MALL WALLS

 

A visit to the mall always has the glitz of stores, mosaic of shoppers, cascading sounds and steps. Sometimes, one can find  even more interest on the edges. Malls all have a history. Some long and successful, but always with many transitions. Marks on the walls reflect changes over time, a replaced sign, a scrape, a restructured surface.

One example of this is the parking deck at Southpark Mall in Charlotte. The interior and stores of the mall have changed many times since it was built in 1970. Owners have ranged from Belk to a Dutch Firm to Simon Properties. All have brought their own concepts with them. In the case of Southpark, it led to success with the mall now being the 10th largest on the East Coast with over 1.7 million sq ft of retail. 

Still you can get a sense of the history and place by walking around the outside and parking decks where you can see how the mall structure came to together. Noting along the way wall marks of time left behind.