An Accessible Location The Mall of America is ide-
ally situated for accessibility by the populations of
Minneapolis and St. Paul. Its proximity to an inter-
national airport has made it possible for the mall, in
cooperation with various airlines, to offer special in-
ducements to fly people from abroad to Minnesota
for shopping sprees at the legendary mall. The site
on which the mall was constructed was originally oc-
cupied by the Metropolitan Sports Arena and Met
Stadium, where the Minnesota Twins baseball team
played for many years. One seat from the Met Sta-
dium was placed in the Mall of America at the spot it
originally occupied to mark the 520-foot home run
hit by Harmon Killebrew, who went on to be en-
shrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
The Bloomington Port Authority contracted with
the Triple Five Group, the Canadian concern that
built the West Edmonton Mall, to construct a
megamall in Bloomington. Ground was broken for
the Mall of America on June 14, 1989, and some
three years later, on August 11, 1992, the mall
opened its doors to its first customers.
Impact The Mall of America has become an Ameri-
can icon. Within its walls are a fourteen-screen
movie theater, a wedding chapel, a church, an eigh-
teen-hole miniature golf course, and an alternative
high school, the Metropolitan Learning Alliance.
The Hiawatha Light Rail connects the mall to the
nearby international airport and to downtown Min-
neapolis.
The economic impact of the Mall of America has
been substantial. It has turned suburban Blooming-
ton, the third-largest city in Minnesota, into a thriv-
ing metropolis with a workforce of thousands of peo-
ple who have jobs ancillary to those of the twelve
thousand people employed directly in the mall it-
self. Visitors from around the world have come to
Minnesota, the northernmost of the forty-eight con-
tiguous states, to visit and shop in the mall.
Further Reading
Herwig, Oliver.Dream Worlds: Architecture and En-
tertainment. New York: Prestel, 2006. A well-
illustrated volume especially valuable for its
chapter titled “Southdale Mall and the Mall of
America: A Shopping Universe.”
Lysloff, René T. A., and Leslie C. Gay, Jr.Music and
Technoculture. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan Uni-
versity Press, 2003. Especially relevant is chapter
13, “Sounds Like the Mall of America: Pro-
grammed Music and the Archtectonics of Com-
mercial Space.”
Nelson, Eric.The Mall of America: Reflections of a Vir-
tual Community. Lakeville, Minn.: Galde Press,- An extremely valuable resource that covers
the history of the Mall of America as well as the so-
cial implications of such an enterprise.
Rubenstein, Harvey.Pedestrian Malls, Streetscapes, and
Urban Spaces. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1992.
One of the best sources on the types of malls
found worldwide. The historical perspective of
this book is broad and, although it was published
shortly before the Mall of America was estab-
lished, the book is worth referring to for its over-
all portrayal of malls throughout the world.
R. Baird Shuman
548 Mall of America The Nineties in America
An inside view of the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minne-
sota.(AP/Wide World Photos)