The New Yorker has an article about Victor Gruen, the inventor of the mall. Malls were originally built to serve the community; Gruen envisioned the mall as the centerpiece of a community surrounded by a Ringstrasse, like his native Vienna. But in the mid-fifties Congress changed tax laws and developers started building malls everywhere just to make a profit.

Under the circumstances, who cared whether the shopping center made economic sense for the venders? Shopping centers and strip malls became what urban planners call \”catalytic,\” meaning that developers weren\’t building them to serve existing suburban communities; they were building them on the fringes of cities, beyond residential developments, where the land was cheapest.