When Victor Gruen, the man credited with designing the first shopping center in the early 1950s, laid out plans for new shopping centers, in genre specified the land to be included and used for community and civic purposes. This might surprise many people; as most malls today rarely include such luxuries. Land adjacent to shopping centers is usually prime real estate, and to increase revenue, shopping centers often sell off the far reaches of their parking lots; typically for the construction of restaurant chains. Not exactly what Gruen had in mind. In this essay I will focus on the Mall at Partridge Creek. While I recognize that Partridge Creek is not yet what Gruen envisioned, I think it is trying to distinguish itself from the traditional mall and provide a more community feel to the shopping experience. The Mall at Partridge Creek is laid out according to the standard mall layout: a long loop of small boutique-type retail stores with multi-story department stores, or "anchor stores," at each end of the loop. The main distinction is that it is an "open-air shopping centre", there are no external walls or ceilings beyond the shops themselves; Outside of stores, shoppers are exposed to the elements, whether favorable or unfavorable. This is a bold design choice considering Michigan's bitter winter and rainy spring seasons. To compensate for the harsh climate, the cobblestone walkways are heated, to ensure there is no build-up of snow or ice to contend with; However, the layout of the mall has one drawback, it creates a wind tunnel effect with even the slightest gust, which seems to intensify even the slightest unfavorable weather. Yet die-hard s......middle of paper......are set up throughout the mall itself; which, along with free WiFi Internet access, offers visitors the chance to relax and unwind while enjoying the outdoors and views. In this way, The Mall at Partridge Creek could serve as the secondary purpose of a third place, which Dr. Oldenburg describes as “neutral ground” – where friends can meet, where “one is neither a guest nor a guest of the other, where you can come and go as you please." My conclusion, then, is that while the Mall at Partridge Creek is still a shopping mall – promoting consumerism and the display of status with its high-end branded stores, it was also developed to instill a sense of community and neighborhood to its customers. The mall's design is reminiscent of a downtown mall, and the amenities encourage conversation and shared experiences for patrons of all ages.