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The Galleria because it embodies Texas and Houston--one whole gigantic unit. The Galleria III (with the inaccessable Macy's) alludes to the lack of zoning!
The Mall at Steamtown: It was built in the early-1990s at a time when Downtown Scranton had officially hit "rock bottom" with prostitution, blight, and economic depression. The mall has proven itself to be a worthy catalyst for nearby urban renewal thanks to all of the suburban foot traffic it brought to the downtown. Now, the city's downtown is looking better than ever, and a half-dozen new mixed-use projects are on the horizon in the next 2-4 years. Unfortunately, short-sighted developers recently opened "The Shoppes @ Montage" lifestyle center in the nearby suburb of Moosic, which has already snatched several businesses out of Steamtown with more to follow. If the downtown mall collapses in onto itself due to its new suburban competition, I fear a lot of the progress being made downtown (lofts, galleries, coffee houses, upcoming medical school, etc.) could come to a screeching halt. I HATE SPRAWL!
THe St. Louis Galleria is pretty impressive. It is a fortress basically 2 miles long and dominates an entire city block. Still, I have always been more impressed with Chicago's skyscraper malls.
Give me a mainstreet or downtown district not an ugly, sprawling mall filled with boring suburbanites buying more junk for their cookie cutter homes.
The Main Streets are dead though. Been to my area lately? They just opened up a new "lifestyle center" in suburbia that essentially REPLICATES the very Main Streets that the malls destroyed! Shoppers were interviewed by the local media on the grand opening, and they said things such as "It's great to be able to walk on a sidewalk between stores" and "the brick buildings are very cozy." Wake up you stupid morons! All these developers did was relocate our once-vibrant downtown areas out to the suburban frontier! How is THAT "progress?" Lemmings, lemmings, lemmings...sigh.
I'm a downtown person but for malls I like:
South Coast Plaza
Galleria Houston
Americana Manhasset
Northpark Dallas
Tyson's Corner Center/Tyson's Galleria
Nice atmosphere
Nice selection of designer stores
Nice selection of good restaurants after you shop.
The Main Streets are dead though. Been to my area lately? They just opened up a new "lifestyle center" in suburbia that essentially REPLICATES the very Main Streets that the malls destroyed! Shoppers were interviewed by the local media on the grand opening, and they said things such as "It's great to be able to walk on a sidewalk between stores" and "the brick buildings are very cozy." Wake up you stupid morons! All these developers did was relocate our once-vibrant downtown areas out to the suburban frontier! How is THAT "progress?" Lemmings, lemmings, lemmings...sigh.
Sometimes lifestyle centers do not contain department stores; only rip-off speciality chains. Apparently this one in my neighborhood is killing my childhood mall. Most people would rather drive through the traffic of freeway construction to shop at Macy's, Dillard's, or other unavailable specialty stores in a upper-class post-suburban mall than to go to the closer mall in my old (as they describe it) "ghetto" neighborhood.
I agree its tacky. Very tacky. I always wonder why didn't they locate this in the Katy-town (a.k.a. Old Katy)? The townsite is filled with antique shops, small branch banks, a locally owned hardware store with a lumber yard, an auto parts store, some churches, and a city hall in the middle with a water tower sticking out on the half-block square. The lifestyle center could revitalize a real town.
Another lifestyle center was built before this one in another suburb. In this case, the city hall moved from its townsite location to the lifestyle center. There is a 10-year old mall with a new lifestyle center wing adjacent to it. With the city hall located there, it is essentialy the new downtown.
OakBrook Terrace in Illinois is quite nice, as is Woodfield Mall. However, downtown Chicago takes the cake, many cool indoor malls, all are gorgeous. The Water Tower Place is pretty neat, but there are many fine malls, I cant remember their names off the top of my head...
Give me a mainstreet or downtown district not an ugly, sprawling mall filled with boring suburbanites buying more junk for their cookie cutter homes.
Agreed. Need to develop our downtown districts more and stop building these malls.
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I HATE SPRAWL!
All these developers did was relocate our once-vibrant downtown areas out to the suburban frontier! How is THAT "progress?" 
Lemmings, lemmings, lemmings...sigh. 
Downtown Seattle is alive and well.
