Victor Gruen and the American Century

Southdale Shopping Center in Edina, MN.

American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

Gruen was a passionate advocate for humane urban planning. He believed that well-designed urban environments could enhance people's quality of life and foster a sense of community in the light of the sprawling suburbanization that he witnessed in the United States. He aimed to create community centers where there were none: in suburbia.

Gruen's innovative ideas in urban design and architecture transformed the way people experienced commercial environments. One such idea was embodied in 1956 by the Southdale Center, the first fully-enclosed, climate controlled shopping mall in the United States. It epitomized Gruen's focus on creating a centralized, climate-controlled shopping space with a mix of stores, restaurants, and communal areas and revolutionized the retail industry, shaping the way people interacted with consumer spaces.

However, Gruen grew increasingly disillusioned with the commercialization and suburban sprawl that his own concepts had ironically helped to popularize. In his later years, he turned his attention to more socially and environmentally conscious projects, particularly inner-city cores, advocating for pedestrian-friendly streets, mixed-use developments, and green spaces.

We thus ask - are Gruen’s initial ideals closer to fruition today after having gone astray during the last half-century?

The exhibition is curated by Hannes Richter and Joshua Seale for the Austrian Press and Information Service in the United States. It is part of the series Towards the American Century: Austrians in the United States, produced in cooperation with the Austrian Marshall Plan Center for European Studies at The University of New Orleans.