A portrait—by turns celebratory, skeptical, and surprisingly moving—of one of America’s most iconic institutions, from an author who “might be the most influential design critic writing now” (LARB).
Alexandra Lange is an architecture critic and the author of four previous books, including The Design of Childhood. Her writing has also appeared in publications such as the New Yorker, New York Magazine, the New York Times, T Magazine, and CityLab, and she was previously the architecture critic for Curbed. She holds a PhD from the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and has taught design criticism there and at the School of Visual Arts. She lives in Brooklyn.
A smart and accessible cultural history—outlining the social,
economic and architectural forces that led to the creation of U.S.
malls as we know them … Lange doesn’t have a false nostalgia for
malls. Meet Me by the Fountain is frank about how they have usurped
public space. But at a time when malls still serve the function of
bringing us together, Lange’s book is a thoughtful guide to helping
them do what the best of them already have—but better.
*Los Angeles Times*
Artfully elucidates the 70-year history of the mall ... Lange
asserts that malls, as ‘blank boxes in the middle of the big empty
parking lots,’ can ‘serve as a land trust’ for the 21st century.
This sounds like a stretch, but it proves to be true. Some malls
die, but most don’t…Ms. Lange’s elegant conclusion: The mall is
dead; long live the mall.
*Wall Street Journal*
A fantastic examination of what became the mall ... envision[ing] a
more meaningful public afterlife for our shopping centers.
*Vulture*
Shines in its study of malls as symbols, and drivers, of American
consumerism and urban sprawl …Though Ms Lange pays rapt attention
to malls’ shortcomings, her book is refreshingly optimistic.
*The Economist*
Reminds us that the mall has helped shape American society, and has
evolved with our country since the 1950s ... [Lange] posits that
there’s still a place for malls in our society, as long as they
adapt to better serve their communities.
*The Atlantic*
Fascinating cultural history.
*Christian Science Monitor, 10 Best Books of June*
A well-researched introduction to the rise and fall and dicey
future of an American institution.
*New York Times*
An insightful look at the design of both objects and public
spaces.
*InsideHook*
One of our best design writers traces the influence of Waukegan’s
Genesse Street, “Dawn of the Dead” and department stores on
now-struggling suburban sprawls saddled with acres of parking.
*Chicago Tribune*
Dives into the storied, almost nostalgic, past of the American mall
and makes a case that, no, malls aren’t dying—they’re just changing
with the times.
*Fast Company*
Lively, deeply researched, and ultimately optimistic.
*The Architect’s Newspaper*
Reading this book is like looking in the nooks, crannies, and
hidden hallways of your local shopping emporium with a critical
eye. It's a hark back to your childhood in the most intriguing
way.
*The Bookworm Sez*
This thorough, culturally aware history will surprise and inspire
audiences who may feel they already know the story of the shopping
megaplex … Despite malls' sometimes problematic past, Lange
envisions an inspiring, community-oriented repurposing of these
monuments to consumerism.
*Shelf Awareness Pro*
A deeply researched history … The mall is dead—but it may yet live
again, as Lange’s instructive book capably shows.
*Kirkus Reviews*
A thought-provoking cultural history ... Lucid and well researched,
this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued
architectural form.
*Publishers Weekly*
In this spry architectural history, Lange tracks the American
shopping mall's postwar origins, evolution during the second half
of the twentieth century, and twenty-first-century collapse and
future possibility ... invite[s] readers to map their own mall
experiences onto the chronologically organized accounts of
architects, developers, and specific sites that follow.
*Booklist*
Just as Lange reflects on the joy she found at the local North
Carolina mall of her childhood, many readers will likely reminisce
about the malls where they once shopped or worked or simply hung
out. But Lange eschews nostalgia in favor of bold ideas that focus
on community and sustainability.
*Christian Science Monitor*
It is hard to imagine a more complete social, architectural,
cultural, economic or cross-national comparison of shopping malls
than this book provides.
*Inside Higher Ed*
Chronicling the architecture of the mall in an entertaining and
accessible account, Lange reveals how design formed this
everlasting cultural symbol of the so-called American Dream.
*Metropolis Magazine*
Design is the leitmotif that knits the narrative in Meet Me by the
Fountain together, but the breadth of Lange’s analysis gives it
deeper meaning ... Engrossing and accessible reading.
*Azure Magazine*
Easy-to-digest information about malls, their nostalgic appeal, and
fabled history ... the perfect book to add to your library.
*Archinect*
[A] contradiction sits at the center of Lange’s book: The mall is
beautiful and soothing, but its pursuit of profit steers it away
from truly serving us … What might bloom in the husks of dead or
dying malls might not be squalor, Lange writes, but opportunity.
Rather than tear them down, she argues, let’s reimagine their use
of public space.
*The Nation*
Mixing firsthand reporting and historical research, Lange traces
the history of malls, from coast to coast, to show us not just how
malls have changed, but how they’ve also changed us.
*Fast Company, Best Design Books of 2022*
An architectural page-turner. This insightful, witty, and smart
book captures everything compelling and confounding about the
American mall.
*Roman Mars, co-author of THE 99% INVISIBLE CITY*
A mall is not just a mall in this fascinating, far-reaching
history. Alexandra Lange nimbly navigates sweeping changes in
American society, explaining so much more than how and where we
shop, and—much like the architectural institution at the book’s
center—providing plenty of fun along the way.
*Julia Cooke, author of COME FLY THE WORLD*
Alexandra Lange is the poet laureate of mall culture, and her book
is as delightful as a cold Orange Julius. Deeply researched and
full of fascinating insights.
*Rachel Syme, staff writer, The New Yorker*
The shopping mall is an American tragedy but also a triumph. This
book shows both its sides with generosity and tenderness.
*Ian Bogost, author of PLAY ANYTHING*
Brilliantly explores how these places we thought were just churches
built for worshipping at the altar of capitalism actually represent
everything we are, aren't, want to be, and never knew we could have
been.
*Jason Diamond, author of THE SPRAWL*
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