philadelphia, PA from October 22, 2021. This is the big downtown mall in Philadelphia, placed right at the meeting point of most of the city's transit systems. This is a sprawling 3-story mall that spans 3 full city blocks. The mall that exists today bears little resemblance to the mall it was most of my lifetime. Formerly known as simply The Gallery, it was a beloved retail destination in the area, partially due to the big fancy Strawbridge & Clothier and Gimbel's comprising the anchor stores. Partially developed by The Rouse Company, the mall was aesthetically pleasing, with lots of color and pleasant earth tones. Fast forward a few years and the mall starts to die in the late 2000s. Things get so bad that the mall closed in 2015, after being partially acquired by the Macerich company, who immediately announced a multi-million dollar renovation project at the mall. The original plans for said renovation fell through, but the space was renovated in a more traditional modern mall style instead. This means very little color, very shiny marble, and trying-way-too-hard-to-be-hip posters all over the place. I don't expect this is a mall we'll be revisiting any time soon. It's sad to have to say that, because The Gallery was a treat to visit in its heyday.
The Mall Hall of Fame blog has a very detailed article about this mall. Please do check it out if you're curious of the history:
mall-hall-of-fame.blogspot.com...
Songs used in this video (in order):
Alan Barcus - Going Out
Martin Landström - Welcome To Hitsville
The Gentle Giants - These Foolish Things
Carte Blanche - This Time
Keith Mansfield - Night Bird
David Marriott, Jr. - On the Seventh Day
Steve Gray - Wonder Groove
Steve Gray - Reach Out
---------------------
I'd like to say a few words about being an ambassador to your local malls. We have been taking the time to visit all the malls within a reasonable driving distance to check up on them and see how they are doing. Also filming an updated video every year or so, regardless of the lack of many changes, just so there is a video record of the health over time. We think this is an important thing to keep tabs on, especially in these wildly turbulent times. The health emergency has accelerated the impending Retail Apocalypse we've all been talking about these last several years. This was already a big problem, but the restrictions have made the issue 5x worse and likely hastened the death of the enclosed shopping mall.
I know we've all been on pins and needles wondering how bad the fallout is going to be from all of this.
There really is no way to know exactly unless we ALL go and do our small part to make it known how it turns out. I implore you, if you have the means to pick an area you would like to be an ambassador for, and go document your local malls. Whatever your medium, it doesn't matter, any and all documentation is necessary and vital in this day and age. Whether it be on Social Media, Flickr, KZitem, any platform gets it out there and preserves it for posterity. We can't paint this picture unless we all grab a brush...
----------------------------------
We utilize the value-for-value model here at RRR. Our product is free, and we're not asking you to pay for it. If you received value in any way from watching RRR, you can help us by donating, if you feel like it. Any little bit helps us to keep corporations and advertisers out of the decision making process. Your donation will keep us ad-free, and in turn, it will give us the opportunity to get to more far-flung locations to help tell this tale of retail instability.
This is a non-profit project and every penny will go back into the gas tank for future trips!
/ rawandrealretail
ITM
Негізгі бет Фильм және анимация Fashion District Philadelphia (The Gallery at Market East) - Raw & Real Retail
Пікірлер: 39