CENTER(ing) DISTRIBUTION

Shopping malls are experiencing rising vacancies as consumer habits shift online. The growth of e-retail has also expanded the need for suburban and urban distribution space. Simultaneously, the U.S. Surgeon General has called for investment in social infrastructure to combat the post-COVID loneliness epidemic. This thesis proposes redesigning underutilized malls as hybrid spaces that merge logistical distribution functions with the social essence of the shopping mall.

The design strategy preserves and enhances human-centric zones while generating revenue through attached distribution hubs. Rack-clad, high-bay storage structures can connect to former big-box stores, which are already suited for shipping and loading. These additions reduce the mall’s sprawl and create last-mile distribution centers, while enabling reinvestment in social programming such as restaurants, recreation zones, and art spaces. The mall’s previously useful social infrastructure, including promenades, escalators, and communal gathering areas, will be rearranged and reinforced to create havens, hubs, and hangout spaces.

Suburban malls are often located along wide, low-density commercial corridors that contribute to sprawl and social isolation. Redesigning them as hybrid centers requires negotiating human -scale accessibility, visibility, and aesthetics, which is an urgent challenge as automation and efficiency increasingly reshape the built environment.

This project positions the mall as both a symbolic and functional social anchor within its community. It challenges the legacy of malls as purely consumerist spaces, instead framing them as resilient, multi-functional public assets in an evolving suburban landscape.

This document is adapted from a presentation delivered to a panel of critics on May 6, 2025 at the University of Virginia School of Architecture. It serves only as a summary of that presentation. Maps and design drawings are cropped or reseized to this format. For full size drawings, questions about the information, or considerations discussed, please contact the author directly.