MEET ME AT THE FOUNTAIN
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Alexandra LangeAlexandra Lange
Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall Hardcover – June 14, 2022
by Alexandra Lange (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 179 ratings
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Longlisted for the Porchlight Business Book Awards
“A smart and accessible cultural history.”-Los Angeles Times
“A fantastic examination of what became the mall … envision[ing] a more meaningful public afterlife for our shopping centers.”-Vulture
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).
Few places have been as nostalgized, or as maligned, as malls. Since their birth in the 1950s, they have loomed large as temples of commerce, the agora of the suburbs. In their prime, they proved a powerful draw for creative thinkers such as Joan Didion, Ray Bradbury, and George Romero, who understood the mall’s appeal as both critics and consumers. Yet today, amid the aftershocks of financial crises and a global pandemic, as well as the rise of online retail, the dystopian husk of an abandoned shopping center has become one of our era’s defining images. Conventional wisdom holds that the mall is dead. But what was the mall, really? And have rumors of its demise been greatly exaggerated?
In her acclaimed The Design of Childhood, Alexandra Lange uncovered the histories of toys, classrooms, and playgrounds. She now turns her sharp eye to another subject we only think we know. She chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. In Lange’s perceptive account, the mall becomes newly strange and rich with contradiction: Malls are environments of both freedom and exclusion–of consumerism, but also of community. Meet Me by the Fountain is a highly entertaining and evocative promenade through the mall’s story of rise, fall, and ongoing reinvention, for readers of any generation.
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- Print length320 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBloomsbury Publishing
- Publication dateJune 14, 2022
- Dimensions6.55 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“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
About the Author
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.TopAbout this itemReviews
Product details
- Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing (June 14, 2022)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 320 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1635576024
- ISBN-13 : 978-1635576023
- Item Weight : 1.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.55 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #407,835 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #74 in Retailing Industry (Books)
- #351 in Architectural History
- #1,639 in Art History (Books)
- Customer Reviews: 4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 179 ratings
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Alexandra Lange
Alexandra Lange is the architecture critic for Curbed. Her essays, reviews, and profiles have appeared in Architect, Domus, Dwell, Medium, MAS Context, Metropolis, New York Magazine, the New Yorker, and the New York Times. She has been a featured writer at Design Observer and an Opinion columnist at Dezeen. She has taught design criticism at the School of Visual Arts and New York University. She was a 2014 Loeb Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.
She is the author of Writing About Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012), a primer on how to read and write architecture criticism, as well as the e-book The Dot-Com City: Silicon Valley Urbanism (Strelka Press, 2012), which considers the message of the physical spaces of Facebook, Google, and Apple. She has long been interested in the creation of domestic life, a theme running through Design Research: The Store that Brought Modern Living to American Homes (Chronicle Books, 2010), which she co-authored with Jane Thompson, as well as her contributions to Formica Forever (Metropolis Books, 2013) and Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future (Yale University Press, 2006).
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4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
179 global ratings
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Top reviews from the United States
5.0 out of 5 stars outstanding history of the American shopping mall
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2024
a revised version will show the mall’s death spiral.. Jeff Hooke , author
4.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive but shallow
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2022
The book reviews of the history of malls in America. Unfortunately, the discussion is somewhat shallow – the author does not discuss the disputes and deliberations when building a mall.
3.0 out of 5 stars The book often seems disjointed.
Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2023
There are good and bad things about this book. The author appears to have done some good research. The descriptions of design and locations of malls in the 20th century are interesting. It felt that she leaned way too much on what she described as racism in building malls that were not focused on inner city dwellers. Malls that were built to attract suburban shoppers were built in areas that were not hugely ethnically diverse.
5.0 out of 5 stars Really living the 80’s & 90’s again. Remember, remember that, remember that shop?
Reviewed in the United States on November 7, 2023
If you lived through the MALL era & remember how they truly became the town center for multiple generations, this book is a “must get/own.” Remember Mrs. Fields great cookies and aromas, the food courts with teachers after school, and the rush of young women shopping for the weekend. The great shoe selection at Nordstroms, only to be outdone by the talented pianists at the escalators upper landing, in only a single great department store! Think of the mall’s reality, it’s emotional and economic reach, the smiles and laughter…..let’s hope that they aren’t gone forever.
