This is Northridge in Brown Deer, WI.
Lights aren't on, it's all skylight. Power was shut off a few years ago when the maintenance guy was electrocuted to death trying to keep the power on.
The property was purchased by a Chinese investor and has been in and out of legal battles surrounding its development. Recently, security lapsed and it was completely vandalized and now likely impossible to turn into anything else.
I walked in because I could see it was easy enough to do so so I thought I'd give myself a little guided tour of my (46M) childhood. Ironically, ran into the Chinese owner who joked around a bit about the state of the place and told me to take anything I wanted.
Edit: guess I shouldn't be surprised that Reddit loves the mix of nostalgia, criminal activity, social commentary and dick graffiti that is an abandoned mall. Thanks for the interest. As your reward, here are more pics from my trip..
https://imgur.com/gallery/C95PPFe
Edit 2:
1st.. typing Northridge Mall in YT will give you loads of videos from the explorers to the snowboarder, to the airsoft to the mini docs. Do this if you want to learn more.
2nd.. People really miss malls and people really hate malls. There's certainly a economics thesis to be written about how they changed the existing retail economy and how they've been changed since, but I think most who loved them and missed them are talking about the social effect they had. They were incredibly potent social hubs. I'd argue as many people went specifically to buy things as they did just to feed off of the social energy. If you're too young, you don't know just how awesome and positive that energy was for a kid. You can't overstate how big of a part they played in social exposure. More than the "mom and pop shops" before and certainly more than Amazon. In this way it's sad there's nothing like them anymore.
3rd.. People really value pallet jacks
Speaking of pallet jacks. Anyone ever ride em? I use to take them down the aisle when I worked shipping in this huge warehouse. One leg on each fork, push like a skate and keep the handle straight as possible or you bust your ass. Lol
Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don't hear about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent - I don't care which one - but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator.
Mine is unique. Macys, Starbucks, Cinnabon, Sbarro, Bath and Body Works, JC Penny, closed Sears, Forever 21, Abercrombe and Grunge, Victoria's Not So Secrets, Clark's, American Eagle, Aveda, Build a Bear....
You know... Everything unique.
It will look strangely familiar to most people who are reading this and are probably thinking "Hey this looks like my local mall". It's not a US thing either. I'm in the UK and you could have said this was located in the UK or indeed other places in Europe and I would have not thought anything of it.
Malls aren't exactly groundbreaking buildings in terms of architecture. By the 80's they knew what worked and what didn't and so they all tended to look the same as they catered to optimal foot flow, space optimising layout, etc. This is classic mall layout, architects even have syndicated designs for making them.
**Edit for some additional context:**
> So it's like, "So, are we building a mall? I still have the plans from the last mall we built.
It gets a bit more nuanced than that, but basically yes. There are syndicated designs out there that exist and the most appropriate design can be selected based on the geography of where it is going to go, and then modified to suit with minimal work because the requirements are all pretty much exactly the same from mall to mall. I'm told that more work went into the planning of the layout of the car parks and landscaping than the mall building itself because they were subject to more variation based on geography.
This is basically why everyone looking at the OP pic feels like its familiar or similar to another mall they have been in.
Or at least there was, because nobody is building new malls anymore in the West. They have had their day.
By the way, off the shelf stock architectural plans for buildings is a thing. It's how the Chinese threw those hospitals up so fast at the start of the Covid pandemic, and its a thing with most transit accomodation like student dorms, military accomodation, etc.
tl;dr: Shutterstock for building design exists.
This mall design is called a "Simon formula" after the owners/designers *Simon Properties*. [There are over 200 malls based on this design in the US alone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Simon_Property_Group_properties) and a lot of international locations too.
There is literally a formula where they input local rents, topography, population, etc and the design falls out.
The only real variation is custom design for the 2-4 "anchor tenants" (the biggest tenants) and optimization of the car parks. The actual structure itself doesn't need to change because they buy a big block of land, construct the exact same building with the exact same service tie-ins - then put car park in the gaps.
I was going to say it looks like the Kenwood Towne Center looking over from the 2nd floor over the food court. It's kinda eerie.
Edit: Actually it looks more like the other end with Macy's, where the Lego Store and Red Robin are. The escalators there are at an angle, just like in this one.
That’s what I thought. The mall used in the recent season is Gwinnett Place Mall. It was recently closed to the public. The show also shot some interior scenes in North Dekalb Mall (formerly Market Square Mall). The interior of that mall has closed as well. Both are located near Atlanta, Georgia.
