The Decadence of the 80's :: Richland Mall, Columbia, SC

     Back in the day, the open-air mall was all the rage with its brother the enclosed mall. Over time, this certain mall became less fashionable and caused more than enough conversions of enclosing. While there are still vestiges of this seemingly mythical shopping center, it's not the same anymore. This called for more switches, and a few bad ones at that. While some can be blamed on the run-of-the-mill retail rules, some were best described as, "What the actual crap happened here?" And the Richland Mall in the fairly-affluent Columbia neighborhood of Forest Acres is no exception. We would partially recommend clearing your mind, as you seriously may wonder what is wrong with some mall developers. Trust us.

And we begin. Being a dead mall, not much can be said here. What you may see here is a whole lot of aging design. Whoever thought lightbulbs were a great mall lighting device was presumably fired shortly thereafter. I suppose the 15-year variety wasn't around in 1989. Dead Parisian is straight ahead on the second photo.

      For a mall of its type, it had humble beginnings. The mall started out as a small open-air center in 1961, with Augusta anchor JB White bookending the right of the mall. A small moviehouse, Colonial supermarket, Winn-Dixie, and an Eckerd rounded out smaller spaces. This original mall prospered until replacements moved in. In 1969, the city's first enclosed mall came in with Dutch Square Mall on the northwest environs of the city. Columbia Place had unique anchors and was two stories, anchoring the northeast of the city. Filling in the margins were the Bush River, Decker, and Woodhill Malls, which were smaller but rounded out their respective areas. Downtown also maintained a decent store core with Tapp's, Belk, Berry's on Main, and Davison's all having a piece of the pie. This all snowballed downhill until Winn-Dixie was shuttered in Dec 1987, being the pin drop before the bomb. And so Richland Mall as anyone knew it changed forever...

You can get on a dead directory, but a logo on a store that was last used 7 years ago is unexcusable. I truly thought I would never see that logo ever again but today we meet. Wait, does that say Parisian? What kind of a mall did I find...

Looking down to the old Bonwit Teller/Dillard's/The Department Store/Blacklion, now a ping-pong club. It was in use at the time of the photo, but I have a photo of it not in use (as in closed on the hours). In front is a long-disused fountain that is uberly large and surrounds the elevator.

If I moved my camera to the center of the escalator and took this photo I'd have something Dan Bell-worthy. Just place "Dead Mall Series" on the overhead sign area at the top and bingo.

     And so Richland Mall went from unsuspecting open-air mall to an over-the-top mall of uncertainty. JB White's remained, but anchoring the other side of the original mall was Parisian, a Birmingham store unfamiliar to the city. However, White's became a walk-through anchor with the third anchor being Bonwit Teller, an unknown New York retailer that was essentially Nordstrom on steroids. The company behind the transition was the infamous Hooker collective, an Australian company that was the brains (or more harshly, stupidity) behind the Forest Fair Mall project. Forest Fair Mall was another similar mall in Cincinnati with more unknown anchors and built too big for its shoes. While you may wonder how these anchors were brought to a middle-class market, it was more poor business practices. LJ Hooker was the owner of Parisian, BT, B. Altman, and Sakowitz at the time and placed more locations in all the wrong places. Forest Fair could be called even worse, with three of the four anchors mixed in with an Elder-Beerman and a Bigg's hypermarket being excessive.  The anchors however fared much worse with only Parisian surviving and storied institutions never being the same before succumbing to their struggles. On the bright side, both malls had no lack of odd architecture. Yet architecture didn't make a dent in the outcome. LJ Hooker found itself knees-deep in debt with 1.7 billion dollars sitting around unpaid. Chapter 11 bankruptcy came along before purchase by another Australian company.

This is wing that goes off to the old food court. How much I would have given to see it.

Parisian is far off in the distance and the connecting food court side is to the left. If it wasn't that the Columbia Children's Theatre had an audition this day I doubt I would have made it in this wing.

