Text Block #7

Rem Koolhaus Harvard Project on the City
I thought that this article brought up several interesting points about shopping, including the importance of air conditioning and escalators. Most of the comments in the article, however, do not really apply to New York City. It is very difficult to find a large, indoor shopping mall within Manhattan. There are several large stores (ex. the Home Depot/Best Buy on W 23rd) but no traditional malls. I think that it is interesting to apply the comments made in the article to New York City. The article talks about cities and towns being planned around shopping and malls. I think that this definitely applies to New York. You cannot walk more than a block in Manhattan without seeing a variety of different shopping opportunities. In terms of cutting the consumer off from the outside world, I think Manhattan functions differently than most traditional shopping venues. Most of the retail spaces here tend to welcome natural lighting. There are also several modern stores that attempt to integrate themselves with nature and the outdoors.
I found a great article that relates to this topic:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/31/business/31chelsea.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
It is about the Chelsea Market, and how it functions as a 'mall' of restaurants. The author notes that the mall helps to draw in office tenants to the several floors above the mall. Personally, I think the mall is interesting because I have walked by it several times and never knew it was a mall. I always assumed it was a hotel, apartment, or office building.
I feel that Manhattan is unique also in the way it can turn areas of the city into hot spots and then back into dives in only a few short years.
This article, http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/realestate/28window.html, talks about the currently booming Financial District. Beautiful apartments are springing up all over the place, and several luxury retailers have begun to move into the market space. Hermes has announce their plans to open a store on Wall Street, and Tiffany, Mont Blanc, and several other luxury retailers are following suit.
The third article I found, http://slate.com/id/2116246/, talks about the way that mall architecture is constantly changing. It notes several different styles that have emerged recently, from the secluded urban mall to the Floridian residential mall.