The Great Mall of the Great Plains

The Great Mall of the Great Plains was constructed in 1997 after several years of financing issues in the process of doing so. Simultaneously the intersection of 151st and I-35 was constructed in projection of the coming traffic to such a large shopping center.[1] However, the mall would not last more than a quarter of a century as it closed its doors for the last time in 2015. While it lingered in its later years as a barren wasteland of empty stores, its ambitious proposal and planning in the 1990s did not account for the coming economic factors that would run it out of business. This mall among many other shopping centers would boom throughout the latter half of the 20th century until the early 2000s. 

The culture of large, physical American shopping centers grew and then declined upon the entrance of humanity into the 21st century. Mall culture was romanticized and became commonly associated with American ideals. Its economic and social advantages proved appealing, especially in air-conditioned, serene, indoor environments. However, this period of face-to-face, bazaar-like social hubs would not last long in a new age of global digitalization. Ultimately this period’s rise in internet usage across the globe would not only replace the need for physical stores like those in the Great Mall but also the very social opportunities said centers offered. The impact of said opportunities remain relevant in the advantageous online world. The physical remnants of these shopping centers, nevertheless, are becoming more and more abandoned. As malls close at an increasing rate, they are becoming relics of the past, archeological sites of the era before the digitalization of the global economy. One such relic, the Great Mall, represents the history of suburbanization and industrialization being overtaken by globalization and digitalization of both culture and the economy. 

When first proposed, the Great Mall—according to the library of Johnson County—was supposed to “feature outlets for high-end department stores, seven to nine anchors, discount retailers, a food court, and possibly also a movie theater. No tenants were signed yet, but developers were optimistic.” [2] This Olathe mall was intended to be considered a peak in the industrialized expansion of leisure, entertainment, and shopping in the American Midwest. This, among many other shopping centers, became quite the attractive economic opportunity in the latter half of the 20th century.

After 1945, a suburban way of both life and socializing began to form and became the subject of romanticism in the United States, especially as the postwar era saw drastic increases in technological innovation. Historian Andrea Vesentini (2018) highlights the various factors that culminated to create such romanticism of a suburban, indoor-outdoors lifestyle with the architectural design, location, and implementation of relatively new technologies such as air conditioning.[3] The rise of popularity in the modern type of malls known in American culture known so well today, according to Vesentini, began in 1956 with architect Victor Bruen designing Southdale Center in Minnesota, essentially the first entirely indoor mall. Bruen designed Southdale as a “shopping citadel [that] had fused into one single building designed around a roofed court devoted to leisure and entertainment…with a large fishpond, plants, sculptures, and ‘sidewalk’ cafes.” [4] This “introverted” form of designing buildings was a trademark of Gruen and other architects since the 1940s. Due to the climatic extremes found in Minnesota, Southdale’s introversion of shopping entirely indoors allowed for a social shopping environment to be accessible year-round without the stress of either harsh weather or noisy automobiles. It would be free from “traffic, pollution, dirt, crime, and bad weather.” [5] He was very biased against automobiles, and the accommodation required for them in architecture was a primary motivator in his design of a pedestrian-oriented area excluding them. However, his artistic and architectural opinion was changing quite often, so eventually Gruen began to favor a blank exterior instead of the grand facades seen at Southdale and the many malls to follow in its steps. Gruen’s (manipulated) vision certainly spread across the country as more and more malls began to pop up after 1956, the same year after the Interstate Highway Act was passed. His vision of a blank consumer experience that isolated itself from city life was violated and soon both America and Europe began building their own versions of Southdale across their respective nations.  

However, most malls did maintain the aspect of said vision in that many malls did not have windows; the introversion allowed concealing the very means that get shoppers to the mall in the first place. This same introversion allowed for Gruen’s designs for other malls of lush, tranquil outdoors environments to be transported indoors to areas, such as the tropical rainforest setting in his design for a Philadelphia mall in 1961. [6] The use of climate control and air conditioning further helped to synchronize the indoors and outdoors regardless of climate. The culmination of lush greenery, air conditioning, and concealment of the “sea of asphalt” outside allowed for malls to become a personal experience with a (faux) natural environment as soon as one steps in the door. [7] 

