Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Slice of Life: Chicago's Vertical Malls



An American and Chicago Olympic flag hang in the elevator well of Water Tower Place.  A lot of American tourists don't understand vertical malls, which may have contributed to the demise of Chicago Place.  But they're quite common in Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Hong Kong, and other places.  Water Tower Place manages to thrive thanks to the halO effect, and the mall at Northbridge seems to be holding its own.

2 comments:

  1. Chicago Place is a curious space indeed. Surprisingly the food court on the top floor is still in business, presumably anticipating the conversion to offices. It's a great place to bring the kids on Sundays as there are spectacular views and they can have the run of the place.

    Otherwise it's depressing as hell!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Agreed. I hope the food court survives because it's the only way to get some chain items like Taco Bell downtown. I suspect it might continue because it still serves the office people above.

    ReplyDelete

You can write a comment about this article below, but that's kind of just a one-way street. For full whiz-bang interactivity, click here to comment on this article at the Chicago Architecture Info Forum.