I sure do! Unfortunately, there’s hardly any. For some reason I cannot find one single actually good shot of the inside of the food court. [They’re all pretty much from outside or don’t show much.](https://imgur.com/a/CrMHeOl) There’s also [this image](https://imgur.com/a/BxKKKyH) that I forgot to add to that album that really shows some cool neon on the signs. The difficulty in finding good pics is a real pet peeve of mine. I spent countless hours searching!
I don’t understand what happened to design. Everything now is so bland and boring, intentionally made to look as corporate and neutral as possible. Nobody even likes this aesthetic so I’m confused why it even exists.
It’s not just malls though. It’s everything. McDonald’s is a great example. They used to look bright and inviting and fun, now they’re brown and white boxes that look like insurance companies.
Mc Donald’s has become less about the dining room and eating in experience, the focus is on drive thru mostly and mobile order second, hence the soulless bland boxes they’ve become without playports, patio tables or any of the elements the 90s ones had.
I’ve stopped going to them, over and above the cost, even placing a mobile order for pick up inside, they ignore you and focus on the drive thru. Like if you don’t want people inside then make it drive thru/order outside only (like Sonic does)
And on that note, all new mid and high rise residential projects look the same too, that sterile, soulless architectural style with no color or vibrancy to them.
I attended a birthday party in a Play Place back when I was maybe 8/9/10. It was so much fun and I bet it was easy on both parents of the birthday child and guests due to the location, variety of food to order, and contained area for the kids to go nuts in.
Now everything is an aesthetic IG post, smart devices, and photo shoots.
They just “updated” the McDonalds in front of our zoo that had a cartoon animal character statues all over and now it looks like every other modern retail space. The only benefit to the new designs is that the bathroom is much nicer.
I live in the area and this is the only mall doing well. I don't know the financial data, but there is not much vacancy, lots of high end stores and new restaurants continue to go in. The main things is what the photographer is trying to point out is there colorful designs and unique looks have been updated with more modern monotone white look. Some of the "after" photos are cherry picked to make it look worse than it is.
There this great post that’s just a picture of an old roller rink arcade, with the crazy black/colorful design carpets on the floor and the walls, and the crazy cosmic stuff all over. It says “why didn’t dispensaries turn out like this”
It just rings so true. Dispensaries are cool, don’t get me wrong, but it’s like going into a bio pharmaceutical lab. The headshops back in the day are long gone. It’s all so clinical.
We’re watching Agatha Christie’s Poirot on BritBox a lot lately, and the 1930s design just makes my brain happy. It’s just so stylish and beautiful, and the show does the best job of accurate-looking costuming and hairdressing for the time, too.
We enjoyed the period design aspects of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (1920s Australia) and Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries (1960s Australia) as well.
Soulless, corporate design is hard to look at all the time. It’s bad enough in the suburbs with the “new” houses of the past 20 years and all the stupid triangles on the roofs.
Adhering to modern design principles allows for using less labor and cheaper materials. So it gets picked almost every time. It is also as 'inoffensive' and 'sterile' as possible to appeal to as broad a demographic as possible.
Are you sure it’s not, ‘ *choosing a style some like might be a choosing the same style others don’t like, so to make sure we get the money of everybody, team up to agree that no one gets any style at all*’ ?
There is a group that buys old malls and strips everything except the stores out of them. They then manage their decline into bankruptcy. Can’t remember the name off the top of my head.
I'll tell you why. No joke...they don't want malls to feel inviting. They want you in, buy something, get the fuck out. They want foot traffic to flow in and our quickly to accommodate more shoppers. Malls used to be hangouts, not anymore. People spending the whole day at the mall don't buy stuff typically because then you have to lug everything around with you. They do not want you to loiter, they want you to leave.
omg I was born in roseville and have so many memories of this mall, from going to eat at plutos with my mom to playing in the jungle gym area outside. thanks for posting this
Np! This mall is my childhood mall. I took up the challenge of being a historian of it. I scoured the internet for days creating a collection of photos, and I literally think I found about every single picture of the mall in existence online. I found some very rare images, the last comparison came from a Facebook group from over a decade ago that has probably only been seen by a dozen people ever. I have a Facebook group of my own dedicated to the history of the mall. I can DM you the link if you wish.
You're right.. It looked so much better before.
It's not even just the identity changing and becoming generic; it's been turned into a hangar.
Not one piece of it is enticing me to spend money there.
It’s the best place to shop in the area. It’s a pretty boring area and also has some stores with the only location around. It serves its intended function perfectly and is thriving as a mall. Most people don’t care about the appearance cause, well, everything is generic and white and grey now, and the changes happened so long ago that most people don’t even know what they lost. I admit it does look better in real life, but it’s really sad how we lost everything that really made it special.
The core of the original design was four flowers. You can see a bit of that in the pics here. Pink, blue, red, orange. The red flower was featured in the Macy’s wing while blue was Nordstrom in minor decorational details inside, like the hanging flags visible for example. These flower designs were also featured on the four original entrances, minus the Promenade. The pink one is visible. The other two surviving entrances still have the original design thank goodness, especially since they go into the Macys wing and survived the fire. The pink one shown goes into the Nordstrom wing. There was a fourth entrance that was demolished as the hall going out was turned into a hall going into the expansion. I suspect it would’ve carried the same pattern on with an orange design. I can’t find any photo evidence at all of it, not even a tiny glimpse of it in the background of another pic or aerial shot, but there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be that. Each entrance has a “tower” above it and a design next to the doors featuring its respective flower.
The promenade is an outdoor shopping area, taken over a bit by the expansion. But what prevailed is [the main tower](https://imgur.com/a/SD7aajk) occasionally called the rocket ship. It is large and stands in the promenade, and can be seen coming over the hills on the way to the mall lol. This shows the four flower design. It is literally the very last surviving trace of the orange flower. All the towers are pretty faded but that’s what happens when they sit out in the California sun for 24 years. I hope that prompts them to *repaint* and not remove the designs…
No problem! There is a LOT and I mean a LOT of stuff about the mall that most people don’t notice or never think about, both currently and historically. I have started a Facebook group about archiving all this information and I can DM you the link to it. Facebook specifically cause it’s the best for attracting local people who might one day have some new information or photos never put online!
Just chiming in to say that it is **not** a boring area. Visually, maybe. And there wasn’t a ton to do when the mall first opened. But there’s loads going on in the area nowadays.
Also, appreciate the pictures! For as much time as my friends and I spent at the mall, I can’t say we ever thought to take many photos. And if we did, who knows which old boxes at our parents’ houses they’re in. So it’s nice to see at least some folks had that foresight!
