Mall of Georgia, Buford, GA

     The Mall of Georgia, located in the Atlanta suburb of Buford, deserves its name. It's Georgia's largest mall, but that isn't all it can be proud of. It's a picture of what a mall can be with extensive planning after the main mall era. The mall is arguably the most unique of all of them in Atlanta, and quite appropriately, maybe even Georgia. Brought along with it was a major effect on Atlanta retail. Buford suddenly had a major retail scene and boomed following the mall's opening. Needless to say, the Mall of Georgia did some big things to Georgia, for better or worse.

Here's the directory for the crescent-shaped mall. By the way, there is another floor above the first floor map. In fact, there is a third floor too, with only a cinema. 

Here's the corridor from Dick's to the main mall. To the left of me, along with an entrance, is a bungee jumping structure. It's been there forever, though I don't know if it's been in operation since the mall opened. 

     The MoG opening goes beyond the opening itself. Even in planning and construction, it was obvious Simon expected a large-scale project. And the mall goes beyond the mall itself. Looking at old aerials, Buford Drive, the road the mall is on, didn't always look the way it did. What was once a simple stop-sign I-85 exit became sprawl, with the exit becoming a cloverleaf and stoplights on both sides. What was once farmland became strip malls and big-boxes. What was once quiet roads became median-filled trafficked streets. And don't forget that most of this happened in a short time span of only a few years. Malls can definitely change a landscape, but something this scale was scarily different. Mall of Georgia's impact can even be counted for the rapid expansion of northeastern Atlanta and the fact that the suburbs pretty much go all the way to Gainesville at this point. 

View of the Belk court. This acts as a divider between the center court/food court area and the eastern section of the mall. 

Belk/Lord and Taylor mall entrance. Sure, this was Belk's first Atlanta location in decades, but they didn't turn it unique. The marble entrance gives away its origin. Photoshop the Belk logo out, and add L&T's script logo the sides and you wouldn't know the difference.

Opposite of Belk is this entrance. That's a Forever 21 on the left, one of many junior anchors. Spoiler alert : all of these entrances look the same.

     The Mall of Georgia opened up to a great start in 1999. It was one of the nation's most upscale and largest malls, and the benefits didn't stop there. The original anchors were very strong for being pre-consolidation and before the death of the various discounters. These anchors also provided a more diverse and far superior experience than other Atlanta malls. Those with money had Lord and Taylor and Nordstrom to play in. Traditional department stores had a space to exist, with Dillard's and JCPenney to shop in. Bed Bath and Beyond, Galyan's Sporting Goods, and Haverty's Furniture filled in niches for shoppers. And it wouldn't be an Atlanta mall without a Rich's, the local favorite store that entered the mall in a three-floor store. In 1999, you couldn't get much better than this. It also only seemed true that a Mall of Georgia would have top-class anchors to support it. However, only Rich's and Haverty's were actually based in Georgia. Only one would last past 2005 though, and in 2003 all was done for it.

Approaching the food court. This is where an architecturally excellent mall gets a step further.

This is the back area of the food court. If you thought this was expansive, your thoughts won't matter soon. The kiosks cluttering the area don't help though.

It wouldn't be a late-era mall without a carousel.

Looking from the carousel up to the roof, featuring the large clock and the cinema sign. This makes me dizzy somehow.

     The mall would experience some small turbulence throughout its early years, but nothing to be worried about. On June 22, 2004, news came that Dick's had purchased the Plainfield, Indiana-based Galyan's concern. Shortly after, the Galyan's was converted into a Dick's operation. Galyan's was more similar to REI and Dick's had more rec sports equipment, causing the merger. But a year before, Rich's started the original consolidation to Macy's, making the mall lose an anchor in a way. This was obviously not a problem though, with Macy's taking up the spot as soon as Rich's "closed". Rich's became Rich's-Macy's, and lastly Macy's in 2005. Also around this time, Lord and Taylor left the mall and all of its other Georgia locations. Yet even this couldn't stop the mall. With far less anchor choices those days, Simon opted for the addition of a store pretty much forgotten by then for Atlantan's : Belk.

Food courts don't get much better than this. This is supposed to resemble a former Atlanta train station. Why do all train stations seem to have the NBC peacock look?

This was taken to show the levels of the mall, from first to second to third. 

Here's one side of the food court area. Note the gingerbread house-designed roof. I find it a little weird with the rest of the mall.

     Belk brought much more than the Mall of Georgia store with it. Today, Atlanta is the biggest market for the store, with the 20 metro locations (soon to be 19, with the closure of the Phipps Plaza store) and a local liking. The markets include even Charlotte, which is where Belk is headquartered, and Dallas, Belk's newest market. It helped that Belk entered the market after Rich's left, clearing a strong competitor. In fact, Belk's entrance helped a lot for Georgia as a whole. It gave way to more urban Belks, when the store only had a knowledge of rural areas. If Mall of Georgia did hurt other malls, it at least did something for the state.

Now we head into the western section of the mall. This small area is probably the most toned-down section of the mall. I would go as far to saying it looks a bit plain and like every other 90's mall. 

90's corridor, meet 90's Penney's look. 90's Penney's look, meet 90's corridor.

Here's the JCPenney court. It at least looks a little different. Good news, things only pick up from here.