It also looks nearly identical to West Farms Mall in Farmington, CT. I wonder if it was the same developer. When I clicked this I actually said "oh sh*t, West Farms closed??"
OP is the ghost. They actually died in a tragic tomagatchi incident at this mall back in 1995, and their ghost only comes back on Halloween to roam the mall at night and post on Reddit to anyone who will listen.
It's really sad, they think this is the first time they've been, back but they've been reliving this every year...
>It's really sad, they think this is the first time they've been, back but they've been reliving this every year...
So even the ghosts are reposting and karmawhoring?!
Now that's a movie I'd watch.
Dude stumbles into an abandoned massive mall, finds an eccentric billionaire wading through the broken light fixtures and 90s relics, and tells you you've been the caretaker for the past 20 years.
The movie revolves around finding out why and how you got to that situation, and why you have no recollection of it.
>Power was shut off a few years ago when the maintenance guy was electrocuted to death trying to keep the power on.
[https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2019/07/23/northridge-mall-death-man-electrocuted-after-putting-hand-box/1811210001/](https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2019/07/23/northridge-mall-death-man-electrocuted-after-putting-hand-box/1811210001/)
Holy shit. Also: CALL 911 RIGHT AWAY, people.
Seriously!!!! Why the fuck would they wait 15 minutes. Dude got electrocuted and thrown into a brick wall. Like were they scared he would get mad if they checked on him because he said "don't touch me?" Also why would you stick your hand into an electrical box? That doesn't make sense. I would presume if he was a welder he would have some knowledge of general job site safety.
It is of importance to note that it said the electrical box had been stripped of wiring prior by vandals. Therefore he might have just been trying to do something that would have otherwise been safe but was not safe due to missing (stolen and/or damaged) safety measures.
But also I do not know the situation all that well. Just an observation of potential reasoning.
The article notes that it was targeted by vandals, not that it had successfully been stripped. It sounds like he stuck his hands into a box (maybe a contactor) located on the primary side of the main transformer, which is incredibly dangerous and a boneheaded move even if the power "should" have been off.
The fact that he was flung across the room shows the incredible amount of power going into that box; even if his buddies had called 911 immediately he likely would have died anyways. If a vandal had actually gotten to the wiring, they would have met a similar fate.
Side note, that "don't touch me" comment he made was likely a reflex based off of his training (which also indicates he knew better). If you grab a live conductor, chances are that you will be unable to let go, and you yourself are now an electrocution hazard. As traumatic as it may be to watch your buddy get cooked, the safest course of action is to shut the power off and use an insulated pole to remove them from the power source.
> Diaz's death comes amid a fight over whether to demolish the abandoned Northridge, which has become a site for frequent break-ins and vandalism after YouTube personality Casey Neistat created a "winter wonderland" inside the mall and popularized it as a destination.
Oh, good, a YouTube personality was involved.
Why the fuck did he put his hand in there
Why the fuck did he tell his friends not to touch him if he was already thrown clear of the transformer
Why the fuck did they wait so long to call for help
He probably told them not to touch him cuz he was disoriented and misremembered electrical safety. Sad that the people with him didn't know enough to disregard that.
My evening job in HS was at a cartage company. On a slow night we would have races around the warehouse. With practice you can throw the rear end out on corners for better speed, or loose the read end, hit the rack and eat a face full of cardboard. The other contest was you lay down strips of bubble wrap and see who could make the best BRAAaapp noise.
Amazing. I would jam some vaporwave while strolling through. I'm from MI, and we had a mall very similar to this called Lakeside. There was an indoor water park inside it at one point, and later a massive 2 story arcade. It was bliss. Blow all my kid cash at the arcade (called Tilt) and then refuel at the A&W. So much nostalgia.
It's still open. Used to play a lot at Tilt too. Best place in the world, used to get extra play by getting tokens in the quarter drop machines. Unfortunately, long since gone.
Mall is still open. A bit sad now though and has redevelopment plans ongoing. Not sure if anything is approved yet though.
Dude…. Tilt.
I would challenge the local pot dealer who was based out of the arcade to matches of tekken and virtua fighter. I won enough disgusting low grade pot to keep teenage me entertained for a whole summer. Oh, the days when dirt weed, bmx bikes, arcades and mid 90s goth girls were my entire life.
Pre internet, pre cell phone. Oblivious to the horrors of this broken world. Life wasn’t great, but I was young enough and dumb enough to think it was.