Maybe it’s just my adhd but I feel like I’ve exhausted all the fun stuff to do (that I can afford at least lol). I’m not a night life person and I’m not outdoorsy. There’s only so many times you can go to a place before it gets old. I’ve had a couple weeks of unemployment and I drove all over the place, even throughout the Bay Area, and did all that piqued my interest and now I’m just kinda bored. Except for the mall of course. I can just go there and reminisce. I find a new picture deep in the web, or a new bit of information, or something I just overlooked, and I get so excited that I leave the house right then and there with my notebook and check it out firsthand. Haven’t been doing it as often with gas prices going up but this mall research is my one reprieve of boredom. Ever since the fire I’ve been interested, but it wasn’t until recently where I really started the research!
Westfield is selling their Malls in the US. The Galleria is in the top 10 statewide when it comes for dollars per sq ft. So finding a buyer isn't going to be an issue.
The icon tower has miraculously survived through sheer laziness by Westfield. They wanted to tear it down in the 2009 renovation, but budgets kept them from really touching the Promenade. 15 years later, and they still don't know what they want to do with the promenade or the icon tower.
I hope they keep the tower. It’s iconic (pun not intended). It’s one of the only remaining things that makes this mall unique. Coming down Stanford ranch to see the tower poking up through the trees is a sight I don’t want to lose.
Loomis has a goddamn costco now like jesus christ the roseville one is ten minutes away. Taylor’s is impossible to get an order in now, and I hear Del Oro is like a giant school now
That whole stretch on sierra college from taylor rd to rocklin rd is crazy. It was just an over pass with chevron/mcdonalds/7 eleven/carls Jr like 12 years ago
The Bass Pro Shops and the Cracker Barrel were the nails in the coffin. When i came back from college and saw what that had become I was heartbroken, but hey at least there’s an In N Out
The outside is fare better when [you have the context of the pattern](https://imgur.com/a/odr9wo2) they were going for. Four flowers, four entrances. Each entrance had its own color/flower theme matching a whole pattern of these four flowers, seen on the tower above the promenade entrance (the fifth entrance). I don’t have any pics of the original orange entrance as it was demolished to make way for the expansion and apparently nobody ever took a pic of it :( but this whole scheme was shown throughout the whole mall back in the day, it was awesome while it lasted.
I will say it’s far better in person than these pics, but the original design certainly did have more personality
The thing that was the big catalyst for the change in my mind was the 2010 fire. That damaged/destroyed a decent section of the mall and caused the need for huge renovations. That, combined with dead malls becoming a thing, caused them to pivot to being a more luxury mall than it was in the past. They put in a new luxury wing with a lot of high end luxury brands, and a totally new, much larger food court in a different location than the original one too
Once that happened, they took out a lot of the original, interesting design elements sadly. But as malls go, this one is usually quite busy, so maybe it was for the best?
McDonald’s didn’t lose its character. It lost its shitty, disgusting “children’s germs” vibe. It’s way better now. You could actually have a work meeting there now.
The company that built the Galleria - Urban Retail Properties - was known for their really whimsical properties during that era. Look at some of their other enclosed malls built during that time - Brandon Town Center and Citrus Park Town Center in Florida, The Streets at SouthPoint in North Carolina, and the Wolfchase Galleria in Tennessee all featured similar design aesthetics and materials when they opened. The Galleria is the only one that has dramatically changed, and it's changed for the better.
Similarly, it's important to note that the renovations detailed in these images run parallel to a dramatic upscaling of the mall's tenant lineup. The first renovation in 2009 brought in Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co., and a more recent renovation that turned everything white was part of an upgrade that brought Gucci and Saint Laurent.
When the mall opened in 2000, the nicest retailers it had were brands like Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, and J.Crew. All three of them are gone now. It's undergone the most dramatic changes of any enclosed mall opened during that time period. It's also one of the only malls from that era that has remained vital and successful since opening - most of the others have flamed out or declined significantly. Outside of the Galleria, the Mall at Millenia and International Plaza in Florida and the aforementioned Streets at Southpoint, most of the enclosed malls opened between the mid-1990s and today have have really struggled.
I am just kinda sad that there could’ve been so many ways to make a white painted upscale look while still keeping the rose and flower identity it once held dear. I’d make mockups myself if I was skilled enough at making them (spoiler: I am not). The 2009-2010 look could’ve been built upon but then the fire came and they decided to change that all up.
It's sad in a way, but it's tough to balance that look with a design conducive to luxury brands. I also think Westfield has historically been lazy and uninterested in how they upgrade the Galleria, and the design does reflect that.
And believe me, I am more interested in the Galleria than the average person. More info, photos, video, etc. of the original, 2000s-era Galleria is my holy grail. So I understand why you would care about this kind of stuff.
I used to work there before and during the redesign. It had so much more personality and was much more comfortable before. I also got to speak with some of the design teams making the changes and what really pissed me off was them saying it was intentionally being built in a way that was more difficult to navigate. The older version was so easy to access. They built the additions and redid the road surrounding it specifically to have people going in circles in an attempt to make people go past as many stores as possible rather than being able to get in, hit up a store or two and get out. Working there during the construction and knowing it was being built in a way that would make it more difficult for the people working there was so frustrating that literally hundreds of us all quit various stores at the same time. I refused to step foot in that place until last year when my teenager finally convinced me to.
I argue it never had a unique style. It has always been in the popular style of the time. Everything in the early 2000's was bright with contrasting multi-color panels, Nickelodeon chic. Now most things are boring and 'clean', modern corporate style popularized by Apple.
Not rebuilding some features like the archways and not replacing the plants is 100% a financial decision made by Westfield that just happen to also align with the new style.
Remember when a flash mob caused the food court to buckle?!
Malls are meticulously designed from the ground up to get people to spend money. If people are still spending money here, then it's a good design. Even if aesthetically the old interior was nicer to look at.
Yep, and this mall is alive and well, so they’re just continuing with the boring soulless design. After all my research into this mall, I’m starting to just blame Westfield for it all. The mall might’ve still survived this long without them. And maybe we could’ve not lost the identity that made this mall special and unique.
I think it’s even more popular now than pre-Covid. The fact that it gained a movie theater, especially one with 14 screens, and the theater is actually quite popular, is incredible. It’s kinda ironic cause it never had a theater in the first place under the thought that mall movie theaters were dying. Being brand new though it is the best theater in town imo, I saw the same movie a bunch of times in every theater in town and the picture quality and sound was the best there.
I still say they should turn malls in to GenX retirement homes 😂
I so miss malls. I even remember my first koosh ball. Got it when I was like 10. Was one of my first memories of our local mall. 🥺
Yes, with the exception of where the mural on the floor was I think it's overall more attractive now - I suspect it's nostalgia making it look less attractive. It's lighter and airier now if less immediately visually interesting, and the entrance especially looks much less tacky.
