Mall of America
The Mall of America (MOA) used some of Southdale's original design concepts and expanded on them. When it opened in Bloomington, Minnesota in 1995, just 15 minutes away from Southdale, it was the largest single building construction project in Minnesota history at a cost of $625 million; in comparison, Southdale cost $20 million to build. The MOA has 4.2 million square feet of building space; when Southdale opened it had 800,000 square feet of building space. The MOA is designed to have four department stores and 400 specialty shops; Southdale had two department stores and 70 specialty shops. As of 2013 the MOA has 12,000 parking spaces while Southdale had room for 5,200 cars back in 1956.
Victor Gruen wanted the shopping mall to be a place for entertainment and the MOA is the nation's largest shopping and entertainment complex. The MOA has a 7-acre indoor amusement park, a 1.2 million-gallon aquarium, 18 movie theaters and over 50 restaurants.
Click here to go to Long-term Effects on Downtown Shopping
Victor Gruen wanted the shopping mall to be a place for entertainment and the MOA is the nation's largest shopping and entertainment complex. The MOA has a 7-acre indoor amusement park, a 1.2 million-gallon aquarium, 18 movie theaters and over 50 restaurants.
Click here to go to Long-term Effects on Downtown Shopping