Joy Wang

Joy Wang

At all three of these commercial spaces, you can see people walking, talking, sipping drinks, sitting on benches, and browsing their phones. The Copley Place and Prudential Center malls, being indoors, both produce a feeling of “entering” as you step inside, aided by their elevation; entrances and exits in both malls are marked by escalators taking you to a higher floor. Signs hang from the ceilings, directing you to other parts of the mall. Newbury Street, in contrast, has no such ceilings or clear demarcations along its length, being outdoors. It distinguishes itself as a commercial space largely by the sheer amount and density of stores across such a long, straight stretch, with hardly any space between them. Yet rather than blending into the walls as stores do in the malls, the stores literally bulge out from the sidewalk, inviting customer attention. There were fewer benches on Newbury Street than in the shopping malls, which I found a bit surprising, since one might think that being outside would mean wanting more places to sit (I know I did, walking along such a long street). Like the shopping malls, Newbury Street is located next to several T stations, making it easy for customers to get there. The street is also located close to a park and common municipal buildings, including a library and a church, nestling it relatively seamlessly into the public sphere of the city. You can tell that you have walked into a “special” street mostly by the format of the street: the lack of big roads cutting perpendicular to it and, again, the crowding of stores.

I also found it worth noting that there were differences between the two shopping malls; Copley Place had a golden coloring and a more plush vibe, with marble designs on the floors, hexagonal floors and ceilings, and a central plaza complete with a miniature pond and grassy lawn. In contrast, the Prudential Center mall felt more similar to Newbury Street than the Copley Place mall, with its long, straight, rectangular walkways and the greater amount of natural light let in through the ceiling windows. The inside of the mall felt more like a street, complete with plants lining the hallways that called to mind the abundance of trees on Newbury Street. It made me think that even while Newbury Street is an “outdoor mall,” malls are perhaps emulating “indoor streets.”