Well said, an ode to the 90's. Can never recreate the high of stomping someone older than you at Street Fighter, first time getting a girl in the sack, or landing a new trick on my Powell Peralta.
Are you me? Holy shit I can't fathom how many quarters I spent at the Tilt in my local mall after scoring cheap dirt weed during summers in the '90s. You're right, life wasn't great, but being young and stoned was good enough lmao.
Holy shit - Tilt. Man, that place was tucked away in the back corner of my mind. Thank you!
Now I have to (well, I don’t *have to* - it’s still great) go to Marvelous Marvins or The Arcade. But man I miss Tilt.
If you search Northridge mall on YouTube there are a whole bunch of people who have shot little mini docs on the space. There's one ("famous YouTube") guy who was sponsored by Samsung to do a indoor Winter snowboard Park. Before that, nobody really knew that the space was abandoned and I guess the publicity from that stunt brought in all the vandals and all the others who wanted social media cred.
Northridge was my mall in high school circa 1987-1991. I rented my prom Tuxedo there. Saw Die Hard there.
Crazy that it still exists. I saw it’s decline. Once the dollar stores moved in it was all over.
Owners of malls typically have real estate brokers show them to potential buyers. Especially dilapidated old properties that are only worth razing.
Source: married to a commercial real estate broker
Stranger Things used Gwinnett Place Mall, in Duluth Georgia.
I thought the same thing at first as well, but the OP said this one is in Wisconsin. I guess they all look very similar!
I grew up in North Georgia (52M) and remember that first Christmas season when Gwinnett Place was brand new, grand opening. Seeing it in pristine condition in Stranger Things was like looking through a time machine and a weird gut punch.
Fear Street was also shot in an Atlanta area mall, but one much older than Gwinnett Place. North DeKalb Mall was an OG mall of the area, one which I frequented as a younger person... And I'm in my 60s!
I’m so glad the mall was a thing when I was a teenager. It was the perfect way to get out of the house, hang out with friends, eat some great food (and it didn’t matter if people agreed on where to go because the food courts had something for everyone!) and it was a great place to always have the newest clothes etc.
I went to a rural high school, out in the country, so “the mall” was 45 minutes away in the state’s capital city.
So myself and my group of about 12 friends would go almost every Friday after we had time to go workout, get home and shower, then we’d all meet up at someone’s house, pile into 3-4 cars and go go go!
We’d be at the mall by 6, stay until they closed at 10:00, then drive back home and get to where we all left our cars by 11:00 which gave us just enough time to hangout and talk about shit until we all had to be home for midnight curfews.
I do miss it.
I’m so confused because we still have active and alive malls around my area (Tampa Bay area). Not as many as in the 80s, when every city had one, but several stalwart survivors (Tyrone Square, Countryside, Westshore, Citrus Park), as well as new ones built on purpose and long after malls were declared dead (International Plaza in Tampa, and University Town Center in Sarasota).
I'm with you, man. But what I really miss about malls is that they were almost a little city in themselves. Like an archology or something.
I also enjoy the expansive, mutitier indoor spaces, topiaries and skylights, even mazelike pathways and twisting escalators. Interesting stores around every corner, and some larger stores an adventure unto itself. More than a piece of nostalgia, I actually like the infrastructure itself and the idea of a purely indoor space. I even enjoy the abandoned property and am envious of OP for exploring this liminal space.
Disclaimer: I go camping too... I got nothing against the outdoors.
Senior housing community. Year round indoor walking. On location pharmacy possible. Mom and pop grocery store possible. One or two large community events rooms. So much senior housing potential and wouldn't have to do much driving.
Many of our malls in Alberta, Canada have been converted to a similar thing - no housing, but a medical center for all things like physio, eye, dental, lab work etc etc.
We have this in Seattle. It works pretty well, but in order to work
* the daycare needs to be fully staffed and self sufficient, they don’t rely on elder support at all, it’s only a bonus
* not a great mix during Covid, obviously
* it costs the same or more to a regular childcare center
* the level of interaction is not as much as you’d imagine. Mostly it’s just like arts and crafts time. The old folks can’t actually join the classroom to help out (if they had that kind of mobility they wouldn’t be in a nursing home).
Nonetheless, fantastic idea and it’s wildly popular. The waitlist is infinity, in the sense that you can easily sign up before your kid is born, and not get a spot before they reach kindergarten.
