Chapter
The Birth of the Indoor Mall
16:51 - 21:01 (04:09)
Victor Gruen, an Austrian immigrant and self-taught architect, designed the Southdale Mall in Minnesota, the first indoor mall featuring low balconies, goldfish ponds, and 10 acres of stores under one roof. The grand opening attracted 75,000 people and garnered attention from multiple national publications.
Clips
The origin story of the shopping mall involves a forward-thinking architect named Victor Gruen who came up with the innovative idea of putting multiple stores under one roof; a concept that would eventually change the retail landscape forever.
16:51 - 18:07 (01:16)
Summary
The origin story of the shopping mall involves a forward-thinking architect named Victor Gruen who came up with the innovative idea of putting multiple stores under one roof; a concept that would eventually change the retail landscape forever.
ChapterThe Birth of the Indoor Mall
EpisodeSelects: Live From San Francisco: How Malls Work
PodcastStuff You Should Know
Victor Gruen, an Austrian architect who fled from the Nazis in 1938, invented the concept of a mall and got everything right from low balconies to goldfish ponds to multiple stores under one roof, attracting more than 75,000 people on the grand opening day of Southdale Mall and several magazines writing about it including Life Magazine, Time Magazine, and Business Week.
18:07 - 21:01 (02:53)
Summary
Victor Gruen, an Austrian architect who fled from the Nazis in 1938, invented the concept of a mall and got everything right from low balconies to goldfish ponds to multiple stores under one roof, attracting more than 75,000 people on the grand opening day of Southdale Mall and several magazines writing about it including Life Magazine, Time Magazine, and Business Week.