     Financial hoobaloo aside, Richland Mall was stunning for its era. It was elegance second to none in Columbia and LJ Hooker thought it was foolproof. It was a near perfect location for a mall of its type, near downtown and in one of the wealthier parts of town, yet still far from interstates. This interstate problem was pretty much a lost cause, due to the mall's construction before such a thing could be accomplished. Yet Richland struggled for fairly obvious reasons. It's rebirth drowned Columbia in retail and hurt itself. The mall was way too upscale for what Columbia could handle. In a way, Hooker's expectations didn't help the mall. Parking garages were put all around the mall and on top, meaning skylights were impossible to use, creating a very dark mall. Columbians aren't usually fond of parking decks. All this combined to create a tough landscape for retail survival. All this escalated until Bonwit Teller closed in the early 90's (I've heard 1993, 1990, and 1992). Even with the much-less upscale Dillard's chain in its place, the slow decline didn't stop.

Here's the Belk entrance from the Parisian wing. Columbia Children's Theatre is the only operational store in this wing

A small snippet of the food court. China Max closed in 2014. This food court is one of the worst I've seen, and still feels like new, probably because no one ate here.

     By 1995, the mall was in full-blown dead mall status. Management was switching hands every time you blinked, never good for redevelopment. Anything started could be stopped after a new purchase. Around this time, Richland Fashion Mall became Richland Mall, as you had a greater chance of getting depression here than a new pair of pants. During the time, two small renovations were completed. One moved a TGI Friday's and added a Barnes and Noble. The other moved the food court to another location on the main mall's first floor, between then-White's and Parisian. The old food court then housed a call center for Verizon. All of this was topped off by the consolidation of White's to North Carolina's Belk chain in 1998. Little was done to the original White's, cool escalators included.

Finishing off the food court here. This is very blurry for some reason.

Elevator fountain detail. To the right is the old Dillard's.

Here's from the elevator to the B&N/Belk area. I'm oddly intrigued on what the store on the corner to the left once was.

Here we are going from Belk all the way to the Dillard's. This mall isn't very big without the old food court.

     Dillard's closed its doors in 2003, creating a vacancy that was barely filled. Blacklion, a furniture store, took the reins before giving way to the creatively named The Department Store. Parisian closed in 2007, just before their nameplate would become Belk. All through this time, management swapped even more times. Richland Mall was falling down the sink, and this problem was exacerbated by closings throughout. Bath and Body Works, yes, the dead mall king, closed in 2012. When your BB&W closes, you are doing terribly. And the mall is indeed doing terribly.

Coming from Belk to the food court area. What is with the colorful painting down on the left?

Looking down into the old food court. I like the hurricane simulator down there.

Looking inside the old Parisian, uncovered and to full view. You rarely see an anchor covered with clear glass and as visible to mall walkers.

     If you are such a dead mall, what can you do? Of course the solution here means a sad end to a visually assaulting mall, but the factors are there. I would destroy the main mall, parking decks

included, aside from the Belk, Barnes and Noble, and the front strip of stores. This would mean the mall would become a strip mall of sorts with major anchors. The Dillard's would be the replacement location for the rooftop theatre. Parisian could become a big-box tenant or more stores. Every remaining business in the mall would be given a similar-sized location in the new mall. It could become a new Trenholm Plaza and attract the same kind of stores. Trenholm Plaza is a historic, upscale strip mall a little to the east of Richland. It included a Tapp's store that was a key anchor for many years, and using it the mall had the ability to enclose. It never did so and is still successful today.

Escalators run from the second floor to the rooftop deck. That was once a clock as shown. 

From the balcony area to the Belk. Regal Cinemas is on top and is very hard to find unless you are looking for it.

The Parisian looks the same as always. This is from a skybridge between the food court and the parking garage.

     So, for obvious reasons, visit Richland while you can. I find it to be pretty underrated as cool dead malls go, and is a respectable alternative to Forest Fair. Belk is even a relic here, and shows its age. There is no doubt you can find anything of vintage here, and this is an age where vintage is quickly disappearing. You won't be doing any shopping here most likely, but you may find some cool sights. After all, visiting a dead mall doesn't have the end goal of purchase, but more or less the goal of memory.

