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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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While malls are thriving worldwide, especially in countries with extreme climates or cultures that haven’t grown up with malls, in the United States, it’s an issue of fatigue. “A lot of us have gotten bored of the format. What we’re craving is a little bit of time outdoors,” Dunham-Jones said. “That has become enormously popular so a lot of malls have demalled. They’ve removed their roofs over the common areas or we’ve seen a real resurgence in the construction of more traditional, old open-air Main Streets.” Instead of a super-block with one building surrounded by a sea of parking, these retrofitted spaces are being carved up into public streets with retail on the ground floor and apartments and offices up above. Dunham-Jones maintains the world’s only database of suburban spaces that are being re-imagined into more sustainable spaces. She can cite more than 220 examples of dead malls that are currently being repurposed; about 50 of those have become the bustling city centers their suburbs had been longing for.
