Shopping Town is the long overdue account of the father of the shopping mall, whose work fundamentally altered the course of city development. Highlighting Victor Gruen's sense of humor and reflections on the postwar transformation of American cities, it embeds his experiences and perspectives in a wider social and political context while revealing his problematic place in American architectural culture.
Author Biography
Victor Gruen (1903-1980) was an architect and planner who specialized in a range of retail landscapes. He was the author of The Heart of Our Cities and Shopping Towns USA. Anette Baldauf is professor of epistemology and methodology at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, Austria. She is the author or coauthor of several books in German.
Reviews
"Victor Gruen may well have been the most influential architect of the twentieth century. He invented the mall."-Malcolm Gladwell, The New Yorker "Gruen offers readers insight into one of the most significant cultural and economic powerhouses of the mid-century: the suburban shopping mall."-New York-Pennsylvania Collector
