{"id":15316,"date":"2022-06-14T12:47:01","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T16:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=15316"},"modified":"2022-06-15T18:04:07","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T22:04:07","slug":"episode-490-alexandra-lange","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-490-alexandra-lange","title":{"rendered":"Episode 490 – Alexandra Lange"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virtual Memories Show 490:
\nAlexandra Lange<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/traffic.libsyn.com\/secure\/virtualmemories\/Episode_490_-_Alexandra_Lange.mp3<\/a><\/audio><\/div>

Podcast: Play in new window<\/a> | Download<\/a><\/p>

Subscribe: Spotify<\/a> | TuneIn<\/a> | RSS<\/a> | More<\/a><\/p>\n

“A lot of people try to think about the geography of the mall in the context of the outside. The outside is not important. Ignore the outside and get into the center and work your way out from there.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>With her fantastic new book, Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of The Mall<\/a> (Bloomsbury USA), architecture critic Alexandra Lange<\/a> explores a subject near and dear to my NJ-native heart: The Mall! We talk about the evolving role of malls in modern America, the various snobberies that look down on malls and how she sidestepped them for her book, the social forces (suburbanization, car-centricity, racism & more) that led to the proliferation of malls, and what our relationships with malls say about us. We also get into the Mallwave<\/a> phenomenon, the die-off of malls and what may come after, where kids congregate nowadays, her pandemic-cancelled trip to the Mall of America<\/a>, and the jarring wrongness of the American Dream<\/a> Mall. Plus we discuss her history as an architecture critic, what she’d love to see in a mall (& outside of one), my occasional dreams of malls that don’t exist, her favorite ’80s-era store, and more! Give it a listen!<\/a> And go read Meet Me by the Fountain<\/a>!<\/p>\n

“One of the most interesting things I learned is that malls have periods like any historical form of architecture”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n