There's a book about this by a friend of mine, Lee Sobel (http://store.yahoo.com/cnuinfo/greyingoldea.html). The case studies in "Greyfields into Goldfields" look prosaic in comparison to the L.A. Forum's competition entries -- attractive, but not mind-blowingly hip concept spaces. Rest assured, though, they represent the cutting edge of what is possible in the current financial and regulatory climate. They recycle land and create more mixed-use, pedestrian oriented locations, and that's a good thing even if you consider them to be retro bourgeois consumer palaces.

I live near Big Town Mall, the subject of two of the finalists. It was a weird, retro-cool experience to stroll through that dead mall in the days before they closed down the main area which you could walk through.

I love discovering and checking out dead malls -- the 70s or early 80s architecture, the vacant shop spaces; I find it an eerie cool, post-suburban expedition. If Corey is a Disnophile, then I would say I'm into dead mall culture and would love to find a Web site that lists indoor malls that are dying but still open to the public.

As for Big Town Mall, practically speaking, I don't think the mall structure can be rehabilitated. Razing the entire structure and putting in yet another bland outdoor shopping strip anchored by a Home Depot and large grocery store seems to be that property's future. A new urban shopping/living development would be best (we have a number of these in the Dallas area), but it's not situated in an economically well-off part of town.