On Saturday I went to Santa Fe to meet with someone who had agreed to go over the writing sample I am submitting along with my graduate school applications. About halfway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe there is a derelict outlet mall, just on the outskirts of Budaghers. I forget what the name of this place is called, but I decided to exit I-25 and check it out. Along the frontage road leading to the outlet mall was a tank which had been spray-painted quite well.
Here’s a view of the entrance to the Outlet mall, looking from the inside. My trusty sidekick, a 1996 Volkswagen Passat Turbo Diesel waits in the shadow of the adobe archways.
And here’s a “Diner” that is inside. As you can tell this place didn’t prove to be as popular as the guy who made it thought it would be. Combined with its location, the mediocre and otherwise completely unremarkable content of the shopping center probably is what ultimately lead to its demise. If you think about it though, this place is a kind of experiment in combining vapid American consumerism with communist-style collectivism and state control. Here we have a place entirely devoted to its purpose (purchasing goods). Now, this may be no different than your average shopping mall, but I think the place’s relative isolation from nearby urban centers sets it apart in many ways. Then you’ve got the level of control exerted on the place by ownership: “The diner shall be here,” “the jeans store shall be there,” etc. It means that someone thought there could be a rational and ordered plan to even something as low and capitalist (read: uncontrollable) as the strip-mall.
Budaghers, New Mexico
On Saturday I went to Santa Fe to meet with someone who had agreed to go over the writing sample I am submitting along with my graduate school applications. About halfway between Albuquerque and Santa Fe there is a derelict outlet mall, just on the outskirts of Budaghers. I forget what the name of this place is called, but I decided to exit I-25 and check it out. Along the frontage road leading to the outlet mall was a tank which had been spray-painted quite well.
Here’s a view of the entrance to the Outlet mall, looking from the inside. My trusty sidekick, a 1996 Volkswagen Passat Turbo Diesel waits in the shadow of the adobe archways.
And here’s a “Diner” that is inside. As you can tell this place didn’t prove to be as popular as the guy who made it thought it would be. Combined with its location, the mediocre and otherwise completely unremarkable content of the shopping center probably is what ultimately lead to its demise. If you think about it though, this place is a kind of experiment in combining vapid American consumerism with communist-style collectivism and state control. Here we have a place entirely devoted to its purpose (purchasing goods). Now, this may be no different than your average shopping mall, but I think the place’s relative isolation from nearby urban centers sets it apart in many ways. Then you’ve got the level of control exerted on the place by ownership: “The diner shall be here,” “the jeans store shall be there,” etc. It means that someone thought there could be a rational and ordered plan to even something as low and capitalist (read: uncontrollable) as the strip-mall.