Post by Annalee Newitz 🍜

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What happens when a mall dies? In my latest newsletter, I visit two of San Francisco's moribund shopping spaces -- the former Twitter building, and the former Westfield mall. What I find is very liminal. https://buttondown.com/thehypothesis/archive/inside-the-dying-malls-of-san-francisco/ #sanfrancisco #urbanism

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These are two pictures of empty mall spaces. One is an empty rotunda, whose shopfronts are covered in butcher paper. The floor is fake brown marble. The other is a forgotten hallway, most of its doors and windows covered in paper. Only one sign remains etched on the glass: "Brow Savant." The text reads: As I ascended toward the blank spaces where Nordstrom once ruled, I found a glorious unbranded emptiness that future archaeologists will no doubt describe as “ceremonial chambers” or “special use spaces.” The mall seemed to degenerate into absurdism as I continued to ride the escalators up. Twinkling strands of gilded holiday decorations fell from the distant, illuminated ceiling, past five dark levels of unfilled retail space.

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@annaleen For a more upbeat San Francisco shopping center experience, check out Japan Center. It used to have a lot of empty shops, but it's been pretty lively recently, especially on weekends.

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@chaz I've been going there since I was a kid, and I'm always amazed at the way it reinvents itself with new shops all the time

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