10x10 store front to 200 acre roof canopy......GLASS

As we recall the study of the Arcade and its evolution to the modern shopping mall, we can also draw a similar parallel to the evolution of glass and iron as a material of construction, particularly in the culture of human consumerism. The Arcade was greatly influenced by the discovery of iron construction and the ability to create large plates of glass thus pushed the world into a new realm of space and a new type of shopping experience. As the arcade became more popular and began to grow larger and larger as a child of the city it began to evolve into its own entity, the strip mall. Similarly, the strip mall has developed through the mid 1900 and finally became the modern mall as we know it today, a “private” indoor facility of public space and endless storefront displays. I find it interesting that our culture of consumerism has driven the idea of the shopping facility from a basic covered city street, to the creation of malls such as Destiny which can be considered cities in themselves.

We can step back further and begin to analyze not only the evolution of the mall as a structure, but as I have mentioned, the materials that simultaneously aided in its creation. Glass has almost always been present in the construction of this new idea of mass consumerism. It has ultimately led to the creation of things as elementary as Wanamaker’s storefront window to the monumental construction of a 200 acre roof canopy at Destiny USA. What is also interesting about the role of glass in the human culture of consumerism is the role it has played in the creation of marketing and sales. The store window was the first display of marketing and signage in the late 1800’s. It implemented new tactics of “eye appeal” in the sales of good and offered a more creative palette then the average hand painted sign of the day. We can see this illustrated in Zola’s book when the character Mouret teaches his associated how to decorate the windows. He uses unconventional techniques of displaying silks and begins to toss the materials in a multicolored mountain of good that had never been seen before. These tactics create emotions within people that words can not do. As portrayed in Facades of Color, Glass, and Light, Leach quotes one billposter advertiser as saying “You may forget what you read – if you read at all. But what you see, you know instantly! It is hard to get mental activity with cold type, YOU FEEL A PICTURE.” By creating a picture and displaying the goods as materials that can directly improve the consumer’s quality of life, the department store gave birth to modern advertisement such as the ad picture, artistic poster, electrical signs, billboards, and catalogs. With the new advents of color and display, both physical and by printed images, a “priceless ingredient” in consumerism was discovered. “It creates desire for the good displayed. It imprints on the buying memory