ORIGINAL DUNDRUM SHOPPING CENTRE
December 2006: I was very much surprised to come across a "Ghost Shopping Centre" in Dublin.
In the U.S, in recent times, as more modern facilities are built, many early malls have become largely abandoned, due to decreased traffic and tenancy. These deteriorating "dead malls" have failed to attract new business and often sit unused for many years until restored or demolished. Interesting examples of architecture and urban design, these structures often attract people who explore and photograph them. Until the mid-1990s, the trend was to build enclosed malls and to renovate older outdoor malls into enclosed ones. Such malls had advantages such as temperature control. Since then, the trend has turned. It is once again fashionable to build open-air malls, and some enclosed malls have been opened up, such as the Sherman Oaks Galleria. In addition, some malls, when replacing an empty anchor location, have replaced the former anchor store building with the more modern outdoor design, leaving the remainder of the indoor mall intact, such as the Del Amo Fashion Center in Torrance, California.
Wikipedia: In 1971, Dundrum was one of the earliest places in Ireland to open a purpose-built shopping centre (the first being in Stillorgan). A much bigger shopping centre opened just south of Dundrum on 3 March 2005. Known as Dundrum Town Centre it contains within the complex one of the largest cinemas in Ireland, opened in early October 2005. The plans for the old shopping centre includes space for hotels, apartments and more retail outlets. However this has been postponed and the older retail units have been leased to new tenants such as Lidl, Classic Furniture, Mulvey's of Dundrum. Recently the old Dundrum Shopping Centre has been rebranded Dundrum Village Centre.
The opening of the new shopping centre in Dundrum in 2005 led to the decline of the previous shopping centre which closed in early 2009. However renamed Dundrum Village the shopping centre reopened its doors later that year and has since grown to offer its customers a wide variety of shops and brands.
WHAT I SAID IN DECEMBER 2009:
In 1971, Dundrum was one of the earliest places in Ireland to open a purpose-built shopping centre (the first being in Stillorgan).
A much bigger shopping centre opened just south of the village on March 3, 2005. Known as Dundrum Town Centre it contains within the complex one of the largest cinemas in Ireland, opened in early October 2005. The old shopping centre was to be demolished to create space for hotels, apartments and more shops, however it would appear that it has reopened
Given its original status as a village in its own right, much historic architecture survives to this day, with many estates and large homes.
WHAT I SAID IN DECEMBER 2010:
In 1965 the first shopping centre in Ireland was built within 100 yards of my home. Many years later the second shopping center opened in Dundrum and suddenly, Dundrum became a town, rather than a village, with a supermarket, clothes shops, a coffee shop and a record shop. We in Stillorgan were not impressed because our shopping centre was better (and in reality it was much better).
The original shopping centre in Dundrum was badly designed and there were many problems but despite this it survived until around 2005 at which time it had very few active tenants and it was not in a position to compete with the huge new centre just up the road.
Recently I heard that the old shopping centre was scheduled to be demolished and rebuilt as phase two of the Dundrum Town Centre (the new shopping Centre). Now that the country is going through a financial crisis this is unlikely to happen.
