A couple of weeks ago, we asked photographer Stephan Rauch to explain why he takes so many pictures of shopping malls. What we got back was a short essay on Victor Gruen, the guy who designed the first shopping mall in the world. His ambition was to create meeting places for the American suburbs that would imitate those in European city centers. Which is strange, because we consulted our European offices and they have never seen an aquarium, a chapel, and a safari-themed amusement park all put together in one place before.
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