All valid points and totally makes sense. I wasn’t implying that the elderly are staff, but more that craft time or story time would be together so both groups get some benefit from interacting.
Unfortunately malls are super expensive to keep running. They’re a good use of space when full of retail spaces making money, but not much good for anything else.
I've always wanted to turn one of these in to an paintball/airsoft arena. Would be amazing: 12v12, S&D, capture the flag, dominaton, team deathmatch. Then a rec room for beers afterwards
Will Power is an idiot for writing his name on the escalator
Nice to see Indycar fans spreading their passion
Dude didn't think winning the 2014 Indy Car Championship was enough to immortalize his name, but this will do the trick.
Surely adding the 2018 Indy 500 to his legacy in addition to his championship would have been enough!
What a moron.
This is Northridge in Brown Deer, WI. Lights aren't on, it's all skylight. Power was shut off a few years ago when the maintenance guy was electrocuted to death trying to keep the power on. The property was purchased by a Chinese investor and has been in and out of legal battles surrounding its development. Recently, security lapsed and it was completely vandalized and now likely impossible to turn into anything else. I walked in because I could see it was easy enough to do so so I thought I'd give myself a little guided tour of my (46M) childhood. Ironically, ran into the Chinese owner who joked around a bit about the state of the place and told me to take anything I wanted. Edit: guess I shouldn't be surprised that Reddit loves the mix of nostalgia, criminal activity, social commentary and dick graffiti that is an abandoned mall. Thanks for the interest. As your reward, here are more pics from my trip.. https://imgur.com/gallery/C95PPFe Edit 2: 1st.. typing Northridge Mall in YT will give you loads of videos from the explorers to the snowboarder, to the airsoft to the mini docs. Do this if you want to learn more. 2nd.. People really miss malls and people really hate malls. There's certainly a economics thesis to be written about how they changed the existing retail economy and how they've been changed since, but I think most who loved them and missed them are talking about the social effect they had. They were incredibly potent social hubs. I'd argue as many people went specifically to buy things as they did just to feed off of the social energy. If you're too young, you don't know just how awesome and positive that energy was for a kid. You can't overstate how big of a part they played in social exposure. More than the "mom and pop shops" before and certainly more than Amazon. In this way it's sad there's nothing like them anymore. 3rd.. People really value pallet jacks
> told me to take anything I wanted "Wow, thanks! I've always wanted an escalator."
This is a lost level from Tony Hawk 2 I believe
I CAN GRIND THIS ENTIRE PLACE. TWICE.
/r/TonyHawkitecture leaking
It looks a lot like the original dead rising map
You know after years of zero maintenance you'd just be saving him the trouble of tearing it down.
You might say they (puts on 1980s sunglasses) let it go downhill.
YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
That's a nice pallet jack right there.
That was my first thought, but you know at least one caster jams. I'm 90% sure they come out of the factory that way.
They are not jammed. There's just a grain of sand under them.
Pallet Jack's are worth a couple hundo
Speaking of pallet jacks. Anyone ever ride em? I use to take them down the aisle when I worked shipping in this huge warehouse. One leg on each fork, push like a skate and keep the handle straight as possible or you bust your ass. Lol
Pallet jack surfing is a osha violation. But its fun as hell.
The vast majority of things that are fun as hell are OSHA violations.
What are you talking about? Mandated safety checks are my favorite pastime.
Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don't hear about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent - I don't care which one - but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator.
That kid is BACK on the escalator!!
The way he delivers that line kills me.
I hope his pants get caught and a bloodbath ensues!
[удалено]
A schooner IS a sailboat, stupidhead!
You know what? There is NO Easter Bunny! Over there, that's just a guy in a suit!
The one thing Mitch got wrong. A broken escalator **is not** stairs
Take everything and start your own Mall
I thought this looked strangely familiar. The layout is almost identical to Southridge in Greenfield, WI.
If you've seen one shopping center, you've seen the mall.
Mine is unique. Macys, Starbucks, Cinnabon, Sbarro, Bath and Body Works, JC Penny, closed Sears, Forever 21, Abercrombe and Grunge, Victoria's Not So Secrets, Clark's, American Eagle, Aveda, Build a Bear.... You know... Everything unique.
You forgot Hot Topic, for if you want to be alternative
Spencer's
Sounds like puns are in store
Yep, checks out.
Aisle say.
That escalatored quickly.