This same experience could be said for those who were given the opportunity to visit the Great Mall before it was demolished: fake trees, potted plants, and little to no windows other than in the glass doors leading to the parking lot. The primary layout of the mall consisted of a “racetrack,” with a block of shops in the center and shops surrounding the outer walls, similar to the 1964 World’s Fair’s pavilion layout. [8] The food court, however, was built to the side of said “track” to accommodate its spacious commons area. Centered in the food court was a padded, child-proof playground with a giant fake tree in the middle of it. The faux greenery in this area alone was faker than the rest in the shopping center. However, this part of the mall was where I spent a large amount of time as a small child. One of the court’s restaurants, Original Pizza, was arguably a proprietor of the best New-York-Style Pizza (in the American Midwest, that is). Such passionate opinions and emotions for the social ramifications and tantalizing products offered by malls has been no new feature. In a recording of the grand opening ceremony uploaded to YouTube, new shoppers and attendees of the opening are seen wandering through the shopping center’s halls and court. [9] Throughout the day, young children are given the opportunity to sit upon small mechanical rides, and their parents are asked if they had seen any mall like this before, to which most replied they had not. Before the Great Mall’s grand opening, the only nearby malls were in Overland Park and in Kansas City, Missouri. So, the many positive reviews and first impressions for the future of malls and their social opportunities were particularly bright in the 20th century.  

In a CBS documentary (1982) set in a mall only miles away from where the Great Mall of the Great Plains would be constructed, After the Dream Comes True, the consensus and impressions of malls and their social implications on bot h the younger and older generations are explored. CBS correspondent Charles Kuralt begins the report with a generalization of said environment:  

This is the way we live now. Nice, even temperatures; no rain; no snow, no loud noises; music playing. Everything is perfect in the mall. Even if you’re one of the few people who’ve never been inside a shopping mall, you can’t help knowing they’re here. [10] 

Set in the popular Oak Park Mall in Overland Park, Kansas, this documentary tells the story of how what used to be one man, Ralph Walter’s farm was transformed into one of the largest malls in the Kansas City area. In several interviews with regular teenage attendees of Oak Park Mall, one reaffirms Victor Bruen’s ideals of separating his perception of a noisy, crime-ridden city life from a unique customer experience by claiming it’s here, and it’s convenient. And I feel they’re safe—I mean I can come here and really have a good time with my friends and know—that you know—that somebody’s not gonna come up to me and try to attack me, and I can’t go downtown and actually say I’m gonna walk down the streets and something’s not gonna happen to me.[11]  

Not only are the frequent-attending teenagers but parents, too, are asked about their perception of the mall. Some belonging to older generations denounced the social implications of allowing their teenage children going out alone to malls or elsewhere. One such parent claimed having “wheels” or an automobile allowed for more promiscuous activity among teenagers, let alone their children.[12] This same parent speaks in an overprotective tone about their child when they say teenagers no longer feel the need to have their parents accompany them to such places. This is a manner of perspective. As the documentary shows enormous amounts of footage showing teenagers socializing and having fun at Oak Park Mall, it also is showing them maturing and establishing their personal identities, in a sense. This would not last in a physical outlet come the age of the internet. 

As America entered the age of the internet and the 21st century, shopping and cultural opportunities were increasingly becoming more common online with new companies like Facebook and Amazon. Shopping centers sprouting up during the 1990s and early 2000s were essentially doomed to be overshadowed by online competition from the very starts of their development. The appeal of online interactions has drastically increased over the past twenty years or so, thus creating an advantageous competitor to the American shopping mall. Amazon, since 1997, has exponentially increased its sales up to $386.06 Billion.[13] Facebook, let alone other social media companies, has increased its usage number (in millions) seven-fold since 2010 alone.[14] Both of these companies have gained an exponential, ever-increasing popularity for the digitalization of both economic and social opportunities and activities. Thus, the necessity for face-to-face interactions have become relatively scarce as of the beginning of the 21st century. This was certainly reinforced during the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, as both social media and online shopping utilization skyrocketed.  

