Shopping Malls

[strayrider]

deadmalls.com/ This is a fun site if you're into shopping malls (and what Dawn of the Dead fan isn't?) Poke around a bit and you'll find an interesting link to the Monroeville Mall. -stray-

[Danny]

damn, theres something about abandoned buildings that makes a certain type of person, normally one that likes zombie movies in fact so ive noticed, to want to explore em. but abandoned malls, thats a new one to me. dont take this the wrong way but you americans sure seem wasteful with all these buildings that just get abandoned over thar', you just dont see that over here in the uk, maybe the odd nut house that whent bust in the 19th century or somewere thats been left since the plague, but the idea of a mall in england just being abandoned?, thats impossible. gotta say its just so damn wierd, cus ive seen abandoned towns in the u.s, abandoned hospitals, hell even heard tell of a few abandoned theme parks, but ive never though that you could abandon a mall. though england fits into texas 17 times so im told, so its easy to imagine that over such a f-ing huge area like the states even its large population must leave huge areas without human life for decades. which is pretty cool, but also kinda sad when someone probably staked there monetary future on these ruins to build em. still those "freaks of the heartlands" gotta have somewere to live were "they dont take kindly to our kind around here"

[capncnut]

Crazy link man. It's hard to believe they'd leave so many places abandoned like that.

[Eyebiter]

Those places will eventually get bulldozed and something else built there.

[bassman]

damn, theres something about abandoned buildings that makes a certain type of person, normally one that likes zombie movies in fact so ive noticed, to want to explore em. but abandoned malls, thats a new one to me. dont take this the wrong way but you americans sure seem wasteful with all these buildings that just get abandoned over thar', you just dont see that over here in the uk, maybe the odd nut house that whent bust in the 19th century or somewere thats been left since the plague, but the idea of a mall in england just being abandoned?, thats impossible. gotta say its just so damn wierd, cus ive seen abandoned towns in the u.s, abandoned hospitals, hell even heard tell of a few abandoned theme parks, but ive never though that you could abandon a mall. though england fits into texas 17 times so im told, so its easy to imagine that over such a f-ing huge area like the states even its large population must leave huge areas without human life for decades. which is pretty cool, but also kinda sad when someone probably staked there monetary future on these ruins to build em. still those "freaks of the heartlands" gotta have somewere to live were "they dont take kindly to our kind around here" Yeah, like Eyebiter mentioned....they'll eventually get taken down and something will go in it's place. But you know....if it weren't for our abandoned malls, we might not have had that awesome car chase in "The Blues Brothers". (which was actually demolished earlier this year to make way for development)

[Philly_SWAT]

If I read the site right, not many of those malls are totally shut down, most are still in operation in some fashion, if not downright in full operation. Not sure why it is called "dead malls" when not many that I saw are dead.

[coma]

but abandoned malls, thats a new one to me. dont take this the wrong way but you americans sure seem wasteful with all these buildings that just get abandoned over thar', you just dont see that over here in the uk, maybe the odd nut house that whent bust in the 19th century or somewere thats been left since the plague, but the idea of a mall in england just being abandoned?, thats impossible. gotta say its just so damn wierd, cus ive seen abandoned towns in the u.s, abandoned hospitals, hell even heard tell of a few abandoned theme parks, but ive never though that you could abandon a mall. though england fits into texas 17 times so im told, so its easy to imagine that over such a f-ing huge area like the states even its large population must leave huge areas without human life for decades. Often misguided developers buils big operations where there is no demand, so they abandon for a variety of reasons; cutting their losses, tax reasons, No interest. Thers more Theres a big old airport that my Grandmoher worked at that is totally abandoned because it is a toxic waste mess and it is not worth it toclean it or revuild for that reason. Plus the developer gets tied to the property when they buy it and are responsible for any future mess cleanup. If you have never seen the whole of the US you can have no concept of just how huge the US is. If you drive across the midwest you can go a whole day and see nothing, maybe a farmhouse. Places like UK and Japan have small area and large population. We have no shortage of space except in Urban Areas. Where I grew up there were numerous Abandoned - houses, 2 large nuthouses, a hospital and a really huge abandoned industrial park. Something like a 19 century abandines mental hospital or a place abandoned sice the plauge would be sick. There is nothing like that here. Even most of the oldest stuff is 20th century. You can get no sense of age from the buildiongs here except for the odd abandoned mine or Civil war fort.

[MikePizzoff]

A lot of the malls on that site (probably most) are not abandoned. They're dead in the sense that they are a shadow of their former selves. Hardly anybody visits them any more and most of the stores are pulling out, leaving empty spaces in the malls themselves. Being an urban explorer, I'd "kill" to be able to explore a completely abandoned mall... especially with a skateboard in hand.

[axlish]

I haven't skateboarded in nearly 20 years but I'd love to ride around on one in an abandoned mall. I visited the mall from that site in Baltimore. They've torn a big chunk of it down now.

[Eyebiter]

Back in high school we used to sneak into a local shopping mall at night and play hacky sack. The place was owned by out of state landlords and it suffered for years with a low occupant rate. Funny thing is when the owners of a local sports bar bought the mall about 10 years ago, they turned it around completely. Now there are insurance companies, law offices, a large furniture store, the sports bar, cheap movie theaters (in a new wing of the mall), and a Best Buy. Who owns the place makes all the difference.