One person found this helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Non-fiction that reads like fiction
Reviewed in the United States on September 25, 2022
Ms. Lange very eloquently writes about the past,present, and possible future of the shopping malls in the US. Ms. Lange is from my hometown and offered a nice,nostalgic description of Northgate Mall that we both frequented as teenagers. The only negative is that the photograph of the other mall I used to shop in, South Square, was blurry due to being smudged during the printing process. This isn’t really a big deal since the same picture is widely available online. Additionally, it’s my fault for waiting to read the book until after the deadline for exchanging it had passed.
5 people found this helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars 65 years ago, indoor shopping malls were a new thing.
Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2022
Excellent history of an overly-familiar feature of life-as-we-know-it. The first indoor mall was Southdale in Edina, MN. It’s still in business and not (yet) a dead mall. The book covers ma developments around the country, and charts the rise of this retail model from the economic, commercial, and social perspective. Well documented and engaging.
Recommended for people who like to know how things came to be.
4 people found this helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and thought provoking
Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2022
Meet Me at the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange is a 2022 Bloomsbury Publishing publication.
For starters, it is important to know that the author of this book is an architect- and a good deal of time is spent on the history of malls and the architecture. This is in the very beginning of the book and some of it is quite interesting- and there are some thumbnail pictures- if you have the digital format- but other some sections could be pretty dry- which even began to concern me because my enthusiasm took a serious dive after the first few chapters.
I stuck with it though, and was rewarded with some very interesting observations about malls, and yes, some of that bittersweet nostalgia I was craving, too.
The mall became such a big part of our lives that phrases were coined- like Mall Rats/Bunnies, for example, and the mall was the backdrop of countless teen angst eighties movies.
Later, in the nineties and early aughts, ‘Mallsoft’ music was a thing- which apparently isn’t the music that was played in the mall so much as it was how the mall sounded with the music added to it. (Check this out on YouTube- called ‘mallwave’ songs)
Eventually, the mall became a cliché, the mammoth buildings once considered innovative in design grew outdated, requiring in some cases, massive remodeling efforts. In other cases, the malls just continued a slow decline, until they eventually closed, and became fodder for ‘ruin porn’.
And then came Covid…
What will happen next for malls? As the author states, the United States became oversaturated with malls, internet shopping puts a dent in the brick-and-mortar commerce, and many mall anchor stores have folded.
Hopefully, future generations can continue to try more innovative ways to draw people together, and create new memories for themselves and their families…
Overall, as you can tell by how much I wrote about this book, I found much to like about it. I enjoyed the history, the pop culture references, and the Sociology, more than the study of architecture, but I did enjoy looking at some of the older designs.
The material is organized and thought provoking as well as being educational, and the subject is a fascinating one to explore.
3 people found this helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Got lost after awhile
Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2022
I’ve got a strong personal and professional interest in malls, and I enjoyed filling in many bits of history I hadn’t known before. And I really like the discussion of malls’ place in suburban community planning. But I was looking for some kind of structure — are malls going to get bigger? Get smaller? Move more urban? Move more suburban? By the middle of the book I was searching for more direction and never did find it .
2 people found this helpful
Top reviews from other countries
M. Dodds
3.0 out of 5 stars Difficult book to get into
Reviewed in Canada on January 9, 2024
I received this book as a Christmas gift and liked the title which promised to give a history of the mall. Even though the book was packed full of data it didn’t seem to draw me into it or give a year-by-year (or decade-by-decade) history of the mall and it seemed more like a list of mall architects and their achievements than a history of the mall itself. (One small paragraph in The Garden chapter links the name to Pall Mall in the UK, and a game like croquet of hitting a ball with a mallet.) There are numbered notes near the back of the book but no reference to the same numbers in the text. The chapter “The Garden” has almost nothing on gardens. The pictures are good and there is a full index at the back. Too many facts in my opinion, and too little organization.
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