Last year’s blow to the physical retail and entertainment industry was by no means the only way the mall industry would have entered its final stages of diminishment. Shopping centers, although some have remained active to the best of their ability—including Oak Park Mall, the same establishment portrayed in “After the Dream Comes True”—have generally been dwindling in their attendance and sales in comparison to their former days of glory. It may seem like a fortunately gradual growth of American shopping centers numbering up to 116,000 by 2017.[15] At least 25% of them, however, are projected to close within the next few years, with big companies like Amazon even offering to transform some into locations for their own operations.[16] The very industries and means of their end are immersing and adopting the physical remains of a culture reminiscent of a time before computers. 

The Great Mall was no exception to this downfall. In its final year, occupancy was down to only 50%.[17] However, it may have been doomed from its very opening. Despite the first three years of its operation seeing considerable amounts of guests, celebrity appearances, and ESPN sponsorship, it “projected 12 million visitors in its first year, [but] the mall had enjoyed only 8 million by its first birthday.” [18] Over the course two years after its grand opening, the Great Mall’s larger tenants were already beginning to leave. By 2000, the Dickinson’s cinema had already filed for bankruptcy and by 2008 so too did one of its largest tenants, Steve & Barry’s.[19] By 2015, the mall announced it would be closing its doors for good that fall. 

As the Great Mall (among others) closed more doors, others opened online for those who could no longer visit physical spaces to shop and socialize.  

The internet and digitalization have assisted in the downfall of shopping malls. On a brighter note, however, its benefits that replaced the advantages of mall culture also remain evident today. The same social opportunities that mall culture provided are still accessible to the public today via the internet, if not more. In a Week interview between editor Catherine Garcia and filmmaker Dan Bell, it was admitted that malls now have a completely different meaning than they did 30 years ago, when people — especially teenagers — went to meet friends, go on dates, and just hang out. "Today, there is no social meaning to a mall," Bell said. "It's not the center of the community anymore. We have Facebook now, and Instagram and Twitter…we’ve digitized the food court.” [20] 

Despite its negative impact on face-to-face interactions in shopping malls, social media has led to increased connections with (but not limited to) the advent of shared and recorded media. 

As the Great Mall remains an empty lot today, its memory and impact on the Olathe community is still archived in the Johnson County Library at the very least.[21] Other malls and their memories’ archival vary, with some more fortunate than others to be remembered. But mall culture has not faded entirely. The empty lot that sits in place of the Great Mall, has been reported to be in development of a revitalized commercial district as of 2018.[22] The site’s successors will supposedly construct arenas, hotels, and “250,000 square feet of entertainment/retail/restaurant space.” Despite the pandemic of 2020, as of 2021 there have been no cancellations or barricades in its development despite the loss of tax-related funds from Olathe municipalities. Ultimately, the site still holds potential for economic and social opportunity the same way it was projected when the Great Mall of the Great Plains opened almost twenty years ago.  

This mall serves as an example of the perseverance of mall culture in a rapidly digitizing world. As its doors opened and closed, the Great Mall’s very location retained its potential for commercial development. The shopping center built closely fitting Victor Bruen’s ideal American mall closed due to low attendance, bankruptcy, and the rise of a digitalized market. The internet alone has played a large role in the growth of the American economy since the latter years of the 21st century. However, it simultaneously assisted in the decline of mall popularity and the utilization of physical outlets for economic and social interactions.  

Our society has arguably come under the domination of technology, artificial intelligence, and a dependence on the former two. Instead of the romanticized vision of the American mall with a safe atmosphere, air conditioning, potted plants, and a variety of shopping options to choose from, companies like Amazon and Facebook have eliminated the need for the former three. In doing so, they allow for customers and users to both acquire experiences in online interactions and the products they require or need from numerous sources—all from the comfort of wherever they can access the internet. Despite their shady inner workings, large companies now allow their demographics such large arrangements of products at convenient prices at the cost of workers’ rights, privacy, among other possible payments.  

The online world may dominate the economy and culture of our world today, but mall culture still exists online through its outlets for social and economic interactions. Mall culture, in its decline, was reborn through the internet. It is still accommodating social and economic opportunity in mass outlets. The only true change in this culture was in the outlets from which these opportunities were offered. So, the “social meaning” of the mall has been digitally reincarnated.[23] The American shopping mall’s mark on our national culture remains relevant today as convenient shopping choices and social connections are emphasized online. 