Columbiana Centre, Irmo (Columbia), SC

     Columbia, SC is a bustling college town and the state capitol of South Carolina. Population figures include a city of 135,000 and a metro area of 825,000. Columbia formed at the convergence of two rivers, and is a recreation center for the state. Today's Columbia is a quickly growing metropolis sandwiched between Atlanta and Charlotte. Interestingly though, the retail is pretty lackluster and leaves much to be desired.

Here are a few opening exterior shots. The outside storefronts form some weird harmony that is pleasing to the eye. F21 joined in 2011, and was once I believe a restaurant looking at the older Sky City post.

      To elaborate on this comment about the dark history of Columbia retail, I should probably first note that a little stupidity was involved. Richland probably needed to enclose itself but not completely upscale. Dutch Square was right to redevelop, but Burlington and Planet Fitness isn't attracting a whole lot of retail money. Columbia Place was late to react to the original problems, and currently has an infamously bad owner. Village at Sandhill was big enough to do damage, but small enough to steamroll for decades, and has been having some vacancy pains as of late. Columbia could probably live with three malls given the solid economic base, growing population, and lack of demographical problems (generally low crime, not very many "bad" neighborhoods). Instead, Columbia has no lack of dead retail and one mall, which one could say doesn't capture the full audience, rules king. That mall is Columbiana Centre, located at the corner of Harbison Blvd. and I-26 in the northwestern 'burb of Irmo. 

Directory shots of an originally plain mall. No Apple stores, H&Ms, William-Sonoma's, Banana Republics (prev. two were once at Columbiana), or Cheesecake Factories. Expansion? This makes me wonder how well Columbiana serves the market.

     The 1990 opening revealed two things: Dutch Square was screwed, and the future of Columbia retail was a plain two-anchor mall. Those anchors were Belk and Sears, two stores not near unique to the market. Further increasing silliness of retail king was the rural area Columbiana was located in and lack of draw. Nothing truly hometown or valued heavily in Columbia had a spot there, nearly making the mall's rise completely unexpected. Seems as if Lake Murray money does wonders.

I love these entrances. Of course JB White and Mercantile Stores should be thanked, but the elegance and simplicity shine through here. Belk basically blends in as an inline tenant, and synchronizes with the arches at the same time. 10/10.

While original Belk/Parisian/JCP looks different and unique, Dillard's is as usual. The latter entrance at least sorta accents the mall.

     For being such a young mall, it wasn't long before changes came to the newcomer. Dillard's joined on a northeastern wing in 1993, giving the layout much more flavor and a tad more upscale mall. There were two anchor pads built at construction, but Dillard's added on for an interesting reason. The mall is in both Richland (Columbia) and Lexington (Lexington) Counties, which comes different rules. Lexington County was rural at the time, and had vastly different Sunday laws at the time. Dillard's location meant it could open an hour-and-a-half before Lexington County section opened. I believe that these laws have since been signed out of favor, given Lex. County's recent growth spurt, but I live 210 miles away, so I can't confirm this.

Dillard's exterior shots. Believe or not......Dillard's looks the same. Are there any non-traditional Dillard's stores in the Southeast? I would love to know.

     These changes kept continuing into the better part of the decade, and past. JB White joined the scene in 1995 with a stunning store that I have no photos of. This would fill in an anchor pad with a familiar store that still had enough love to do well, but wasn't terribly small and had no idea how to run a store. Problem was, three years later, JB White reached its fate in a merger with Dillard's. With the latter in existence at the mall, the White's was given to Belk, which closed its original spot to be handed over to Parisian. This would be the last SC Parisian constructed (or well, opened), ending a short era of kicked off with LJH. 2005 called for the end of Columbiana Parisian, to be replaced with JCPenney. Things gradually slowed down to the end with Sears departing in 2014. This was swiftly replaced with an expanded Belk Men's and Dave and Buster's.

Here's Express Men, BB&W, and Pro Im....Dead Sports!? If you're a kiosk and you close, wouldn't you remove the sign? These full signs are usually in dead malls which is understandable.

