Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Understanding The Resiliency Of The Kalamazoo Mall, Emily Szymanski

Masters Theses

The Kalamazoo Mall is the first pedestrian mall in the United States. Since then the Mall has gone through many changes. The Mall was first created to be a completely pedestrian-friendly space closed off to cars and to help revitalize the downtown after suburban mall competition. However, the Mall did not keep people downtown as expected, resulting in the reintroduction of automobile traffic in two of the four blocks of the Mall. In spite of these changes Although there have been several changes, the Mall still exists today while many pedestrian Malls have closed. This thesis seeks to understand the …