Ellen Dunham-Jones: This Year’s
Holiday Shopping Must-Have is Space
November 23, 2020 | Atlanta, GA
By Carmen New
It is that time of year when people visit malls and shopping centers to shop and soak up the holiday season. This year, in true 2020 fashion, even the traditional holiday shopping experience will be disrupted. But not necessarily for obvious reasons.
“Mall shopping, in particular, has really always been more of a leisure activity than a necessity, errand-type activity,” said Ellen Dunham-Jones, professor and director of the Master of Science in Urban Design (MSUD) program in the Georgia Tech School of Architecture.
“With the increase in the number of hours that Americans now spend indoors, especially looking at a screen, a lot of us are craving to spend what leisure time we have outdoors,” she said.
“That's what was driving the conversion of indoor malls into outdoor and mixed-use centers, pre-pandemic.”
Co-author of Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Solutions for Redesigning Suburbs and the forthcoming Case Studies in Retrofitting Suburbia: Urban Design Strategies for Urgent Challenges, Dunham-Jones is renowned for her research related to the death of malls and the retrofitting of abandoned shopping and business spaces.
Enclosed spaces, from large malls to small standalone shops, face new challenges as consumers opt to shop online instead of in-person, as a matter of safety. The changes we will see in this year’s holiday shopping season were set in motion years ago, she said.
"Reality is, malls might have initially been built as open air, and then it became fashionable to have the roof and then became fashionable to take the roof off," said Dunham-Jones. "They're constantly evolving."
Dunham-Jones studied many malls around the country and observed how they thrive once retrofitted. She found that there are approximately 1500 buildings or developments in the U.S. that were at one point in time enclosed malls.
Many of those spaces have taken on new purposes to better serve their communities. Enclosed malls live new lives as medical facilities, green spaces, housing for seniors, and more.
Design Matters as Suburban Communities Change
“The big news story, really, is there's been a very significant increase in sales of standalone single-family homes,” Dunham-Jones said, “most of it driven by people who are leaving cities.”
“A lot of those people are the ‘mom and pop’ millennials—folks who really loved an urban lifestyle, but are now trying to work from home while having kids in school from home. Suddenly that little apartment is just not doing it. They need more space.”
Dunham-Jones’ research, along with co-author June Williamson, Chair and associate professor at the City College of New York School of Architecture, is focused on retrofitting suburbia. They explore how suburbs shape to fit the needs of their changing communities.
As urbanites move to the suburbs in pursuit of space, many crave the aspects of the cities they left behind. This presents an opportunity for urban designers, architects, and developers to enhance the design of our suburbs.
“I think what it also means is that once all else is equal, design matters even more,” Dunham-Jones said. “As long as that urban lifestyle is seen as unhealthy, they're making the choice. The suburbs are now receiving a lot of new people, but it's people who actually want a more urban lifestyle,” she said.
“They want a walkable, more transit, more shared park space, more trails, more nightlife than the suburbs generally offer.”
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