A nearly dead shopping mall in Albuquerque provides this rather bleak perspective.
The Winrock Mall is one of the latest victims (at least in part) of the suffering U.S. economy. In the latter decades of the 20th century, it was the retail center of town. But the owners neglected to update it, shoppers and stores started going elsewhere, and the economy put the final nail in the coffin — the mall now sits open but nearly vacant.
Apparently the place is going to be re-developed (i.e., torn down and rebuilt in a more modern style) at some point in the not-too-distant future, but in the meantime, it’s still open for business — even though only two or three of its stores remain open.
The place gave me the feel of a zombie building — it’s dead, but it doesn’t seem to know that yet. The carpets are clean, trash cans emptied regularly, but almost nobody walks its halls. Some abandoned areas apparently became hangouts for teenagers, so they’ve been cordoned off to avoid any shenanigans.
This picture shows what used to be the mall’s movie theater. Potted plants at the top of the escalator block access by honest people, while steel gates and concertina barbed wire at the bottom block access by those who may be more… persistent.
I’ll admit that this is an odd place to take pictures, but my wife wanted to shop in one of the surviving stores, and since I’d just bought my camera, I figured I might as well make some lemonade from this lemon of a building.
Besides, it’s not as if I could get in anybody’s way…
More images from the mall are in the gallery if you’re interested.
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