Fragments of Civic Life: Reviving Public Life in the Abandoned Mall

Author

• Diego Valle

Files

Date of Award

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Architecture

College

Arts and Sciences

Department

Architecture

Faculty Advisor

Stephen Wischer

Studio Coordinator

Stephen Wischer

Faculty Chair

Susan Kliman

Publisher

North Dakota State University

Rights

NDSU policy 190.6.2

URI

https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf

Abstract

This thesis investigates adaptive reuse as a method for reviving public life within contemporary American cities through the transformation of abandoned commercial architecture into civic space. Using Hawthorne Plaza Mall as the primary case study, the project examines how the decline of the shopping mall reflects the broader disappearance of third places and informal environments of collective gathering. Grounded in the writings of Ray Oldenburg, Walter Benjamin, Federica Goffi, Marco Frascari, and Alberto Perez Gomez, the thesis interprets the abandoned mall as both a cultural artifact and a spatial framework capable of supporting new forms of participation, encounter, and communal life.

Through theoretical research, narrative mapping, artefact development, and architectural intervention, the project reimagines the enclosed mall as a layered civic interior organized around movement, thresholds, memory, and collective occupation. Existing fragments of the structure are selectively preserved and transformed through strategies of subtraction, exposure, and montage to maintain relationships between past and present conditions. The final proposal introduces libraries, theaters, makerspaces, public markets, communal gathering environments, and civic promenades intended to support accessible and non-transactional of public interaction. Ultimately, the thesis argues that adaptive reuse can operate not only as preservation, but as a cultural and social act capable of restoring conditions for public life within the contemporary city.

Recommended Citation

Valle, Diego, "Fragments of Civic Life: Reviving Public Life in the Abandoned Mall" (2026). Architecture Theses. 110.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/architecture-theses/110