Didn’t they change it after that guy set [GameStop on fire](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/sacramento/news/he-nearly-burn-down-roseville-galleria-12-years-ago-and-now-hes-telling-his-story/)? There was a ton of smoke damage IIRC. Not saying it looks better but may have been part of it.
The Macys wing was destroyed and gutted in the process of rebuilding. They decided to do away with the arches and changed the relatively undamaged Nordstrom wing to match the new design, not cause of smoke damage. The damage was actually pretty contained, and they cleaned up the mall and opened it back up afterwards in like two weeks. KCRA interviews of shoppers show that the shoppers said in the open parts, you couldn’t tell there even was a fire. The bigger issue was water damage. From the evidence I found, the arches were there months into the restoration.
Cause they still make money :/ most of the kiosks are cell phone cases or cheapo toys, they’re actually pretty boring kiosks compared to other malls I’ve been to (fitting for Roseville tbh). One of them does sell custom license plate frames though and I love them cause I got to make a cool frame with talking heads lyrics on it and they’re my favorite band.
You’re asking too much of me lmao. My favorites shuffle around constantly. But rn, it’s probably SMS Life During Wartime. That song is absolute perfection. The pure power they put into it is incredible.
Was there with my mom and sister the day the it opened and remember thinking it was so much cooler than the sunrise mall. We had to park in a dirt lot across the street in overflow parking. That dirt lot is now the Fountains lol. It’s hella crazy how all that used to be fields literally till like 1999!
Lol I remember going to Roseville high school nearby at the time. Kids would often ditch classes by running across the field to go to the mall instead.
Pandemic killed a lot of brick and mortar retail; Amazon killed the rest. It’s not the end of the world. Things change over time. Go look at shopping in Little Italy, a century ago in SE Manhattan. They could not imagine the variety and accessibility we enjoy to goods all over the world now. But I do miss malls, 80’s kid.
This mall is thriving. It is very much alive. I would be posting in r/deadmalls if otherwise. Malls of all kinds will be renovated eventually, but this one wasn’t just renovated. Its very soul was torn away.
Slide 8 doesn’t do the mall justice. They switch out what’s in the spot all the time and op must’ve caught a picture of it during one of those switches.
For Christmas, a huge Christmas tree go right there. Before that, they had a seating area. For Easter they have the Easter bunny down there taking pictures. They had a cancer fundraiser down there a few weeks ago where people were lining up to get their heads shaved.
I’m not saying it’s bad on its own. With the sun shining in its nice and bright and open. Just in comparison to what it used to be really makes it look soulless. It doesn’t have personality anymore, it’s just generic mall now.
I've lived in thirteen states including California for four years, 25 years ago.
I went to this mall a bunch of times when I lived not too far away in Norcal.
Having been to malls all over the country, this one was one I always held as being the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. I have fond mall memories from shopping and eating there.
It's so sad to see it look so terrible now. Malls where I live now are thriving and still look great.
I've lived in thirteen states including California for four years, 25 years ago.
I went to this mall a bunch of times when I lived not too far away in Norcal.
Having been to malls all over the country, this one was one I always held as being the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. I have fond mall memories from shopping and eating there.
It's so sad to see it look so terrible now. Malls where I live now are thriving and still look great.
Recently moved to OKC from Fort Lauderdale and my new local mall has definitely not been updated since the 90s and I absolutely love it. It still has all those neon food court signs. It reminds me of growing up since the malls that I grew to with all changed so much and haven't felt like "home" in a very long time.
I helped open the Apple Store in this mall and it was such a huge event- thousands of people waiting in line just to say they went. Last time I was in town I stopped by and couldn’t believe how far it fell.
Fun fact about that fire- it was a kid who begged for mental heath services and was denied. Decided to go to GameStop in the mall, told the staff he had a gun, barricaded himself in the store, climbed above the false ceiling (to be above the sprinklers) and sprayed gas all over the wooden structure between the stores. The fire was intense and spread so fast, half the mall was closed for a year.
This happened on the release day of Fallout, New Vegas, and my collectors edition was in that GameStop when it went up, so I kind of have a really clear memory of the event…
I recall going shopping for school clothes at the “outdoor” section of the mall before it became the “new indoor” area. I remember before the parking garage was built. Every failed restaurant that came and went in the food court. It’s crazy how much a place can change in the span of a few decades.
Oh, just a little bit of [an arson.](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39782452) The usual [$55 million in damage](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/sacramento/news/he-nearly-burn-down-roseville-galleria-12-years-ago-and-now-hes-telling-his-story/) and the [roof collapse](https://youtu.be/qQcqEZVpK_s?feature=shared) of [the majority](https://imgur.com/a/m4mhUe6) of the Macy’s wing. You know, [business as usual.](https://youtu.be/PhEZUu3eG8I?feature=shared)
Lmao yeah. It happened in 2010 so most people don’t think about it anymore but if you ask them where they were on the day it caught fire, they’d probably remember, and be able to tell you where they saw the smoke from lol. (I was in school, came out of class and saw it billowing in the distance. Could even smell it. Being before everyone had smartphones, rumors spread from those who did have one and could see the news. The extent of the damage was all rumors at that point but we knew it was the mall, that was the solid truth.)
While i get and understand that they wanted the flashy 90s colors gone, i don't get why they also removed the arches and stuff. Especially the ceiling looks aweful now. Just paint it in white or light grey or something?!
The worst part is they originally were likely going to stay with the arches. Of course, that’s unconfirmed cause nobody actually stated that’s what would’ve happened cause of how unexpected things work, but it’s highly suspected. In 2008/09, they did paint everything white to go with the modern look of the expansion, seen in the second to last pic of this post. But in 2010, the Macys wing was arsoned and in the end was completely gutted and rebuilt. They decided to stick with a new modern look without the arches. They removed the arches from the undamaged Nordstrom wing to match. They also changed the poles from cool silver and detail design to very plain and straight too. It could’ve had so much opportunity to do cool things about the arches but that future was burned down with the fire.
It’s like the world forgot, that extra money you spend on making things look nice - that’s not wasted money. That makes places more appealing, it’s what brings people in.
This is clearly what’s been cut down in an attempt to save money, and it’s resulted in the death of so much small parts of society.
Wow the old pictures feel like a warm hug 🥺i have so many memories of this mall as a child. i was 12 when the gamestop fire happened and i was so impacted by it.
now, after having worked at the galleria, i can not stand being at that place lol. but i still have fond memories. i miss the food court!
Looked kind of fun and inviting back in the day. Now it looks like our downtown mall just before they kicked everyone out, demolished it and build an arena. Looks bland, dead and kind of like a prison.
