The Eternal Springs Mall adventure is an immersive experience that will bring the guest back to the 90s through kinetic features, nostalgic media, merchandise, and entertainment.
Guests can enjoy a live fashion show and fountain show daily, as well as an end of the day dance party reenacting a New Year’s Eve Party.
Get dolled up at Glamour Shots! Play nostalgic games in the electronics shops, and explore new High-tech inventions that the technician at the electronics shop has invented!
Kids can enjoy the slinky sky nets and slides, toy shop, and candy shop!
Shop at the record shop, apparel shop and buy all the 90s and 80s nostalgic fashions that are back again, as well as new designs created by the mall staff.
This experience will appeal to Gen-X, Millennials, Gen-Z, as well as children. Gen-X and Millennials will enjoy the nostalgia with the new twist, and Gen-Z will enjoy experiencing the mall in its true glory, as well as the resurgence of the fashions and technology that are popular again.
This experience is sustainable and would reuse architecture from a dead mall, which are often time-capsules as is. It would also allow to promote sustainable retail like vintage, and small businesses.
Abandoned malls or “dead malls” are malls that are mostly vacant due to changes in the retail climate including losing large anchors that attract visitors. For people who grew up with happy memories going to the Mall, seeing these spaces slowly deteriorate is depressing and almost haunting. By repurposing these abandoned spaces, it preserves natural resources by minimizing the consumption of additional land, reduced construction waste, and can combat urban sprawl.
For this concept, I used the Fashion Square Mall as a reference and inspiration to repurpose.
Final Story Synopsis:
The year is 1999. The place is Eternal Springs Mall. Opened in 1986, located in Orlando, Florida. The country is preparing for Y2K and the potential collapse of technology. Malls are in their glory of being a supreme destination for entertainment. To quote Homer Simpson said: “For an evening or a week, there’s no place like the mall. Food, fun and fashion, the mall has it all!”
The staff and some friends of Eternal Springs Mall snuck in to throw a NYE bash for Y2K. As the clock struck midnight, what everyone feared would happen, happened. All of the computers went haywire! This spurred the security system to engage in a lock-in, permanently shutting the mall crew inside.
The crew believed that the rest of the world was in the same boat. With no way to escape, they created their own paradise. They kept physically fit by creating slinky net climbing courses for fitness and fun. They continued their rituals of fashion shows and maintaining the malls. They invented new technologies, all without the internet or outside influence. They took the food court recipes and improved them, creating their own duplicates of mall classics, but even better. They evolved in fashion while still keeping some trends of the 80s and 90s. They became engineers, inventors, and entrepreneurs. They maintained all of the plants as they grew larger and larger into a botanical garden that would envy a fancy conservatory.
With no way to get in, the world moved on and forgot about the once popular Mall. Until in 2023, a group of friends discovered the mall on a hike. This group of explorers made negotiations with the mall people to allow visitors. With great excitement, the two groups came to terms to open Eternal Springs Mall: Mallways and Forever! The mall people have not experienced any new technology outside of their bubble past 1999, and are fearful of the internet so any smartphone devices cannot be used inside the experience. Besides that, you are welcome to come, play and explore!