ancient cities

714 Shopping Center
Factory outlets, such as this one in southern California, offer countless
storefronts in one location, with discounts on otherwise pricey items.
Source: Tracy Buyan.
are called super-regional centers or megamalls if
they exceed a million square feet. These gigantic
structures enclose myriad facilities such as multiplex
cinemas, post offices, discos, hotels, ice-
skating rinks, and even entire theme parks under a
single roof. The largest megamalls have an international
allure, drawing people from around the
world. Much of the academic literature has focused
on the Mall of America (United States) and West
Edmonton Mall (Canada) as the ultimate example
of the genre, but now seven of the ten largest
malls are to be found in Asia. The largest mall in
Europe is Cevahir in Istanbul, Turkey, while the
largest in the European Union is MetroCentre in
the United Kingdom. Due to size constraints and
accessibility requirements, shopping malls are
frequently found in out-of-town locations on or
near highway interchanges.
Malls have also been built in city centers. In
the United States these are often called downtown
malls or festival marketplaces. In these cases, mall
design is generally adapted to the local circumstances.
In many European city centers, shopping
malls are part of a wider shopping area and often
smaller and more compact than their North
American counterparts. In many cases, they were
planned as part of postwar reconstruction and
urban renewal efforts. Malls linked to plazas are
also commonplace in Asian city centers such as
Manila, Bangkok, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur. A
major mall in the Philippines has a Catholic
church as its main anchor. In Japan, dense multistory
and multifunctional shopping centers containing
hundreds of small tenants are seamlessly
integrated into the urban fabric and public transport
system. Transport-oriented malls in major
subway stations, train stations (e.g., Leipzig and
Utrecht), and airports have also become a global
phenomenon.
From Shopping Center to Megamall
Although the shopping mall contains elements
from the past, it is very much a twentieth-century
phenomenon: the first half of the century being
devoted to perfecting its form and the second half
in disseminating it worldwide. Due to differences
of definition, there is some disagreement about
which development qualifies as the first shopping
mall. Highland Park, Dallas, 1931, is often identified
as the first prototype for the shopping mall,
but this position is debatable as its interior was
not car-free, whereas earlier projects like Farmers
Market in Los Angeles were. There is consensus,