Food Court with dead Burger King? Definitely a dead mall...

And, yes, that was sarcasm. BK is temporarily closed, FYI. There's the carousel in this photo.

     While Columbiana is a nice mall, and doesn't make me fully question what is happening in SC, it has room for improvement. Whenever JCPenney says goodbye, that should be replaced by the state's first Nordstrom. An expansion could be possible between the food court and Dillard's wing. With the parking cut off and lost there, a parking garage would be completed in the middle, between the new wing and the original wing. In the expansion, the aforementioned stores would be located there, turning Columbiana into a superregional powerhouse and effectively killing off the Columbia competitors. Again, while I believe Columbia could support 2-3 malls of different sizes, the others aren't doing a whole lot to help.

While I apologize for the semi-tilted photos, I had one free hand - one for camera and one for an aptly-named Eclipse Frappuccino. [Photos taken Aug. 21, 2017]

Looking down to the shady food court.

Nice, bright, and inviting. Explains the modern-renovated mall.

     Even where it is, Columbiana's place as Columbia's best is cemented. The other players will probably die out in not too long, and with only one true choice, Columbians will probably flock there. What is probably going to hold back the mall is the distance from downtown and the university. Of course, if it was closer the incomes wouldn't be as high, though nothing in Columbia is truly far. Irmo residents wouldn't hurt to head just a little farther south. But in this case, the UoSC Bookstore, like many others, is the only place for the non-car inclined students to shop. If the mall was closer, a whole new world of shopping awaits. Instead that "closer" mall is Richland Mall, or more to fit, Belk, given the four remaining stores. So, in a way, it isn't a question of survival, it's a question of audience and who is being reached.

Here's three views of the Dillard's wing. Everything pretty much molds together architecturally. 

Here's where the proposed expansion begins.

Here's looking back from Dillard's.

Our last photo is actually one of the first, with a view from the main entrance, then turn left at the central corridor.

North Point Mall, Alpharetta/Roswell (Atlanta), GA

     Sometimes a city's best can be simply ignored as another mall that is simply doing well. It doesn't matter that the mall is becoming or will be upscale. It doesn't matter that this mall is an architectural beast, in more than one ways. It doesn't matter that there is a stupid lifestyle center an exit up that I hate more than much else. North Point Mall falls into this deep category that it shouldn't be in. North Point simply needs more respect and love in Atlanta, and there are serious reasons why.

We begin this rant-filled post with shots of the stunning Rich's/Macy's store at NPM. Reason numero uno to respect NPM. This Macy's store was very busy on the Saturday afternoon I visited the mall. This photo is of the interior RICH'SATLANTA clock. There is another clock of the same on the outside.

Main Macy's entrance with a Rich's labelscar beneath the sign. Yes, a very visible Rich's labelscar, after the chain's final phase twelve years to this post. 

The outside is filled with these engravings describing the history of the store. I am excited that Macy's never removed these vestiges following the chain's consolidation.

     While I would normally kick off a post with the history, I can't get this rant over me. The Avalon, a lifestyle center recently constructed an exit up GA 400, shouldn't have been built. All the yuppies moved into the apartments above the stores and apparently can't get off the center's back. A recent CBS 46 article reveals my cries - apparently some very irking shoppers are done with North Point. Those interviewed showed some very detailed thoughts. "It's just nice to walk around. They have good restaurants", said one questioned. I mean, I personally love walking in hot and humid weather during a baking summer, and then eating at restaurants that are found across the rest of the city. I see no reason to avoid NPM, giving that it is larger, much cooler, and bright enough to make you think you are outside. Another cited they only visited the Macy's if they had a coupon, because the rest of the mall is invisible? Most of the stores are exclusive to NPM, and aren't half-bad stores. And did I mention that the Avalon has zero anchors, and NPM has five? I see no advantage. So I end this with a call to General Growth. Please add a Nordstrom, Neiman-Marcus, Saks, Lord and Taylor, Bloomingdale's, or something more upscale. The surrounding demographics are absolutely insane, and would love these stores joined with the existing Von Maur. Capture the crowd needed to be captured. Give The Avalon the middle finger that it needs. Turn NPM into an upscale showcase filled with expensive wares. This would do miracles.