1. Mike Keller, “A Great History of the Great Mall of the Great Plains. Part Two: The Prehistory of the Great Mall (1987 to 1991).” JoCoHistory Blog, December 16, 2020. https://jocohistory.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/a-great-history-of-the-great-mall-of-the-great-plains-part-one-the-prehistory-of-the-great-mall-1987-to-1991/. 
2. Ibid. 
3. Andrea Vesentini. “Indoor America: The Interior Landscape of Postwar Suburbia.,” OUP Academic (Oxford University Press, October 21, 2020), https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article/125/4/1445/5933573. 
4. Ibid., 174-175. 
5. Ibid., 176. 
6. Ibid., 179. 
7. Ibid., 180. 
8. Mike Keller, “A Great History of the Great Mall of the Great Plains. Part Four: There Will Be Carpet (1997),” JoCoHistory Blog, December 16, 2020, https://jocohistory.wordpress.com/2020/08/20/a-great-history-of-the-great-mall-of-the-great-plains-part-four-there-will-be-carpet-1997/. 
9. Mr. Concordiat, “Great Mall of the Great Plains: Opening Ceremony,” Mr. Concordiat (YouTube, February 24, 2020), 33:00-1:00:07, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cb28ThjKOKQ. 
10. Craig Leake and Charles Kuralt, “After the Dream Comes True,” YouTube (CBS, March 20, 2018), 00:30-00:47 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RkxhXQnVSw. 
11. Ibid., 16:57-17:17. 
12. Ibid., 38:30-42:35. 
13. Felix Richter, “Chart: Amazon's Incredible Long-Term Growth,” Statista (Statista Infographics, February 3, 2021), https://www.statista.com/chart/4298/amazons-long-term-growth/. 
14. Mansoor Iqbal, “Facebook Revenue and Usage Statistics (2021),” Business of Apps (Business of Apps, April 6, 2021), https://www.businessofapps.com/data/facebook-statistics/#6. 
15. Statista Research Department, “Number of Shopping Malls in the U.S. 2017,” Statista (Statista Research Department, January 12, 2021), https://www.statista.com/statistics/208059/total-shopping-centers-in-the-us/. 
16. Lauren Thomas, “25% Of U.S. Malls Are Expected to Shut within 5 Years. Giving Them a New Life Won't Be Easy,” CNBC (CNBC, August 27, 2020), https://www.cnbc.com/2020/08/27/25percent-of-us-malls-are-set-to-shut-within-5-years-what-comes-next.html. 
17. Mike Keller, “A Great History of the Great Mall of the Great Plains. Part Six: Troubles (1998-1999),” JoCoHistory Blog, December 16, 2020, https://jocohistory.wordpress.com/2020/11/08/a-great-history-of-the-great-mall-of-the-great-plains-part-five-troubles-1998-to-1999/. 
18. Ibid. 
19. Mike Keller, “A Great History of the Great Mall of the Great Plains. Part Six: Attention Shoppers, The Mall Will Be Closing In Fifteen Years (2000 to 2008),” JoCoHistory Blog, December 16, 2020, https://jocohistory.wordpress.com/2020/12/13/a-great-history-of-the-great-mall-of-the-great-plains-part-six-attention-shoppers-the-mall-will-be-closing-in-fifteen-years-2000-to-2008/. 
20. Catherine Garcia, “Meet the Man Keeping America's Dead Malls Alive,” The Week (The Week, September 7, 2019), https://theweek.com/articles/859739/meet-man-keeping-americas-dead-malls-alive. 
21. Keller, “A Great History of the Great Mall of the Great Plains. Part One: The Prehistory of the Great Mall (1987 to 1991).” https://jocohistory.wordpress.com/2020/05/10/a-great-history-of-the-great-mall-of-the-great-plains-part-one-the-prehistory-of-the-great-mall-1987-to-1991/. 
22. Sam Hartle, “Company Announces $300M Plan for Great Mall of Great Plains Site,” KSHB (KSHB, October 16, 2018), https://www.kshb.com/news/local-news/company-announces-300m-plan-for-great-mall-of-great-plains-site.  
23. Garcia, “Meet the Man Keeping America's Dead Malls Alive,” https://theweek.com/articles/859739/meet-man-keeping-americas-dead-malls-alive.