Community

Though it may not seem like it initially, the mall is the
site for community and connection. Walk the halls of a mall in the early morning hours and you'll see groups of mall walkers and seniors doing Tai Chi, in the food court you'll see groups of teenagers laughing with their friends and at the play area moms and their children meeting up for their playdates. All the stories people shared spoke to the mall being a conduit for connecting with family, friends or our community.

When reflecting on the future of the mall, people expressed a strong desire for the mall to be more connected to the community it's in, especially given its significance in their own personal lives. They desired more local businesses and community or public spaces for people to gather and engage with one another. People saw the mall evolving to reflect the needs of the community better, moving beyond its traditional role as solely commercial space and evolving into a space that better fits with how the community has always used it-a place for connection.

Play

When people describe their experiences of the mall it's often from the perspective of their childhood. Their memories are filled with wonder, curiosity, fun and a sense of play. The mall was a playground, a place to explore freely and safely with their family. Through the eyes of a child, the mall was a place for adventure, to see movies with endless choices in the food court. Hilariously, when people spoke about their fondest memories they almost all involved ice cream.

The mall became a different kind of playground as children grew into teenagers: the place to catch up and gossip with friends, to hang out when there weren't other spaces readily available for teenagers to freely be, and a safe place to experiment and test out who they were. As people grew up, the mall became the site of their first taste of independence. The phrase, "Let's meet at the fountain" was synonymous with the mall and their teenage years and still looms large in their memories.

Milestones

Growing up the mall became the location for many of the milestones in a person's life. People shared stories of first dates, tree lightings at Christmas, shopping for back-to-school outfits, or even enjoying a pancake breakfast every Stampede. These events become significant markers in a person's life, and the mall is inextricably linked to those memories.

The most significant milestone in a person's life that was frequently shared was their first job. The mall was the location of many people's first jobs. Whether it was working at Baskin Robins scooping ice cream or selling CDs at MV, people looked back fondly on their first jobs and recognized that it represented their first steps towards adulthood.
The mall is where life happens. People rarely spoke about the things they bought at the mall but of the experiences that helped shape them into who they were today.

Sustainability

As people were asked to think about the future of the mall, many people expressed concerns about climate change and the role the mall could play as a leader in sustainability and the reduction of waste. Given the size of malls and their role in the community, people were excited by the prospect of the mall being re-imagined as a space for green energy, waste reduction and even the home of innovation.

Some seriously considered the mall as a model for reusing waste, envisioning bio industries using food waste to produce bioplastics, or the mall as a hub for collecting and reusing unwanted construction materials.