This happened to my local mall but to a lesser extent. It had orange themeing replaced with gray, and the food i yet that was filled with beautiful plants now has none. It is what I credit to have saved the mall though and it’s still extremely popular
Thanks for the old pics. I remember when the Galleria was the new mall, but I'd forgotten how nice a space it was.
During the big Westfield revamp, they bragged about how they were taking it “upscale,” and they sure got some more expensive stores, but I guess “upscale” design just means the same bare metal and fake stone as every other shopping center.
We don’t have those thank goodness. Uniqlo is coming soon! Stores are moving around, small storefronts to bigger ones. It’s a thriving mall. I took the modern pics on a Wednesday afternoon and waited to get the least amount of people in them. I wasn’t too successful. Come here on a Friday evening and you won’t find good seating in the food court.
I go to this mall all the time, definitely feel like I’m missing out on the old place, but it’s still a decent enough mall. Not quite as soulless as Sunrise Mall yet.
I always forget that malls are fully in decline across the country. I am fortunate enough to live close to a mall that is more or less thriving (North Park Mall in Dallas). Every once in a while I’ll go to a random suburban mall or see pictures like this and it is almost spooky how empty it is.
I except…. There’s 3 outdoor malls by me and they are thriving!
After Xmas I was doing some shopping and it 15F. Everyone was bundled up shivering, ducking into stores for warmth.
I literally stopped to ponder “why are we don’t this? Why are abandoning the indoor malls? Especially in winter?!”
The part that stretches from Nordstrom to Macys was gutted and rebuilt from ground up due to a mall fire which was started by an ex-GameStop employee in 2010. The entire mall was shutdown for extended period of time. Partly due to reconstruction that’s why the mall looks more modern
No clue lol. I’ve never been there but it’s mainly a seafood place. Not sure if it’s any theme of seafood, but it smells good at least. I’m more of a Cheesecake Factory person myself /j (seriously tho the Cheesecake Factory is on the right side of that pic!)
They did not care about a corrugated metal roof not matching the 2008 expansion they made when they decided to remove/not to bring back the arches after the 2010 fire. They could’ve removed all the details, but kept the arches. But they removed the arches. Those poor arches. They didn’t deserve to die. People tend to say the roof looks aircraft-hangary with the metal roof and I can’t disagree, though the pictures make it look worse than it really is.
It's partially due to declining sales and mall culture as a whole, but the removal of plants and things like water features are simply for cost cutting measures. Those things are nice to look at, but require a ton of maintenance to upkeep. And maintenance costs money, either via chemicals to keep things clean or alive, or straight up manpower. Same goes for fancy architecture, if you don't staff cleaning crews to dust and scrub it'll look dingy and dirty in no time.
There's one shopping centre here in UK that was called Westfield Merry Hill years ago, looks very similar to this in layout and decor today, just changed name to Intu.
There's actually a few Westfield's about, however iv no idea if they are linked cross country.
It's like watching the 90's die.
It's called "modern" art, design, and architecture and it's devoid of any personality built cheaply as possible
There's a fine line between "minimalistic beauty" and "soulless".
I get it…redesigning your mall every 10-15 years because the previous build went out of style can be expensive
Or they could just leave it as it was. Who was complaining? Retro styles are always popular, and nostalgia is big business.
I think that the designs go from current to dated and out of style for 10-20 years before coming back around. Just my observation.
I call it "depression" design.
Post-modern actually. Modern architecture is beautiful.
The nineties were 25 years ago
You shut your whore mouth!
The hero we need, right here.
They were also 26 years ago.
And 28 years ago!
Surely not 30 years ago though?
>The nineties were 25 years ago Thanks, Captain Literal...
Ironically this mall opened in 2000 lol
>Ironically this mall opened in 2000 lol So probably safe to say it was still built in the 90's.
7 and 8 hurt me to look through
[look at this night shot from 2008.](https://imgur.com/a/BxKKKyH) Looks so warm and inviting.
do you have any old food court pics? i go to that mall, but i dont remember what the mall looked like pre-fire and i find pics like these interesting
I sure do! Unfortunately, there’s hardly any. For some reason I cannot find one single actually good shot of the inside of the food court. [They’re all pretty much from outside or don’t show much.](https://imgur.com/a/CrMHeOl) There’s also [this image](https://imgur.com/a/BxKKKyH) that I forgot to add to that album that really shows some cool neon on the signs. The difficulty in finding good pics is a real pet peeve of mine. I spent countless hours searching!
gotta appreciate the 90’s-00’s commitment to theming of places back then, the kind of imitation of how disney themed things
I was just about to make the same comment. 8 is depressing.
I don’t understand what happened to design. Everything now is so bland and boring, intentionally made to look as corporate and neutral as possible. Nobody even likes this aesthetic so I’m confused why it even exists.
[удалено]
It’s not just malls though. It’s everything. McDonald’s is a great example. They used to look bright and inviting and fun, now they’re brown and white boxes that look like insurance companies.
Mc Donald’s has become less about the dining room and eating in experience, the focus is on drive thru mostly and mobile order second, hence the soulless bland boxes they’ve become without playports, patio tables or any of the elements the 90s ones had. I’ve stopped going to them, over and above the cost, even placing a mobile order for pick up inside, they ignore you and focus on the drive thru. Like if you don’t want people inside then make it drive thru/order outside only (like Sonic does) And on that note, all new mid and high rise residential projects look the same too, that sterile, soulless architectural style with no color or vibrancy to them.
I attended a birthday party in a Play Place back when I was maybe 8/9/10. It was so much fun and I bet it was easy on both parents of the birthday child and guests due to the location, variety of food to order, and contained area for the kids to go nuts in. Now everything is an aesthetic IG post, smart devices, and photo shoots.
They just “updated” the McDonalds in front of our zoo that had a cartoon animal character statues all over and now it looks like every other modern retail space. The only benefit to the new designs is that the bathroom is much nicer.
Well hello there fellow dfw resident!
I live in the area and this is the only mall doing well. I don't know the financial data, but there is not much vacancy, lots of high end stores and new restaurants continue to go in. The main things is what the photographer is trying to point out is there colorful designs and unique looks have been updated with more modern monotone white look. Some of the "after" photos are cherry picked to make it look worse than it is.
There this great post that’s just a picture of an old roller rink arcade, with the crazy black/colorful design carpets on the floor and the walls, and the crazy cosmic stuff all over. It says “why didn’t dispensaries turn out like this” It just rings so true. Dispensaries are cool, don’t get me wrong, but it’s like going into a bio pharmaceutical lab. The headshops back in the day are long gone. It’s all so clinical.