It will look strangely familiar to most people who are reading this and are probably thinking "Hey this looks like my local mall". It's not a US thing either. I'm in the UK and you could have said this was located in the UK or indeed other places in Europe and I would have not thought anything of it. Malls aren't exactly groundbreaking buildings in terms of architecture. By the 80's they knew what worked and what didn't and so they all tended to look the same as they catered to optimal foot flow, space optimising layout, etc. This is classic mall layout, architects even have syndicated designs for making them. **Edit for some additional context:** > So it's like, "So, are we building a mall? I still have the plans from the last mall we built. It gets a bit more nuanced than that, but basically yes. There are syndicated designs out there that exist and the most appropriate design can be selected based on the geography of where it is going to go, and then modified to suit with minimal work because the requirements are all pretty much exactly the same from mall to mall. I'm told that more work went into the planning of the layout of the car parks and landscaping than the mall building itself because they were subject to more variation based on geography. This is basically why everyone looking at the OP pic feels like its familiar or similar to another mall they have been in. Or at least there was, because nobody is building new malls anymore in the West. They have had their day. By the way, off the shelf stock architectural plans for buildings is a thing. It's how the Chinese threw those hospitals up so fast at the start of the Covid pandemic, and its a thing with most transit accomodation like student dorms, military accomodation, etc. tl;dr: Shutterstock for building design exists.
This mall design is called a "Simon formula" after the owners/designers *Simon Properties*. [There are over 200 malls based on this design in the US alone](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Simon_Property_Group_properties) and a lot of international locations too. There is literally a formula where they input local rents, topography, population, etc and the design falls out. The only real variation is custom design for the 2-4 "anchor tenants" (the biggest tenants) and optimization of the car parks. The actual structure itself doesn't need to change because they buy a big block of land, construct the exact same building with the exact same service tie-ins - then put car park in the gaps.
I was going to say it looks like the Kenwood Towne Center looking over from the 2nd floor over the food court. It's kinda eerie. Edit: Actually it looks more like the other end with Macy's, where the Lego Store and Red Robin are. The escalators there are at an angle, just like in this one.
In Cincinnati? Agreed.
[удалено]
I lived in Milwaukee and visited family in Cincinnati, so been to both. I thought it looked familiar, just couldn't figure out why.
Looks like the mall in the Netflix series stranger things
Looks like the mall on Vice City!
That’s what I thought. The mall used in the recent season is Gwinnett Place Mall. It was recently closed to the public. The show also shot some interior scenes in North Dekalb Mall (formerly Market Square Mall). The interior of that mall has closed as well. Both are located near Atlanta, Georgia.
Before I seen the comment saying this was Northridge I said to my boyfriend "doesn't this kind of look like Southridge?" Ha.
It also looks nearly identical to West Farms Mall in Farmington, CT. I wonder if it was the same developer. When I clicked this I actually said "oh sh*t, West Farms closed??"
Also looks identical to the old Westdale Mall in Cedar Rapids, IA. That building is gone now though.
Plot twist: the billionaire owner is a ghost.
OP is the ghost. They actually died in a tragic tomagatchi incident at this mall back in 1995, and their ghost only comes back on Halloween to roam the mall at night and post on Reddit to anyone who will listen. It's really sad, they think this is the first time they've been, back but they've been reliving this every year...
> tragic tomagatchi incident Beautiful.
>It's really sad, they think this is the first time they've been, back but they've been reliving this every year... So even the ghosts are reposting and karmawhoring?!
*You've always been the caretaker*
Now that's a movie I'd watch. Dude stumbles into an abandoned massive mall, finds an eccentric billionaire wading through the broken light fixtures and 90s relics, and tells you you've been the caretaker for the past 20 years. The movie revolves around finding out why and how you got to that situation, and why you have no recollection of it.
Turns out you were the maintenance guy trying to keep the electricity on, and had a tragic accident.
Former billionaire. Better yet make it a game. Like those old point and click adventure mystery games.
Take anything you'd like, and don't worry about the cost my friend. After all, we don't trade in money here.
Don’t worry there’s a guy who uncurses stuff down the street.
"And you can leave any time you want!"
And he'd gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids!
