Mall Projects Research Articles

Management of Indian shopping malls: Impact of the pattern of financing

Shopping malls are fast becoming a central part of life in urban India. Demand projections for mall space in India are lucrative; however, the growth of malls in India over the last decade has suffered from issues such as the high cost of real estate and construction, poor infrastructure, a non-conducive policy framework, and the unavailability of professional expertise in mall development and management. This has resulted in undifferentiated malls, plummeting occupancy levels, and reduced profitability for tenants and malls. Most of these evils have their genesis in the inappropriate pattern of financing used by Indian mall developers. In the Indian scenario, funds for mall projects come from different sources and in different varieties. Funds are raised by selling the mall space to investors and speculators for quick recovery and rotation of funds. The mall is owned in a piecemeal manner by a number of stakeholders. Consequently many problems creep in. These include short-term orientation, distortions in zoning, disturbance of the overall concept of the mall and developer disinterest in promoting malls. All these vices convert the mall into just another ‘shopping complex’. To overcome this pattern, lessons ought to be learnt from the United States and other Western countries, where a healthy and steady inflow of pubic funds has kept the malls competitive. Major changes are needed in the Indian mall business in terms of a regulator for real estate, more inflow of public funds and increased transparency, so that this sector prospers in future.

The Phoenix Capitol Mall Studios as Examples of Community Embeddedness

The Capitol Mall is a very complex urban area adjacent to downtown Phoenix, where Governmental buildings exist side by side with a historic residential neighborhood, warehouse buildings, an under-construction human services campus, vacant lots, and many homeless people on the streets. This area has been 'forgotten' in recent efforts to revitalize downtown Phoenix. The Capitol Mall project involved two studios - Architecture and Planning - conducted simultaneously during spring 2005. The planning studio was intended to develop a revitalization plan and the architecture studio was charged with developing specific programs and projects of urban design and architecture. The purpose of this paper is threefold: 1) to introduce our studios as examples of community embeddedness, 2) to discuss our pedagogical approaches and the project's outcomes, and 3) to present a set of lessons learned that can be valuable to others teaching similar joint studio arrangements. In brief the five lessons are: a) joint studios can have different approaches to reality, b) interdisciplinary studios can benefit from different methodologies and outcomes, c) planning and architecture studios use classroom resources differently, d) joint studios display creativity in different ways, 5) interdisciplinary studios can lead to joint discovery and re-enforcement of learning experiences.

A Comparative Study of Two Initiating Cases of Pedestrian Malls in Taiwan

The development of pedestrian malls in Taiwan has unfolded along two different tracks. The first is driven by government policies aimed at revitalizing a declined city center. The second is initiated by private groups in the hope of raising real estate prices. Although the impetus for these two types of development has originated in different sectors, they have many things in common.This study will examine the two initiating cases of pedestrian malls in Taiwan, the Xi-Men pedestrian mall in Taipei City and Jing-Ming First Street in Taichung City. These two cases are representative of the two types of pedestrian mall developments. The both cases have a significant influence on the shape of subsequent pedestrian malls in Taiwan. As such, they contain important lessons for future pedestrian mall projects and for urban planning generally.The aim of this paper is to track the development of each pedestrian mall, comparing and contrasting the two cases. The following questions will be addressed: How and why were the malls developed? What were the key factors that made them successful? How do the two projects differ? Specifically, this paper will explore the differences in the character of the respective sites, the participating groups, development concepts and strategies, spatial features, functions, and operating and management tactics.

Victor Gruen and the Construction of Cold War Utopias

The postwar American shopping mall projects of Austrian émigré Victor Gruen aimed to create not merely ideal commercial zones but complete, insular communities that would serve as templates in the (re)construction of an ideal capitalist society. These utopian sites were shaped as much by cold war concerns as by capitalist dreams, and as a result, they came to highlight tensions between the imperatives of commerce (which made malls possible) and the cooperative ones at the root of much utopian thought. This is seen in a close study of Gruen’s “shopper’s paradise,” Southdale—the first fully enclosed, temperature-controlled mall.

Application of Efficient Reinforcement and Prestressed Concrete Technology in the Chengdu Wangfujing Shopping Mall Project

Application of Efficient Reinforcement and Prestressed Concrete Technology in the Chengdu Wangfujing Shopping Mall Project

Working from home: freelance medical writing

As a working mum I consider that I am fortunate to have a well-balanced working/family life. t work in the comfort of my own home as a freelance medical writer. This gives me the freedom to organize my time so that I can collect my two young children from school, attend the various school functions such as sports day, and basically be there when needed. Did I plan to have such a career from the outset? No, not at all! I come from a medical background with a father who was a Scottish country Cl’. At schml I decided that I wanted to do pharmacology after reading a careers brochure. I did an Honours degree in Pharmacology at Edinburgh University and thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it, despite having to work hard to pass the exams! The course started as a degree in Biological Sciences and 1 specialized in pharmacology in the final year. During this year we had to choose certain modules, which were based on the research specialities of the departmental staff. I selected the courses on cardiovascular pharmacology and prostaglandins. In Ihe final term we were supposed to do a project that had become a library project due to fir.+d constraints, but I approachti ;):lc of the staff about the poss!hiliht ~>f dolrlg a lab oratory pr+ct. I irad ,@cularly enjoyed the sessions r.~ tht newly discovered sbbstancc c:-Ikd d+elet activating factor !PAFI ai4, crC : prsuading my fellow Honoum So .‘eikis to donate their blood, l yi. :mall project on 31; effects of ijAl: on platelet aggrqgi0n. Thqsr few UL~S spent workin?; 111 a r,search cs;,icitf

Effects of Downtown Improvement Projects on Retail Activity

Abstract The main objective of pedestrian and transit malls and other improvement projects is often to help revitalize downtown business districts. This paper examines how downtown improvement efforts have affected the entry, growth, and exit of retail and service establishments in those areas. The authors briefly review the widely divergent findings of previous research on the effects of street mall projects on retail sales, then develop an analysis approach using Dun and Bradstreet records on individual establishments. Eight downtown revitalization projects are examined for changes in the profiles and growth rates of establishments at the project locations and in other parts of the cities. The results indicate that changes can range from positive improvements to mere continuation of past negative trends. Differences in project effects are related to differences both in the local economy and in project design and management.

The Mall Project

The Mall Project