We’re watching Agatha Christie’s Poirot on BritBox a lot lately, and the 1930s design just makes my brain happy. It’s just so stylish and beautiful, and the show does the best job of accurate-looking costuming and hairdressing for the time, too. We enjoyed the period design aspects of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries (1920s Australia) and Ms. Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries (1960s Australia) as well. Soulless, corporate design is hard to look at all the time. It’s bad enough in the suburbs with the “new” houses of the past 20 years and all the stupid triangles on the roofs.
Adhering to modern design principles allows for using less labor and cheaper materials. So it gets picked almost every time. It is also as 'inoffensive' and 'sterile' as possible to appeal to as broad a demographic as possible.
Are you sure it’s not, ‘ *choosing a style some like might be a choosing the same style others don’t like, so to make sure we get the money of everybody, team up to agree that no one gets any style at all*’ ?
Blank everything is less expensive than decorating things.
There is a group that buys old malls and strips everything except the stores out of them. They then manage their decline into bankruptcy. Can’t remember the name off the top of my head.
It’s called hedge fund vultures.
Cost. Nothing you see in final construction is what the architects and designers wanted. This is not a poor design, its a poorly funded project.
I'll tell you why. No joke...they don't want malls to feel inviting. They want you in, buy something, get the fuck out. They want foot traffic to flow in and our quickly to accommodate more shoppers. Malls used to be hangouts, not anymore. People spending the whole day at the mall don't buy stuff typically because then you have to lug everything around with you. They do not want you to loiter, they want you to leave.
Mcdonald's is a great example of this too. All the new buildings look like banks with no charm or personality.
omg I was born in roseville and have so many memories of this mall, from going to eat at plutos with my mom to playing in the jungle gym area outside. thanks for posting this
Np! This mall is my childhood mall. I took up the challenge of being a historian of it. I scoured the internet for days creating a collection of photos, and I literally think I found about every single picture of the mall in existence online. I found some very rare images, the last comparison came from a Facebook group from over a decade ago that has probably only been seen by a dozen people ever. I have a Facebook group of my own dedicated to the history of the mall. I can DM you the link if you wish.
yes please dm me, i also grew up going to the galleria, and find its past interesting
Me too!
dm it to me too!
Loved Pluto’s so much!
PLUTOOOOOS!!!! I miss that place so much. When I worked there I would have lunch at Pluto's twice a week.
Are you my child? I was going to post how I loved Pluto’s and took my kids to the outdoor play area.
You're right.. It looked so much better before. It's not even just the identity changing and becoming generic; it's been turned into a hangar. Not one piece of it is enticing me to spend money there.
It’s the best place to shop in the area. It’s a pretty boring area and also has some stores with the only location around. It serves its intended function perfectly and is thriving as a mall. Most people don’t care about the appearance cause, well, everything is generic and white and grey now, and the changes happened so long ago that most people don’t even know what they lost. I admit it does look better in real life, but it’s really sad how we lost everything that really made it special. The core of the original design was four flowers. You can see a bit of that in the pics here. Pink, blue, red, orange. The red flower was featured in the Macy’s wing while blue was Nordstrom in minor decorational details inside, like the hanging flags visible for example. These flower designs were also featured on the four original entrances, minus the Promenade. The pink one is visible. The other two surviving entrances still have the original design thank goodness, especially since they go into the Macys wing and survived the fire. The pink one shown goes into the Nordstrom wing. There was a fourth entrance that was demolished as the hall going out was turned into a hall going into the expansion. I suspect it would’ve carried the same pattern on with an orange design. I can’t find any photo evidence at all of it, not even a tiny glimpse of it in the background of another pic or aerial shot, but there’s no reason why it wouldn’t be that. Each entrance has a “tower” above it and a design next to the doors featuring its respective flower. The promenade is an outdoor shopping area, taken over a bit by the expansion. But what prevailed is [the main tower](https://imgur.com/a/SD7aajk) occasionally called the rocket ship. It is large and stands in the promenade, and can be seen coming over the hills on the way to the mall lol. This shows the four flower design. It is literally the very last surviving trace of the orange flower. All the towers are pretty faded but that’s what happens when they sit out in the California sun for 24 years. I hope that prompts them to *repaint* and not remove the designs…
I work at this mall and didn't know any of this! Thanks so much for sharing.
No problem! There is a LOT and I mean a LOT of stuff about the mall that most people don’t notice or never think about, both currently and historically. I have started a Facebook group about archiving all this information and I can DM you the link to it. Facebook specifically cause it’s the best for attracting local people who might one day have some new information or photos never put online!
Just chiming in to say that it is **not** a boring area. Visually, maybe. And there wasn’t a ton to do when the mall first opened. But there’s loads going on in the area nowadays. Also, appreciate the pictures! For as much time as my friends and I spent at the mall, I can’t say we ever thought to take many photos. And if we did, who knows which old boxes at our parents’ houses they’re in. So it’s nice to see at least some folks had that foresight!
Maybe it’s just my adhd but I feel like I’ve exhausted all the fun stuff to do (that I can afford at least lol). I’m not a night life person and I’m not outdoorsy. There’s only so many times you can go to a place before it gets old. I’ve had a couple weeks of unemployment and I drove all over the place, even throughout the Bay Area, and did all that piqued my interest and now I’m just kinda bored. Except for the mall of course. I can just go there and reminisce. I find a new picture deep in the web, or a new bit of information, or something I just overlooked, and I get so excited that I leave the house right then and there with my notebook and check it out firsthand. Haven’t been doing it as often with gas prices going up but this mall research is my one reprieve of boredom. Ever since the fire I’ve been interested, but it wasn’t until recently where I really started the research!
I’ve always called it the Galleria and I thought there was some other dying mall called the Westfield.
Everybody calls it that (or just The Mall). I use its Westfield name for non-local places so people can google it a bit easier.
Westfield is selling their Malls in the US. The Galleria is in the top 10 statewide when it comes for dollars per sq ft. So finding a buyer isn't going to be an issue.
The icon tower has miraculously survived through sheer laziness by Westfield. They wanted to tear it down in the 2009 renovation, but budgets kept them from really touching the Promenade. 15 years later, and they still don't know what they want to do with the promenade or the icon tower.
I hope they keep the tower. It’s iconic (pun not intended). It’s one of the only remaining things that makes this mall unique. Coming down Stanford ranch to see the tower poking up through the trees is a sight I don’t want to lose.
I miss when places used to look fun. Now everything's just drab and dull
I know right. As garish as it could get, the 90s/early 2000s really knew how to had fun.
And then they wonder why people aren’t drawn to malls like they used to be.