Is this not the most beautiful mall you've seen? It was bright enough that I actually had to be extra careful with my locations for photo-taking. If I took a photo in the sun, it came out weird. Normally I would be mad, but I love the architecture and hope it's copied elsewhere.

     North Point Mall was constructed on hopes and dreams that luckily came true. Constructed in 1993, the mall was located in an area consisting of mainly farmland and rural area, similar to what Mall of Georgia had to deal with in its opening six years down the road. This slowed down traffic for a while, enough that it could have been called a dead mall straight off the bat. This thought was pushed ahead farther when the original Mervyn's vacated its spot two years into operation. Fortunately, all other anchors remained. These other anchors were Lord and Taylor, JCPenney, Sears, and a stunning Rich's, to pay homage to the closed downtown flagship store that died two years before. This Rich's featured most of the mainstays of the downtown store, included with beautiful Greek-inspired landscaping on the outside. Also with the mall was an empty anchor pad, filled by Dillard's in 1996. Parisian filled in the Mervyn's space, which improved the mall with an upscale anchor. Around this time, growth kicked off in the area, and soon the Alpharetta area was very wealthy and populated. This came just in time, as the exciting Mall of Georgia opened up in Buford in 1999, with similar anchors and 400,000 more square feet. This made it the largest mall in Georgia, and a Southeastern draw.

First-floor mallway views. This is truly a shiny, stunning masterpiece with the beautiful architecture and modernity of its time beyond nothing else. 

     Even with a competitor on the rise, NPM kept steaming ahead. A minor renovation in 2003 still had the mall in favor. A small hit was taken when L&T vanished from mall maps and was subsequently replaced by Belk, which failed in 2009. This formed a big problem the mall needed to face, with Parisian now empty as of 2007 due to the Belk buyout. There were two vacant anchors, and following consolidation (that forced Rich's to become Macy's) there were less candidates for replacement. The solution was quick and simple. Parisian became an AMC theatre, and Atlanta's first Von Maur was opened in the Belk space. The new Von Maur was seriously beautiful, with a treatment similar to the Saks at Phipps. Included was a interior façade of red brick, which while it would seem it would clash with the all-white interior, added a nice accent and some change in the mall. VM also brought another upscale anchor to the mall, to take advantage of the surrounding demographics. The aforementioned Avalon was opened in 2014, taking Apple, Pottery Barn, William-Sonoma, and GAP. Ugh.

The trusswork and skylights here are uncomparable. 

     While it doesn't seem like it, North Point is in the right position to beat the Avalon. In my circa-2021 plan, JCPenney becomes Nordstrom, Sears becomes Neiman-Marcus, and if needed, Macy's becomes Saks or L&T. Belk may work somewhere if it goes for an A-class Belk, like one found at Phipps. This would better fit the mall and the area and beat Avalon, which I hate with my life and passion. One of the entrances could become a Cumberland Mall-esque lifestyle area, with PF Chang's, Cali Pizza Kitchen, and lifestyle tenants to compete with the Avalon on a new stage. I mean, that's what they want right?

When the elevator moves, the Starbucks sign does too. That's some genius engineering.

Absolutely beautiful. Compliments the mall so well, and looks like a start to an upscale makeover.

     With all my hope and might, I very well want North Point to stay well and alive for years to come. Truthfully, I can't say I'm surprised with the love for Avalon, given that's the tendency of Atlanta shoppers, but this can be taken advantage of. The redev plan above is pretty much foolproof for sustained success, but the one problem would be bringing in the anchors. Von Maur is a start, and is attractive to more upscale stores. It's not going to be easy, but nothing is in the world of retail. But as so, the Avalon will learn that lesson too. :/

AMC with a children's play area in front.

The world will end whenever Sears makes a store look different than the plain tiled look. 

Here's the food court, with a carousel at the back.