Brickell City Centre: The Mall Of The Future? - Page 2

dc_denizen · #21 Posted **Nov 9, 2017, 12:05 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by Djesus777

Brickell City Centre is a disaster, overpriced, cheap and always a ghost town. Nothing unique about it, for example, Complex Desjardins in Montreal, shops, restaurants, hotel, office, underground connection, built in 1976. BCC tried, and well, it's so bland.

I doubt you have you even been to brickell, or even miami.

dc_denizen · #22 Posted **Nov 9, 2017, 12:08 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by DavisAccution

Isn't this just like an amped up or equal version of the Mall of America in Minnesota?

It's nice and all don't get me wrong. I was just observing.

this has absolutely nothing to do with some exurban 1980s-fantastic midwestern mall.

it's a downtown mall in a pedestrian setting, with residential towers.hell, harrisburg PA has something like this (Strawberry square)

what makes it unique, is that its in Miami and thus benefits from s. american tourist money. I would expect it to do well, if the economy in south america improves a bit.

of course, BCC is pretty unique, being in Miami and heavily dependent on foreign tourists and/or condo owners/real estate money launderers. BCC offers very few analogues or lessons to other downtown malls in other parts of the counrty, I would say.

ardecila · #23 Posted **Nov 9, 2017, 2:04 AM**

The passive climate control (CLIMATE RIBBON™!) sounds pretty innovative. Hopefully it works as advertised and doesn't get shredded to pieces in the next hurricane.

Other than that, most cities with a healthy downtown will have some version of this. Even the outdoor aspect can be found at San Diego's Horton Plaza or Santa Monica Place.

Steely Dan · #24 Posted **Nov 9, 2017, 4:55 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by mhays

Heh heh. You went to a suburban mall.

hey man, i was just a kid.

3 things:

1. i'll go anywhere for a roller coaster.

2. i was in college in the twin cities in the mid-90s back when the MOA was new and it was kind of a big deal up there at the time. at least there was a straight shot bus route from my college campus in st. paul that went right to the mall.

3. the MOA is an impressive piece of built infrastructure. one time in college, under the influence of several different mind altering substances, a group of us went through an "authorized personnel only" door and found ourselves in the impossibly large and deserted back of house world of the MOA. we explored back corridors that went on for seeming miles, and staircases that didn't lead anywhere, and random storage areas, and other building operations areas. we got lost in that other world for well over an hour before finally finding a safe passage out. it is an utterly gargantuan structure, and exploring and getting lost in its nether regions will always be one of the more memorable "trips" from my college days.

SLO · #25 Posted **Nov 9, 2017, 7:35 PM**

Ive been to MOA, and its pretty massive, not sure if they ever did the expansion on it, but I found this cool interactive list which still has MOA at largest in the US by a large margin....

http://storymaps.esri.com/stories/2012/malls/

mhays · #26 Posted **Nov 9, 2017, 8:11 PM**

I went to a suburban mall on Monday, but it was for urban studies, and I traveled by bus. My Urbanist License is still intact.

I'm not seeing what's unique about BCC either. Most good downtowns have retail complexes, and many do a lot of tourist business, even if it's less of a focus than BCC.

Djesus777 · #27 Posted **Nov 9, 2017, 9:51 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by dc_denizen

I doubt you have you even been to brickell, or even miami.

I used to live in Miami

for 13 years. soooo yeah, I did and I know what I'm talking about. I also went to MBSH, but you probs don't even know what that is. So I think I would know more than you, actually, I probably do.

only good thing about BCC is that they have David's Tea, that's it. And also, I still have property in Brickell, so I know that hood like the back of my head.

dc_denizen · #28 Posted **Nov 10, 2017, 12:38 AM**

well maybe we can ask some of the other miami forumers...is BCC 'bland', 'cheap' and 'a disaster' that rates below some 70s Montreal complex?

niwell · #29 Posted **Nov 10, 2017, 2:46 AM**

I don't know anything about BCC or if the comparison is apt, but Complex Desjardins is generally considered a groundbreaking example of its type in architecture and planning circles.

Segun · #30 Posted **Nov 10, 2017, 4:42 AM**

^ What's cool about Complex Desjardines is how you can walk from building to building through underground corridors with stores and never have to go on street level. Montreal has the funky 70's design theme on lock.

Acajack · #31 Posted **Nov 10, 2017, 2:39 PM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by niwell

I don't know anything about BCC or if the comparison is apt, but Complex Desjardins is generally considered a groundbreaking example of its type in architecture and planning circles.

I wasn't impressed by Complexe Desjardins the first few times I went when I was younger, but in more recent years it's grown on me plus they've improved the offerings there too.

Of course Montreal has a bunch of these complexes linked to the underground city.

BrandonJXN · #32 Posted **Nov 11, 2017, 2:46 PM**

One of my favorite malls is Westfield Century City in LA. Even though it's been expanding and remodeling ever since it opened, it's a unique mall. It reminds me of how a person from the late 1950's would think a mall would look like in the year 2000. I'll put it over BCC any day.

Sun Belt · #33 Posted **Nov 11, 2017, 3:07 PM**

BrandonJXN, your pic of Century City reminds me of Phoenix's much smaller/shorter Biltmore area anchored by an open air mall called Biltmore Fashion Park.

Back to the topic, I haven't been to BCC, but I imagine most malls will reinvent themselves in order to continue to attract patrons in the Amazon era. I prefer the open air environment vs. the enclosed climate controlled experience.

BrandonJXN · #34 Posted **Nov 11, 2017, 3:36 PM**

Overall, I think malls are dying. They are nowhere near as popular as they were in the 80s and 90s (and this is coming from a person who spent a huge amount of his afterschool time at the mall kicking ass at Tekken and Street Fighter Alpha). Still, outdoor malls are a nice change and despite everyone buying everything online, going to the mall is a nice change sometime. Even if it's just to smell Cinabun. I swear they put crack in those sticky buns.

UrbanImpact · #35 Posted **Nov 14, 2017, 7:50 PM**

I think it's unfair to judge Brickell City Center foot traffic at the moment because it's not fully opened as of yet. There's a bunch of stores that are about to open including a food hall, Zara, etc. There also still fixing the streets around it.

It's a super unique layout though, in the likes of Asian malls. It's also connected to Miami's people mover.

https://www.designboom.com/wp-conten...ignboom-04.jpg

pictures from: https://www.designboom.com/architect...ca-06-20-2017/

https://www.thenextmiami.com/three-b...ahead-opening/