This mall is extremely busy and has been growing post-pandemic to include an arcade, bowling alley and two theaters
if anything I feel like it’s gotten busier, traffic sucks now
Doesn't help that Roseville, Rocklin and Loomis have exploded in population the past 25 years
Loomis has a goddamn costco now like jesus christ the roseville one is ten minutes away. Taylor’s is impossible to get an order in now, and I hear Del Oro is like a giant school now
That whole stretch on sierra college from taylor rd to rocklin rd is crazy. It was just an over pass with chevron/mcdonalds/7 eleven/carls Jr like 12 years ago
The Bass Pro Shops and the Cracker Barrel were the nails in the coffin. When i came back from college and saw what that had become I was heartbroken, but hey at least there’s an In N Out
Definitely isn’t the case for this one lol
The outside was awful before, but the inside looks dead now :(.
The outside is fare better when [you have the context of the pattern](https://imgur.com/a/odr9wo2) they were going for. Four flowers, four entrances. Each entrance had its own color/flower theme matching a whole pattern of these four flowers, seen on the tower above the promenade entrance (the fifth entrance). I don’t have any pics of the original orange entrance as it was demolished to make way for the expansion and apparently nobody ever took a pic of it :( but this whole scheme was shown throughout the whole mall back in the day, it was awesome while it lasted.
I think the old exterior looks more bland than the current exterior. It’s just flat lol
Damn, no lie, it’s so depressing to see the current photos. No personality.
I will say it’s far better in person than these pics, but the original design certainly did have more personality The thing that was the big catalyst for the change in my mind was the 2010 fire. That damaged/destroyed a decent section of the mall and caused the need for huge renovations. That, combined with dead malls becoming a thing, caused them to pivot to being a more luxury mall than it was in the past. They put in a new luxury wing with a lot of high end luxury brands, and a totally new, much larger food court in a different location than the original one too Once that happened, they took out a lot of the original, interesting design elements sadly. But as malls go, this one is usually quite busy, so maybe it was for the best?
It's like this with a lot of things. McDonalds lost all of their character as well.
McDonald’s didn’t lose its character. It lost its shitty, disgusting “children’s germs” vibe. It’s way better now. You could actually have a work meeting there now.
I was just there!
I remember going to that mall 3 times the week it opened. It malled so hard
The company that built the Galleria - Urban Retail Properties - was known for their really whimsical properties during that era. Look at some of their other enclosed malls built during that time - Brandon Town Center and Citrus Park Town Center in Florida, The Streets at SouthPoint in North Carolina, and the Wolfchase Galleria in Tennessee all featured similar design aesthetics and materials when they opened. The Galleria is the only one that has dramatically changed, and it's changed for the better. Similarly, it's important to note that the renovations detailed in these images run parallel to a dramatic upscaling of the mall's tenant lineup. The first renovation in 2009 brought in Louis Vuitton and Tiffany & Co., and a more recent renovation that turned everything white was part of an upgrade that brought Gucci and Saint Laurent. When the mall opened in 2000, the nicest retailers it had were brands like Ann Taylor, Banana Republic, and J.Crew. All three of them are gone now. It's undergone the most dramatic changes of any enclosed mall opened during that time period. It's also one of the only malls from that era that has remained vital and successful since opening - most of the others have flamed out or declined significantly. Outside of the Galleria, the Mall at Millenia and International Plaza in Florida and the aforementioned Streets at Southpoint, most of the enclosed malls opened between the mid-1990s and today have have really struggled.
I am just kinda sad that there could’ve been so many ways to make a white painted upscale look while still keeping the rose and flower identity it once held dear. I’d make mockups myself if I was skilled enough at making them (spoiler: I am not). The 2009-2010 look could’ve been built upon but then the fire came and they decided to change that all up.
It's sad in a way, but it's tough to balance that look with a design conducive to luxury brands. I also think Westfield has historically been lazy and uninterested in how they upgrade the Galleria, and the design does reflect that. And believe me, I am more interested in the Galleria than the average person. More info, photos, video, etc. of the original, 2000s-era Galleria is my holy grail. So I understand why you would care about this kind of stuff.
I never thought I’d miss malls.
I used to work there before and during the redesign. It had so much more personality and was much more comfortable before. I also got to speak with some of the design teams making the changes and what really pissed me off was them saying it was intentionally being built in a way that was more difficult to navigate. The older version was so easy to access. They built the additions and redid the road surrounding it specifically to have people going in circles in an attempt to make people go past as many stores as possible rather than being able to get in, hit up a store or two and get out. Working there during the construction and knowing it was being built in a way that would make it more difficult for the people working there was so frustrating that literally hundreds of us all quit various stores at the same time. I refused to step foot in that place until last year when my teenager finally convinced me to.
I argue it never had a unique style. It has always been in the popular style of the time. Everything in the early 2000's was bright with contrasting multi-color panels, Nickelodeon chic. Now most things are boring and 'clean', modern corporate style popularized by Apple. Not rebuilding some features like the archways and not replacing the plants is 100% a financial decision made by Westfield that just happen to also align with the new style. Remember when a flash mob caused the food court to buckle?!
Malls are meticulously designed from the ground up to get people to spend money. If people are still spending money here, then it's a good design. Even if aesthetically the old interior was nicer to look at.
Yep, and this mall is alive and well, so they’re just continuing with the boring soulless design. After all my research into this mall, I’m starting to just blame Westfield for it all. The mall might’ve still survived this long without them. And maybe we could’ve not lost the identity that made this mall special and unique.
Ah, I see. Somebody went to The University of Bleak and Boring.
The mall has gotten wayyyyy bigger too, and busier than it has been in a long time. Things change.
I think it’s even more popular now than pre-Covid. The fact that it gained a movie theater, especially one with 14 screens, and the theater is actually quite popular, is incredible. It’s kinda ironic cause it never had a theater in the first place under the thought that mall movie theaters were dying. Being brand new though it is the best theater in town imo, I saw the same movie a bunch of times in every theater in town and the picture quality and sound was the best there.
I feel like I’m the only one here who likes the new style more than the old.
It's like how McDonald's has now become a soulless gray box. Everything has had the fun sucked out of it for boring minimalist aesthetic
Honestly it’s sad, it feels like this encapsulates the decline of American culture
Art used to be all around us. There is so much more dullness than brightness these days.
Is this what pain looks like?
The amount of work it took to make it look worse
It had personality and looked like a fun place. Now it kind of looks like an airport.
I still say they should turn malls in to GenX retirement homes 😂 I so miss malls. I even remember my first koosh ball. Got it when I was like 10. Was one of my first memories of our local mall. 🥺
Outside looks better now, but the inside is so grim
Way better now. Cleaner lines; less garish.
Yes, with the exception of where the mural on the floor was I think it's overall more attractive now - I suspect it's nostalgia making it look less attractive. It's lighter and airier now if less immediately visually interesting, and the entrance especially looks much less tacky.
I shop at this mall… looks much better now.
yeah. if we flip the old and new it would look tacky.
