Renzo Piano, the Italian architect more than three years ago got attached with a very uncommon project. The project was to establish in San Francisco Area a $300 billion suburban shopping center.
During the time when this project was undertaken by Renzo shopping malls were facing a stark decline with retail sales already beginning to plummet, and umpteen number of stores were forced to shut down.
Things don’t appear to have changed much other than worsening with time.
The year 2017 mark the commencement of what can be named as the retail apocalypse.
A number of big-box stores like JC Penney, Sears and Macy’s forced hundreds of companies and sites like Payless to fill for bankruptcy.
Business Insider by April 2018 had predicted that more than 3,800 stores will be forced to shutter their doors by the end of this year in United States.
However none of these issues seem to disturb the City Center Bishop Ranch, the sole creation of Renzo Piano Building Workshop, which is going to be inaugurated in November.
The mall which is very soon going to welcome its first round of visitors is spread over 300,000 square feet and encases within itself a total of 70 stores and restaurants along with outdoors areas for art exhibits and performances and luxury cinema.
The main motive behind building the mall is to bring some urban inspired , mixed use space to suburbs.
The project opens at a time when the life of any retail store is jeopardized, yet the magnificent structure and features of the mall is bound to hold its visitors attention for a long time.
The mall has an open air square which resembles with an Italian piazza, and according to a partner at the Renzo Piano Building Workshop Mr. Antonio Belvedere the square is the most important design element of the building.
Source: BusinessInsider, TheAtlantic
