You’ll Never Believe What This Man Did With These Tiny Cheap Apartments
As the years fly by, there are some things that eventually change our culture, and some are more outrageous than others. For example, it’s not a shock when you sit back and recall that just twenty years ago, none of us were able to take videos with our phones and post them on social media. The main reason is because this technology didn’t exist, but also because it was a completely different generation.
However, some things have occurred without us even noticing, and when we do, it’s kind of shocking. For example, take a shopping mall. While it was once a staple of the American lifestyle and a hangout for teenagers specifically growing up in the 90’s, many shopping malls have struggled to keep their doors open. As a result, the malls have closed within the last decade after being victims of economic turmoil and the harsh truth that people now prefer online shopping. Once these malls close, the buildings are often destroyed, but in the case of this mall, that wasn’t the choice that was made.
Below, read how an architecture firm took a mall, that happened to be a national landmark, and turned it into something pretty useful. It’s not the mall Americans used to know, but it’s definitely even better.
This is Arcade Providence, America’s oldest shopping mall. Pretty stunning, right? It also happens to be a National Historic Landmark.
As brick-and-mortar stores aren’t as popular as they once were, this mall isn’t what it used to be. That’s when Northeast Collaborative Architects decided they wanted to do something with the empty space.
Northeast Collaborative Architects spent a whopping $7 million to create a space that included 17 shops on the ground floor and cheap, micro-apartments on the top two additional levels.
While the apartments are absolutely adorable, they’re super inexpensive too! They start at an insanely cheap price of $550 per month.
While the studio-size apartments only range from 225-450 square feet inside, you’ve just got some room for a bed, bathroom, refrigerator, sink, microwave, dishwasher, seating, and some extra storage. What more could a person need in a mini apartment?
The shared space also includes tons of amenities, such as a game room, TV room, on-site laundry services, a parking garage and bike storage.
But before you get excited and start packing your bags to move to Rhode Island, know that there is already a 4,000 person waiting list to get your hands on one of these apartments.
The best part about this space is that when the designers made plans to rebuild, they made sure that the space stayed true to the original architectural style, to preserve it’s amazing atrium.
This mall turned mini-apartment building is definitely out of the norm, but hopefully, it serves as an inspiration to other architects and developers in the future. This site is a prime example that it’s possible to preserve the past, but also bring the past into the future.