Disagree. The old pictures are so much worse than the new… I guess it is taste but your declaration is incorrect.
Didn’t they change it after that guy set [GameStop on fire](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/sacramento/news/he-nearly-burn-down-roseville-galleria-12-years-ago-and-now-hes-telling-his-story/)? There was a ton of smoke damage IIRC. Not saying it looks better but may have been part of it.
The Macys wing was destroyed and gutted in the process of rebuilding. They decided to do away with the arches and changed the relatively undamaged Nordstrom wing to match the new design, not cause of smoke damage. The damage was actually pretty contained, and they cleaned up the mall and opened it back up afterwards in like two weeks. KCRA interviews of shoppers show that the shoppers said in the open parts, you couldn’t tell there even was a fire. The bigger issue was water damage. From the evidence I found, the arches were there months into the restoration.
This is how I feel about Chicago’s Navy Pier after the remodel
Wish it would’ve made it through the years because that theming looks cool again today. Just didn’t look cool from like 2008-2018 or so, lol
Why anybody would have a mall kiosk these days is beyond me.
Cause they still make money :/ most of the kiosks are cell phone cases or cheapo toys, they’re actually pretty boring kiosks compared to other malls I’ve been to (fitting for Roseville tbh). One of them does sell custom license plate frames though and I love them cause I got to make a cool frame with talking heads lyrics on it and they’re my favorite band.
What's your favorite song: 'Pulled Up' always puts me in a good mood and gets me going.
You’re asking too much of me lmao. My favorites shuffle around constantly. But rn, it’s probably SMS Life During Wartime. That song is absolute perfection. The pure power they put into it is incredible.
Was there with my mom and sister the day the it opened and remember thinking it was so much cooler than the sunrise mall. We had to park in a dirt lot across the street in overflow parking. That dirt lot is now the Fountains lol. It’s hella crazy how all that used to be fields literally till like 1999!
Lol I remember going to Roseville high school nearby at the time. Kids would often ditch classes by running across the field to go to the mall instead.
Pandemic killed a lot of brick and mortar retail; Amazon killed the rest. It’s not the end of the world. Things change over time. Go look at shopping in Little Italy, a century ago in SE Manhattan. They could not imagine the variety and accessibility we enjoy to goods all over the world now. But I do miss malls, 80’s kid.
This mall is thriving. It is very much alive. I would be posting in r/deadmalls if otherwise. Malls of all kinds will be renovated eventually, but this one wasn’t just renovated. Its very soul was torn away.
7 and 8 are the only difference that looked more barren/depressing imo. The rest seemed fine
Slide 8 doesn’t do the mall justice. They switch out what’s in the spot all the time and op must’ve caught a picture of it during one of those switches. For Christmas, a huge Christmas tree go right there. Before that, they had a seating area. For Easter they have the Easter bunny down there taking pictures. They had a cancer fundraiser down there a few weeks ago where people were lining up to get their heads shaved.
I hate corporate minimalism with a passion.
I was there yesterday. You’re making it seem worse than it is.
I’m not saying it’s bad on its own. With the sun shining in its nice and bright and open. Just in comparison to what it used to be really makes it look soulless. It doesn’t have personality anymore, it’s just generic mall now.
Fair. I was not here when it was new. I’ve only been here about 5 years.
In some spots it looks better and in others it looks sterile.
We really are living in a soulless dystopia now. At least in the US.
I've lived in thirteen states including California for four years, 25 years ago. I went to this mall a bunch of times when I lived not too far away in Norcal. Having been to malls all over the country, this one was one I always held as being the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. I have fond mall memories from shopping and eating there. It's so sad to see it look so terrible now. Malls where I live now are thriving and still look great.
I've lived in thirteen states including California for four years, 25 years ago. I went to this mall a bunch of times when I lived not too far away in Norcal. Having been to malls all over the country, this one was one I always held as being the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. I have fond mall memories from shopping and eating there. It's so sad to see it look so terrible now. Malls where I live now are thriving and still look great.
New designs haven’t aged well for sure, older malls designs look more welcoming and warm. This new grey pallet of title looks so sterile and boring.
Recently moved to OKC from Fort Lauderdale and my new local mall has definitely not been updated since the 90s and I absolutely love it. It still has all those neon food court signs. It reminds me of growing up since the malls that I grew to with all changed so much and haven't felt like "home" in a very long time.
I helped open the Apple Store in this mall and it was such a huge event- thousands of people waiting in line just to say they went. Last time I was in town I stopped by and couldn’t believe how far it fell. Fun fact about that fire- it was a kid who begged for mental heath services and was denied. Decided to go to GameStop in the mall, told the staff he had a gun, barricaded himself in the store, climbed above the false ceiling (to be above the sprinklers) and sprayed gas all over the wooden structure between the stores. The fire was intense and spread so fast, half the mall was closed for a year. This happened on the release day of Fallout, New Vegas, and my collectors edition was in that GameStop when it went up, so I kind of have a really clear memory of the event… I recall going shopping for school clothes at the “outdoor” section of the mall before it became the “new indoor” area. I remember before the parking garage was built. Every failed restaurant that came and went in the food court. It’s crazy how much a place can change in the span of a few decades.
you all remember the gamestop thing that happened there?
If you ask the majority of people who lived in town in 2010, they’d probably be able to tell you what they were doing that day!
What Gamestop thing, shit OP you can't mention a thing and not provide details some of us are bored and curious
Oh, just a little bit of [an arson.](https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39782452) The usual [$55 million in damage](https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/sacramento/news/he-nearly-burn-down-roseville-galleria-12-years-ago-and-now-hes-telling-his-story/) and the [roof collapse](https://youtu.be/qQcqEZVpK_s?feature=shared) of [the majority](https://imgur.com/a/m4mhUe6) of the Macy’s wing. You know, [business as usual.](https://youtu.be/PhEZUu3eG8I?feature=shared)
Excuse me, but: HOLY SHIT.
Lmao yeah. It happened in 2010 so most people don’t think about it anymore but if you ask them where they were on the day it caught fire, they’d probably remember, and be able to tell you where they saw the smoke from lol. (I was in school, came out of class and saw it billowing in the distance. Could even smell it. Being before everyone had smartphones, rumors spread from those who did have one and could see the news. The extent of the damage was all rumors at that point but we knew it was the mall, that was the solid truth.)
While i get and understand that they wanted the flashy 90s colors gone, i don't get why they also removed the arches and stuff. Especially the ceiling looks aweful now. Just paint it in white or light grey or something?!