     The last anchor switch came pretty recently. Nordstrom left their anchor spot in 2015, giving way for Von Maur's third Atlanta store. I'm a little surprised with the closure of Nordstrom. The Buford area gained lots of new money thanks to the mall and Lake Lanier is nearby. Buford is far from poor, or even middle-class. It's also one of the hottest and cheapest real estate markets in the US. Buford could have easily handled a Nordstrom store, in my opinion. The reason behind the closure remains a mystery to me, and possibly Buford residents alike. 

Going farther down the mall. In the background is the start of the Plains section and the Macy's court.

Macy's, once Rich's, doesn't sport anything special. This is ironic, because Rich's was special, but Macy's really isn't. It's not a great sign when pretty much every mall had a Macy's at some point.

In Macy's court is this decent fountain. This isn't the only fountain in the mall, but one of five. A fountain is also located in The Village, a lifestyle section outside the food court. I didn't photograph that as it was raining and cold.

     The Mall of Georgia is pretty much on top of the world now. The mall is in its prime, and has never looked better. This felt obvious to me as I visited on a Sunday afternoon and struggled to take pictures. The mall was packed by the thousands. Every food place had a solid line and the food court was filled with people. This isn't a small, dinky food court, mind you. This is a cavernous food court with oodles of seating. The situation was so bad that I saw people eating on the benches on the second floor. Included in the fun were the anchors, all decked out for Christmas and filled with people. It was a splendid scene to see. Sure, lots of malls are dying nowadays, but not every one is. Mall of Georgia has the look, vibe, and crowd to show it can be a contender decades down the road. Days like this are helping its cause.

Here we enter the Coastal section, which looks like a plantation in mall form. This section includes Dillard's and Shoe Dept., a major junior anchor.

Dillard's entrance is easily complemented by the surrounding architecture. Dillard's could have put an all-white entrance and it still would have looked good.

Dillard's from close-up.

     Mall of Georgia is a unique case for a mall. Despite its size and opulence, you could say there's only one thing to be worried about. JCPenney is the only anchor I'm worried about. I'm interested in what the plans for the store are given that the company isn't really doing so hot as of late. Does Nordstrom reenter the picture? For replacements, all I can think of are upscale options. This puts an interesting scene in the movie, given that Buford has money. Wealthy folks spend their weekends often at their Lanier lakehouses, giving the mall a regular boost of rich consumers. The Buford area is also home to a few notable people, including Atlanta Falcons receiver Julio Jones. A man getting paid multi-million dollars isn't moving to the bad side of town. 

Dillard's from the second floor. Should I be worried that a mall is ready for Christmas over a month before the actual holiday?

Near Dillard's is this unremarkable entrance.

Macy's from the second floor.

Entrance wing across from Macy's. Haverty's entrance is down there.

     Anyways, future aside, the Mall of Georgia carries some architectural clout. The mall is divided into multiple sections, representing the terrain of Georgia. One section shows the mountains, the piedmont, the coast, and the plains. Also included are two arcades near the food court. Numerous fountains populate the mall throughout, with the grandest one being in the Village. This fountain is the largest and opens up, meaning children can play in it during the summer heat. The other fountains are still special though. Each section has its own fountain, except the food court. These fountains fit in with the theme of the section they are located in. In an era where it seems fountains are being neglected, seeing them aplenty in a mall is refreshing (no pun intended). 

Here's the second floor view of the Plains section. 

I didn't take this photo to show Finish Line but instead the interesting accent feature. Throughout the mall, signs like this list off municipalities, towns, and counties in Georgia. This would probably only work in, well, the Mall of GEORGIA.

The end of the Plains section. Each section greets shoppers with a large sign sporting the main theme.

JCPenney entrance wing. All the entrances look the same for the most part.

JCPenney from the second floor.

     If you like it or not, the Mall of Georgia changed the norm of shopping in Atlanta. If you are unhappy with this, you must realize that MoG isn't only to blame. Not far south is the Mills-developed Sugarloaf Mills. These malls opened back to back with a common target. Gwinnett Place Mall reigned supreme for 16 years and was beginning to age. Atlanta had boomed through the 90's and carried a strong economy. And so the two shopping pillars were constructed. Gwinnett Place was pretty much doomed from then on. It currently operates in dead mall status with Macy's, Sears, and two nontraditional anchors (more info elsewhere on this blog). Sure, a perfectly good was ruined, but does it matter when it's replaced by a perfectly good, even better, mall?

Theatre.

To put in perspective on the sheer size of the mall, here's a photo from the third floor to the first. It's trippy.

Technically, this is the main entrance. This is the opposite of the food court on the second floor.

Back towards Von Maur is this empty anchor pad. If Simon ever felt the need to expand, this is probably where it would go. This was possibly for Parisian, but that's out of the question with Belk here and the fact that Parisian died out 11 years ago.

     It's safe to say that you shouldn't be in a rush to visit the Mall of Georgia. So often we love dead malls, but sometimes you need to step back and look at the bigger picture. Live malls aren't always washed down and tasteless. MoG is an example of this. It's one of the best in the US, yet by no means is it boring. The architecture is excellent and the enjoyment is endless. I love a dead mall too, but do they check these boxes? 

Now for the decadent mountain wing. The Christmas décor takes this to a new level.

Von Maur from up closer. 

Barnes and Noble.

Dick's look as it normally would.

Von Maur's newest stores look nice as always.

The only other decent outdoor photo I have is this one of Macy's. 

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.