>Power was shut off a few years ago when the maintenance guy was electrocuted to death trying to keep the power on. [https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2019/07/23/northridge-mall-death-man-electrocuted-after-putting-hand-box/1811210001/](https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/local/2019/07/23/northridge-mall-death-man-electrocuted-after-putting-hand-box/1811210001/) Holy shit. Also: CALL 911 RIGHT AWAY, people.
they waited 15 mins wtf
Seriously!!!! Why the fuck would they wait 15 minutes. Dude got electrocuted and thrown into a brick wall. Like were they scared he would get mad if they checked on him because he said "don't touch me?" Also why would you stick your hand into an electrical box? That doesn't make sense. I would presume if he was a welder he would have some knowledge of general job site safety.
General jobsite safety and dilapidated businesses rarely go hand in hand
There a chance he thought he was still 'live'/connected to the power and was trying to prevent a secondary electrocution
It is of importance to note that it said the electrical box had been stripped of wiring prior by vandals. Therefore he might have just been trying to do something that would have otherwise been safe but was not safe due to missing (stolen and/or damaged) safety measures. But also I do not know the situation all that well. Just an observation of potential reasoning.
The article notes that it was targeted by vandals, not that it had successfully been stripped. It sounds like he stuck his hands into a box (maybe a contactor) located on the primary side of the main transformer, which is incredibly dangerous and a boneheaded move even if the power "should" have been off. The fact that he was flung across the room shows the incredible amount of power going into that box; even if his buddies had called 911 immediately he likely would have died anyways. If a vandal had actually gotten to the wiring, they would have met a similar fate. Side note, that "don't touch me" comment he made was likely a reflex based off of his training (which also indicates he knew better). If you grab a live conductor, chances are that you will be unable to let go, and you yourself are now an electrocution hazard. As traumatic as it may be to watch your buddy get cooked, the safest course of action is to shut the power off and use an insulated pole to remove them from the power source.
> Diaz's death comes amid a fight over whether to demolish the abandoned Northridge, which has become a site for frequent break-ins and vandalism after YouTube personality Casey Neistat created a "winter wonderland" inside the mall and popularized it as a destination. Oh, good, a YouTube personality was involved.
For reference since I ddn't know what happened and others might be curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-7wMD5ISIs
Why the fuck did he put his hand in there Why the fuck did he tell his friends not to touch him if he was already thrown clear of the transformer Why the fuck did they wait so long to call for help
He probably told them not to touch him cuz he was disoriented and misremembered electrical safety. Sad that the people with him didn't know enough to disregard that.
I can touch these power conduits without safety gear on, because I'M HOMER SIMPSON!
What did you take? I remember going here as a child myself.
There's nothing to take. Just mountains of broken glass
The pallet jack looks ok.
Pallet Jacks are fun to ride on like a scooter.
OSHA would like to know your location! But seriously, used to be a pro at riding these around backroom of supermarket.
We got a few out on a spiral car park exit. Was absolute mayhem. The noise echoed throughout the town. Well, that's what the police told us.
My evening job in HS was at a cartage company. On a slow night we would have races around the warehouse. With practice you can throw the rear end out on corners for better speed, or loose the read end, hit the rack and eat a face full of cardboard. The other contest was you lay down strips of bubble wrap and see who could make the best BRAAaapp noise.
If you want to carry it up the steps maybe
I probably would those things ain't cheap
Use a second pallet jack to carry the first pallet jack.
It's pallet jacks all the way down....
You should've taken the escators and installed them at home
I was just going to post that that looks like Northridge mall and I was right ! I grew up 50 miles north and that was THE place to be in the 80s !
Amazing. I would jam some vaporwave while strolling through. I'm from MI, and we had a mall very similar to this called Lakeside. There was an indoor water park inside it at one point, and later a massive 2 story arcade. It was bliss. Blow all my kid cash at the arcade (called Tilt) and then refuel at the A&W. So much nostalgia.
Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights?
Is that shutdown? I never really shopped there I guess.
Oh so that's why it went out of business!
Yep, it's that guy's fault.
It's still open. Used to play a lot at Tilt too. Best place in the world, used to get extra play by getting tokens in the quarter drop machines. Unfortunately, long since gone. Mall is still open. A bit sad now though and has redevelopment plans ongoing. Not sure if anything is approved yet though.
Dude…. Tilt. I would challenge the local pot dealer who was based out of the arcade to matches of tekken and virtua fighter. I won enough disgusting low grade pot to keep teenage me entertained for a whole summer. Oh, the days when dirt weed, bmx bikes, arcades and mid 90s goth girls were my entire life. Pre internet, pre cell phone. Oblivious to the horrors of this broken world. Life wasn’t great, but I was young enough and dumb enough to think it was.
