{"product_id":"mall-maker-victor-gruen-architect-of-an-american-dream-9780812237627","title":"Mall Maker: Victor Gruen  Architect of an American Dream","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe shopping mall is both the most visible and the most contentious symbol of American prosperity. Despite their convenience  malls are routinely criticized for representing much that is wrong in Americasprawl  conspicuous consumption  the loss of regional character  and the decline of Mom and Pop stores. So ubiquitous are malls that most people would be suprised to learn that they are the brainchild of a single person  architect Victor Gruen. An immigrant from Austria who fled the Nazis in 1938  Gruen based his idea for the mall on an idealized America: the dream of concentrated shops that would benefit the businessperson as well as the consumer and that would foster a sense of shared community. Modernist Philip Johnson applauded Gruen for creating a true civic art and architecture that enriched Americans daily lives  and for decades he received praise from luminaries such as Lewis Mumford  Winthrop Rockefeller  and Lady Bird Johnson. Yet  in the end  Gruen returned to Europe  thoroughly disillusioned with his American dream. In Mall Maker  the first biography of this visionary spirit  M. Jeffrey Hardwick relates Gruens successes and failureshis work at the 1939 Worlds Fair  his makeover of New Yorks Fifth Avenue boutiques  his rejected plans for reworking entire communities  such as Fort Worth  Texas  and his crowning achievement  the enclosed shopping mall. Throughout Hardwick illuminates the dramatic shifts in American culture during the mid-twentieth century  notably the rise of suburbia and automobiles  the death of downtown  and the effect these changes had on American life. Gruen championed the redesign of suburbs and cities through giant shopping malls  earnestly believing that he was promoting an American ideal  the ability to build a community. Yet  as malls began covering the landscape and downtowns became more depressed  Gruen became painfully aware that his dream of overcoming social problems through architecture and commerce was slipping away. By the tumultuous year of 1968  it had disappeared. Victor Gruen made America depend upon its shopping malls. While they did not provide an invigorated sense of community as he had hoped  they are enduring monuments to the lure of consumer culture.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45651896893493,"sku":"ByrdShop_0812237625","price":315.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780812237627.jpg?v=1781844338","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/mall-maker-victor-gruen-architect-of-an-american-dream-9780812237627","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}