Town Square

 

Victor Gruen (1903-1980) was an Austrian architect best known for designing the first shopping malls.  Victor fled for the United States in 1938, when Germany annexed Austria. He arrived, as he said, “with an architect’s degree, eight dollars, and no English.” Victor wanted to design and build communities: all-inclusive spaces which incorporated shops, housing, eateries, office space, museums, schools, gyms, hospitals and public parks, all within walking distance of each other. Victor hoped to make automobiles a lot less necessary. He designed the first suburban open-air shopping facility called Northland Mall near Detroit in 1954. His original design was never fully realized (Northland Mall was meant to have apartments, schools, medical facilities, a park and even a lake, none of which were built) but shopping malls were insanely popular worldwide for several decades. Maybe, if we’d actually followed Victor’s complete plans, they would still be viable today.