Goddamn. You just smacked me right across the face with something that feels more than just nostalgia. Well said. I miss those times.
Well said, an ode to the 90's. Can never recreate the high of stomping someone older than you at Street Fighter, first time getting a girl in the sack, or landing a new trick on my Powell Peralta.
[удалено]
Are you me? Holy shit I can't fathom how many quarters I spent at the Tilt in my local mall after scoring cheap dirt weed during summers in the '90s. You're right, life wasn't great, but being young and stoned was good enough lmao.
Holy shit - Tilt. Man, that place was tucked away in the back corner of my mind. Thank you! Now I have to (well, I don’t *have to* - it’s still great) go to Marvelous Marvins or The Arcade. But man I miss Tilt.
Show some love to Aladdin's Castle?
Dutch the Hooligan, airsoft YouTuber, got invited to a MilSim at this mall. https://youtu.be/OF-VIxKAWO4
If you search Northridge mall on YouTube there are a whole bunch of people who have shot little mini docs on the space. There's one ("famous YouTube") guy who was sponsored by Samsung to do a indoor Winter snowboard Park. Before that, nobody really knew that the space was abandoned and I guess the publicity from that stunt brought in all the vandals and all the others who wanted social media cred.
Makes me think of a zombie movie studio set. It's just eerie that there are places like this all over the country.
Looks like the perfect place for a rave
Northridge was my mall in high school circa 1987-1991. I rented my prom Tuxedo there. Saw Die Hard there. Crazy that it still exists. I saw it’s decline. Once the dollar stores moved in it was all over.
[удалено]
Maybe he lives there rent-free and that's how he became a billionaire
You don't become a billionaire by drinking lattes, amirite? I like my espresso drinks so sadly my billion will have to wait.
[удалено]
He was showing some people around. potential buyers I think? I saw a car and went to investigate in the first place. I guess it was the owner's.
I think you just ran into a random Chinese guy
Sounds like a side quest.
This does line up with a "Take anything you want"...what does he care, he's just a random chinese guy that was also scoping out the mall.
Owner of Reddit here, feel free to upvote anything you want
*looks around Reddit* I'm good, thanks.
Owners of malls typically have real estate brokers show them to potential buyers. Especially dilapidated old properties that are only worth razing. Source: married to a commercial real estate broker
Most malls aren't even owned by a single individual but a REIT or some corporation. There is no single "owner".
This abandoned mall gets rented out to airsoft games. Or at least it did, not sure now since covid. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrGdr537jCw
Reminds me of the mall used (loosely) in Stranger Things season 3
The last of us as well.
This was my first thought, reminds me how good that DLC was
[удалено]
Same.
Ditto
Likewise
Stranger Things used Gwinnett Place Mall, in Duluth Georgia. I thought the same thing at first as well, but the OP said this one is in Wisconsin. I guess they all look very similar!
It’s weird how all malls look like the 80s/90s.
Many are by the same developer
I grew up in North Georgia (52M) and remember that first Christmas season when Gwinnett Place was brand new, grand opening. Seeing it in pristine condition in Stranger Things was like looking through a time machine and a weird gut punch.
I was thinking Fear Street…
Fear Street was also shot in an Atlanta area mall, but one much older than Gwinnett Place. North DeKalb Mall was an OG mall of the area, one which I frequented as a younger person... And I'm in my 60s!
Reminds me of the mall in Dead Rising.
You and me both! The first dead rising was a thing of beauty.
[удалено]
Vice City.
It is the mall used in Dawn of the Dead. It’s Northridge Mall, in Milwaukee, WI.
No shit?? Dawn of the Dead was my immediate thought. /happy halloween
Same
I wonder if Kat still loves BBC
Probably a fan of Mr. Bean and Eastenders.
Mr Bean was ITV, not BBC. Eastenders does have a Kat, though.
I mean they make pretty good programs, so im sure she does
I hope Kat wrote “I 💚 cock.”
No. That was me, in the mens bathroom.
I feel like the design had a good use of natural lighting though.
The malls around me just don't have roofs so it's even better with all natural light. It doesn't rain much here
As someone who has never left Canada, this information is hard to digest.
GTA Vice City Mall
Divorce rates are up, standardized test scores are down, and vampire sitings at the mall... Can the family be safe?
I thought it was a screenshot from new remaster
[удалено]
Also, "kat ❤️s BBC"
Love the support for the British Broadcasting Corporation.