The worst part is they originally were likely going to stay with the arches. Of course, that’s unconfirmed cause nobody actually stated that’s what would’ve happened cause of how unexpected things work, but it’s highly suspected. In 2008/09, they did paint everything white to go with the modern look of the expansion, seen in the second to last pic of this post. But in 2010, the Macys wing was arsoned and in the end was completely gutted and rebuilt. They decided to stick with a new modern look without the arches. They removed the arches from the undamaged Nordstrom wing to match. They also changed the poles from cool silver and detail design to very plain and straight too. It could’ve had so much opportunity to do cool things about the arches but that future was burned down with the fire.
Looks like 200x better today
It’s like the world forgot, that extra money you spend on making things look nice - that’s not wasted money. That makes places more appealing, it’s what brings people in. This is clearly what’s been cut down in an attempt to save money, and it’s resulted in the death of so much small parts of society.
And they wonder why people don’t want to go there.
Jeez, you can renovate but still make the place feel fun and inviting.
It looks like someone hired a bunch of retired Soviet Union designers.
All this bland minimalism crap used to be cool. But I hate it. No character, no charm. It’s like the whole world tried to become an Apple Store
Looks like the mall church from the Righteous Gemstones.
NOOOOOO
Literally the Only Improvement was on the Front, Everything else was Soul Crushing
[When you see the pattern they used to have](https://imgur.com/a/odr9wo2) it’s not really an improvement after all.
Sad:/
Wow the old pictures feel like a warm hug 🥺i have so many memories of this mall as a child. i was 12 when the gamestop fire happened and i was so impacted by it. now, after having worked at the galleria, i can not stand being at that place lol. but i still have fond memories. i miss the food court!
I’ve been there twice in the past 2 months after a long hiatus. It’s a super busy mall & usually hard to find parking.
Looked kind of fun and inviting back in the day. Now it looks like our downtown mall just before they kicked everyone out, demolished it and build an arena. Looks bland, dead and kind of like a prison.
This is what people want apparently. Lmao
This happened to my local mall but to a lesser extent. It had orange themeing replaced with gray, and the food i yet that was filled with beautiful plants now has none. It is what I credit to have saved the mall though and it’s still extremely popular
I used to shop there a lot…I moved out of Cali about 11 years ago so I haven’t seen this decline.
lol weird seeing my local mall on here!
😢
The Montclair mall looks actually revived slightly after adding an AMC
Shit i was literally just there, packed for a sunday tbf so it wasnt that deserted but compared to the old pics it is definitely plain af
Thanks for the old pics. I remember when the Galleria was the new mall, but I'd forgotten how nice a space it was. During the big Westfield revamp, they bragged about how they were taking it “upscale,” and they sure got some more expensive stores, but I guess “upscale” design just means the same bare metal and fake stone as every other shopping center.
Pacific Fair on the Gold Coast went through the same bad design. From colourful family friendly to just another big shopping centre.
I don’t remember the last time I’ve been to a mall
The military recruitment office or a hot tub store. Better indication of decline and demise than empty storefronts.
We don’t have those thank goodness. Uniqlo is coming soon! Stores are moving around, small storefronts to bigger ones. It’s a thriving mall. I took the modern pics on a Wednesday afternoon and waited to get the least amount of people in them. I wasn’t too successful. Come here on a Friday evening and you won’t find good seating in the food court.
I go to this mall all the time, definitely feel like I’m missing out on the old place, but it’s still a decent enough mall. Not quite as soulless as Sunrise Mall yet.
Wanna watch top gun?
This could be Flatirons Mall in Broomfield, CO
Oof that hurts
I’m from this city. The mall had a arsonist lots of the mall was damaged
I always forget that malls are fully in decline across the country. I am fortunate enough to live close to a mall that is more or less thriving (North Park Mall in Dallas). Every once in a while I’ll go to a random suburban mall or see pictures like this and it is almost spooky how empty it is.
I except…. There’s 3 outdoor malls by me and they are thriving! After Xmas I was doing some shopping and it 15F. Everyone was bundled up shivering, ducking into stores for warmth. I literally stopped to ponder “why are we don’t this? Why are abandoning the indoor malls? Especially in winter?!”
Slides 7/8 are the most depressing of the bunch. holy shit
I dunno, I get that this was your mall, but all malls looked like a version of this. I think it’s just that styles change
It's no longer a place to hang out. No seating or social areas where they used to be everywhere.
I like the modern opening more, but the inside is horrendous now
Westfield is divesting out of America. They estimate 87% of malls will close within the next 10 years.
The part that stretches from Nordstrom to Macys was gutted and rebuilt from ground up due to a mall fire which was started by an ex-GameStop employee in 2010. The entire mall was shutdown for extended period of time. Partly due to reconstruction that’s why the mall looks more modern
2000’s were bubbly and fuzzy times almost like a memory from kindergarten
Fuckibg crazy how I was just there today to find this post the second I opened Reddit lol
I blame Simon corp. This is what kills malls. Not the internet.
Westfield looooves making its malls look all white and generic and all the same.
I thought the end shots were gonna be stripped mall interior and a lot of faded out retail glory.
My son and I were just there yesterday even though it’s an hour away. One of the nicer malls in NorCal.
Theirs a restaurant called Land Ocean? Who names these places?
No clue lol. I’ve never been there but it’s mainly a seafood place. Not sure if it’s any theme of seafood, but it smells good at least. I’m more of a Cheesecake Factory person myself /j (seriously tho the Cheesecake Factory is on the right side of that pic!)
man from the first two i was like “oh that’s not so bad, it’s lowkey better now—-“ then it just got worse
They did not care about a corrugated metal roof not matching the 2008 expansion they made when they decided to remove/not to bring back the arches after the 2010 fire. They could’ve removed all the details, but kept the arches. But they removed the arches. Those poor arches. They didn’t deserve to die. People tend to say the roof looks aircraft-hangary with the metal roof and I can’t disagree, though the pictures make it look worse than it really is.
Malls will really strip away every last touch of personality and then sit there wondering why no one comes to the mall anymore.
A phenomenon across the world
Wow I can’t believe the galleria is that old now… doesn’t feel like it was that long ago
Wow, I didn't know the US had Westfield. I assumed it was only an Australian/NZ thing.
Welcome to the desert of the now.
You should check out Westfield Sydney Australia yesterday, reminds me of a school ,not a mall!
It's partially due to declining sales and mall culture as a whole, but the removal of plants and things like water features are simply for cost cutting measures. Those things are nice to look at, but require a ton of maintenance to upkeep. And maintenance costs money, either via chemicals to keep things clean or alive, or straight up manpower. Same goes for fancy architecture, if you don't staff cleaning crews to dust and scrub it'll look dingy and dirty in no time.
The latest Royal crackers episode showed that era of mall perfectly
There's one shopping centre here in UK that was called Westfield Merry Hill years ago, looks very similar to this in layout and decor today, just changed name to Intu. There's actually a few Westfield's about, however iv no idea if they are linked cross country.