Docomomo-US/MI announces its 2022 Tour Day event, “Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall” Book Talk and In-Person Conversations about Michigan's Northland Center. This event is presented by Docomomo-US/MI, in collaboration with The Southfield Public Library, the Southfield Historical Society and Book Beat.

Date: Thursday, October 6, 2022, 5:30 - 7:45 p.m.

Location: Southfield Public Library Meeting Room

26300 Evergreen Road, Southfield, MI 48076

• 5:30pm – Refreshments
• 6:00pm – Presentations
• 7:15pm – Panel Discussion and Q&A Session

Books available for sale courtesy of Book Beat, an independent bookstore in Oak Park, MI. The public is welcome to attend this free event. Seating is limited. Registration required.

Link to Register for Event: https://events.getlocalhop.com/meet-me-by-the-fountain-an-inside-history-of-the-mall/event/CKHz8KvInZ/

Keynote Speaker:

• Alexandra Lange, architecture critic + author of the newly-released book, Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

Featured Speakers:

• Megan McAdow, Director of the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, Saginaw, MI!
• Bruce Kopytek, AIA NCARB, author of Hudson's: Detroit's World-Famous Department Store and
• Chief Architect at Contour Companies, Bloomfield Hills, MI

Moderator:

• Deborah Lubera Kawsky, Art Historian and President, Docomomo/MI

Join the Michigan Chapter of Docomomo US, the Southfield Public Library and the Southfield Historical Society as we explore the history and future of shopping malls across the nation, with a focus on Michigan’s iconic Northland Center in Southfield. The event will include a book talk and in-person conversations about Michigan's Northland Center.

The in-person event begins with a recorded talk by architecture critic, Alexandra Lange, author of the newly-released book, Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall. Following the talk, Lange will join us on zoom for a conversation in the library, featuring two short, inperson presentations by Megan McAdow, Director of the Marshall Fredericks Museum, and Bruce Kopytek, AIA NCARB, author of Hudson's: Detroit's World-Famous Department Store and Chief Architect at Contour Companies. McAdow will discuss the role that art played in Michigan's malls, with a focus on the Fredericks Boy and Bear sculpture located in the library's lobby. Kopytek will discuss Contour Companies' multi-faceted project to redevelop the Northland site, which features the adaptive re-use of the original J.L. Hudson's building and other historic structures and signature elements.

About Docomomo Tour Day

The only national program of its kind, Docomomo Tour Day is devoted to the appreciation of modern architecture in the United States. Tours and events focused on architecture and design of the Modern Movement are hosted by Docomomo US chapters, partners, and leading voices in preservation.

This year’s thematic focus is Shopping Malls. As the population shift stretched out into! the suburbs, it transformed the idea of commerce. Shopping malls became a staple of American society after the Second World War, providing convenient access to domestic needs while offering social and cultural components. Early malls were small, open-air groupings of commercial enterprises with a small parking lot out front. But the idea rapidly expanded with the creation of the fully enclosed malls in Edina, Minnesota (Southdale Center, 1956) and in Southfield, Michigan (Northland Center, open air mall opened in 1954 and enclosed in 1975), among many others. This new take on suburban commercial structures began the trend for these sprawling structures that became ubiquitous within our built fabric and only continued to morph and change over the course of the 20th century.

Today, shopping malls are at a critical point of flux. Younger generations are choosing cities over suburbs, consumers purchase goods online in the comfort of their homes, and the COVID-19 pandemic challenges our health and comfort of being around large groups of people. As part of this pivot away from these massive structures, it is critical that we begin to analyze what is left, what is historic and what we should save, who malls were built for, and their role in promoting both segregation and assimilation in American society.

Tour Day 2022 will take place Saturday October 8 and throughout the month of October. For more information on Docomomo US and Tour Day 2022 programs and events, visit the Docomomo US website.

About Docomomo-US/MI

Docomomo-US/Michigan is a state chapter of Docomomo US, a national organization dedicated to the preservation of modern architecture, landscape, and design. The Michigan chapter was founded in 2014 to continue the work of the Michigan State Historic Preservation Office’s “Michigan Modern” initiative to document and bring international attention to Michigan’s Modernist design legacy and its importance to American history. Docomomo-US/MI promotes this through documentation, education, and advocacy. To learn more about the chapter’s activities and Modern sites in Michigan, visit our website at https://www.docomomo-mi.org/

About Alexandra Lange

Alexandra Lange is a design critic and author. Lange’s essays, reviews and profiles have appeared in numerous design publications including Architect, Harvard Design Magazine, and Metropolis, as well as in The Atlantic, New York Magazine, The New Yorker, and the New York Times. Lange is a columnist for Bloomberg CityLab, and has been a featured writer at Design Observer, an opinion columnist at Dezeen, and the architecture critic for Curbed. Her latest book, Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall, was published by Bloomsbury USA in June 2022. Her previous book, The Design of Childhood: How the Material World Shapes Independent Kids was published in 2018. Alexandra is also the author of Writing About Architecture: Mastering the Language of Buildings and Cities (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012), a primer on how to read and write architecture criticism, as well as the e-book The Dot-Com City: Silicon Valley Urbanism (Strelka, 2012), which considers the message of the physical spaces of Facebook, Google, and Apple.