Ultra Swank - Retro Adventures

Stores

Stylish Mid-Century Shopping Malls

I’ve always been a sucker for shopping malls, even as a kid I thoroughly enjoyed going to the mall with the folks. Nowadays most shoppings centers are just loud, generic and boring. Where’s that sense of soul and character? Well fear not, Ultra Swank takes you back to take a look at some of the mid-century gems. Every mid-century mall needs three things; a water...

Avenue of Light – The Lost Underground Shopping Mall of Barcelona

The historically and culturally rich city Barcelona in Spain dates back to Roman times and holds many secrets, but even this one was new for me. Having lived here for quite a few years I thought I knew about most of the well known places from the past, but this lost underground shopping mall just appeared out of the depths one night. Knowing that Barcelona...

Shopping Spree – Part 11
Written by Christopher in Stores

Shopping Spree – Part 11

The Shopping Spree article series continues with part 11. As usual we head back 50 years or so to visit the stylish, kitschy and sometimes strange looking malls and shopping centers of the past. This time we take a look at Montgomery Ward, Woolco, Randhurst Mall and Colonial Plaza in Orlando. Like most of us retro lovers know, time stands still in photographs, but progress...

A Mid-Century Shopping Centre in Northern Sweden

“Shopping” is one of the first interior shopping center ever built. This mid-century gem is hidden away in the cold northern parts of Sweden. Designed and conceptualized by famed British-Swedish architect Ralph Erskine and completed in 1955. After visiting an open-air shopping mall in Canada with harsh weather conditions, Erskine wanted to create a place that would be enjoyable for everyone all year round, not...

Tesco Recreates a 1960s Style Supermarket

British supermarket giant Tesco has recreated a 1960s style store for the Goodwood Revival Historic Motor Race meeting, held each September in Essex, not far away from London. Inside the store, customers will be able to walk up and down three different aisles filled with dozens of products from the sixties. Even the check-out assistants will be dressed in vintage uniforms, with hair and make-up...

Shopping Spree – Part 10
Written by Christopher in Stores

Shopping Spree – Part 10

Let’s kick off the new year by spending some of your hard earned money at the local shopping center. Perhaps a new color television, that swank black suit that’s now on sale or why not a new kitchen appliance for the wifey? There is something for everyone. Where shall we go first? Montgomery Ward, SS Kresge, Publix or Woolco? I am sure many of you...

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