Document Decay by la flaneuse
May 28th, 2007 1:43 PMThis more-than-a-million-square-feet two-level mall in Kansas City opened in 1980. It will close this week on May 31, only 27 years later. It has opened and closed in my lifetime and is now deemed to be useless. A million square feet of empty building. The site is being looked at for a new soccer stadium, which means this structure will have to be demolished for the land to be considered useful. In this proof I won't go into the many reasons why the mall failed since
others do so elsewhere. I went to photograph the mall on the Sunday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend before it closes later this week.
On a holiday weekend, few shoppers strolled these halls, and those who did were likely outnumbered by workers. A completely empty end of the mall has been blocked off, and odd silhouettes populate empty gathering spaces now instead of actual people. An abandoned 270,000 square foot Wal-Mart Supercenter also sprawls across the street from this mall. Where does the decay end?
How many homeless people do we have? How many live in inadequate housing? Yet this building is no longer "functional" according to its designed purpose. We let huge malls empty out as we continue to resist construction of enough affordable housing. I say that this mall is more than one instance of decay.
No entrance here
One of the mall's many entrances.
This was the main entrance side of the mall.
Not many cars are parked here today on a Sunday afternoon.
No need to remember where you park now
A deteriorating parking lot locator sign
Rust
Most of the mall structure appears to be in good shape. These rusted doors are an exception.
Outside the flea market
The flea market gets to hang around in the otherwise-empty building for up to a year.
Mayhem
Abandoned mannequin parts on the floor of a closed department store, one of the four previous anchor tenants.
This used to be the bustling main entrance of the mall.
Sunday shadow
The only person hanging out in this seating area is a wood silhouette.
Another silhouette, as seen from above
Empty storefront
New markets
All to yourself with nowhere to go
The end of this hall is blocked off. There's more unseen empty mall behind the wall at the end.
Guess they don't subscribe to the broken windows theory...
Upper level block
Part of the empty mall is blocked off. This wall allows you to pass through to get to the interior entrance to the flea market, but that's it.
View toward the inaccessible empty rest of the mall
Wal-Mart beat them to it
This giant 270,000 square foot Supercenter is now empty. More empty strip mall space surrounds this and the mall.
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Thanks! (I am still far from the level of, say, the awesome Furtive Interiors, which remains one of my favorites.)
you always do such great tasks.