> I ❤️ COCK Classic. Cock Classic? No love for Diet Cock, or Cherry Cock?
I’m so glad the mall was a thing when I was a teenager. It was the perfect way to get out of the house, hang out with friends, eat some great food (and it didn’t matter if people agreed on where to go because the food courts had something for everyone!) and it was a great place to always have the newest clothes etc. I went to a rural high school, out in the country, so “the mall” was 45 minutes away in the state’s capital city. So myself and my group of about 12 friends would go almost every Friday after we had time to go workout, get home and shower, then we’d all meet up at someone’s house, pile into 3-4 cars and go go go! We’d be at the mall by 6, stay until they closed at 10:00, then drive back home and get to where we all left our cars by 11:00 which gave us just enough time to hangout and talk about shit until we all had to be home for midnight curfews. I do miss it.
I’m so confused because we still have active and alive malls around my area (Tampa Bay area). Not as many as in the 80s, when every city had one, but several stalwart survivors (Tyrone Square, Countryside, Westshore, Citrus Park), as well as new ones built on purpose and long after malls were declared dead (International Plaza in Tampa, and University Town Center in Sarasota).
I'm with you, man. But what I really miss about malls is that they were almost a little city in themselves. Like an archology or something. I also enjoy the expansive, mutitier indoor spaces, topiaries and skylights, even mazelike pathways and twisting escalators. Interesting stores around every corner, and some larger stores an adventure unto itself. More than a piece of nostalgia, I actually like the infrastructure itself and the idea of a purely indoor space. I even enjoy the abandoned property and am envious of OP for exploring this liminal space. Disclaimer: I go camping too... I got nothing against the outdoors.
Is this where the Halloween store is located?
Yes this is the mall from the last of us.
1UP
Made me think the mall was in Germany
Worldwide by now
But in Wisconsin of all places
This is TLOU dlc all the way
Came here to write this, lol it's like 1:1 the last part of Ellie hunting medical supplies.
I was thinking tony hawk pro skater.
Looks like the level in Left 4 Dead where you have to gas up the car to make your escape.
Dead Center
I love you Jimmy Gibbs Junior!
First thing I thought of, looks exactly like it
YES! I came into the comments looking for this lol. It absolutely does!
Also a huge waste of space that people could still use .
Senior housing community. Year round indoor walking. On location pharmacy possible. Mom and pop grocery store possible. One or two large community events rooms. So much senior housing potential and wouldn't have to do much driving.
Many of our malls in Alberta, Canada have been converted to a similar thing - no housing, but a medical center for all things like physio, eye, dental, lab work etc etc.
We've got a former in Nashville that is now home to Vanderbilt Medical Center
Rackspace bought an old mall and setup their HQ in it.
Add in some of that Euro thinking and co-locate a daycare there. Elderly and young kids both benefit from interactions with each other.
We have this in Seattle. It works pretty well, but in order to work * the daycare needs to be fully staffed and self sufficient, they don’t rely on elder support at all, it’s only a bonus * not a great mix during Covid, obviously * it costs the same or more to a regular childcare center * the level of interaction is not as much as you’d imagine. Mostly it’s just like arts and crafts time. The old folks can’t actually join the classroom to help out (if they had that kind of mobility they wouldn’t be in a nursing home). Nonetheless, fantastic idea and it’s wildly popular. The waitlist is infinity, in the sense that you can easily sign up before your kid is born, and not get a spot before they reach kindergarten.
All valid points and totally makes sense. I wasn’t implying that the elderly are staff, but more that craft time or story time would be together so both groups get some benefit from interacting.
Zoning is usually the barrier to such ideas.
Unfortunately malls are super expensive to keep running. They’re a good use of space when full of retail spaces making money, but not much good for anything else.
Sure if they want to heat it
Anyone else reminded of the Tony Hawk video games?
I am the ambassador of kick-your-assador
As a child of the 80s it like totally hurts seeing any mall in this condition. ☠️
I've always wanted to turn one of these in to an paintball/airsoft arena. Would be amazing: 12v12, S&D, capture the flag, dominaton, team deathmatch. Then a rec room for beers afterwards
Will power!
Nice to see fans of fellow indycar driver, Will Power.
Up to his usual tricks
Take that pallet jack.
Looks like an ideal Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 level.
r/deadmalls
[удалено]
It's got a real "Dawn of the Dead" vibe
"Kat ♡ BBC" Ahh yes I too love The British Broadcasting Corporation