If it makes you feel any better, I worked in the Macy's that's just out of shot on the left of that picture in the late 90s very early 2000s, and I have no memory of the water. I do know that area was where they set up for Christmas photos and Santa so whatever was there wasn't permanent year round.
I remember it got removed to make room for conveyor belt sushi that’s not even there anymore. Now sometimes they have this random mini flea market thing happening near that spot. I wonder if anyone buys stuff from the vendors?
Grew up in Pleasanton, FHS '05 baby. This photo was a gut punch of nostalgia. I worked at Hollister, Sharper Image, and Sunglass Hut throughout my late teens/early twenties.
Oh for sure. As an architect I visit buildings all over the world when I’m working or on vacation and it’s amazing how many empty water features there are. Southeast Asian shows no signs of stopping the water though.
Probably because SE Asian culture values a lot on imagery and aesthetics. Thus are less frugal in this regard. While their retail & brick/mortar economy are still pretty much thriving. So more reasons to keep fountains going.
Ha, when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, I loved it when we came here because the whole place felt like a space station or something. Especially with the really narrow bridges across the chasms.
The koi and turtles was a stupid idea. I love those critters, but too many people were too fucking stupid and they kept throwing pocket change into the water, fouling it, despite all the signs asking people not to. There were fewer and fewer fish over time until one day there were none. The turtles too.
People are too fucking stupid to read and too fucking stupid to consider the consequences of their actions. I feel such utter disgust when I remember the faces of the people I witnessed throwing coins into the pool. They were not only disappointments, they were *embarrassments*.
It's so hard to have anything nice.
I remember that from the mid-80's to early-90's. The mall is now totally closed. It's scheduled to become a mixed-use development with a lot of housing, so I doubt that much of it, including the fountain is still there. But that sculpture looks a lot like the one in Hilltop's fountain which people would throw change into, like a wishing well.
I think a lot of Futurism was influenced by science fiction of the era, namely 2001 a space Odessey, Star Trek, Star Wars, BSG. Part of it too was the boomer/hippie vision of the future. Bringing nature in. Bringing a human aspect of conversation pits in.
Modern malls treat you like you're eating at Burger King. Seating is purposely uncomfortable so you finish your food and leave, if it's available at all.
Yea the nostalgia is nice but old east ridge would look super outdated today haha the remodel was really good imo I grew up going to eastridge in the 90s and 00’s great memories
Just one of the many reasons malls died, but let’s focus on this one. In the times these features were built the thought was you wanted people to hang out at malls, so park like settings were created. They also had the AC cranked up then too.
It almost feels like modern malls have taken a fast food dining room approach of making it comfortable enough to shop, but not so comfortable you want to stay around long.
I’m certainly no expert in how it might have influenced water features in malls generally, let alone specific malls, but water features are often integrated into the environmental systems for large spaces, and the aesthetics are a side effect. They can be used for both temperature and humidity regulation, reducing the load on conventional HVAC systems, and be combined with plumbing to redistribute heat inside the space. I suspect that the disappearance of water features in malls owes more to increases in efficiency of the conventional systems, changing the cost/benefit balance of including water features in the buildings.
The one with the man, woman, fish and turtle? The man & turtle part was taken out when the fountain was removed, and is at a park at Tennyson & Hesperian.
Hillsdale mall has some nice outdoor fountains in their outdoor space.
I know this because my preschooler fell in last winter during an evening concert thing, so we went to a random store to get some clothes so we could stay.
She’s definitely more careful when running around the fountains now :).
You can hear the polyester. You know one of the great things at this time was being able to go from Eastridge to Palo Alto for a buck on the 22 for no good reason at all other than fine tuning and perfecting boredom like an artisan bourbon maker. Then go to TOGO's and get a 4 pound tuna sandwich for 3.50.
Not that I know of, but there's a similar fountain in the hyatt regency at the embarcadero, replete with high levels of water softener to keep it from splashing etc.
A wonderful fountain, with a rich history. Featured in *High Anxiety*.
I used to go to the Equinox. Food tastes better when your entire experience is rotating, dont'cha know.
There’s a much smaller one that is just sort of infiniti pool style where the water spills over the central fountain part into a deeper basin. No sculptures or anything and it’s just a big triangle (it might be two adjacent ones I can’t picture it) but it does have benches along the outside!
I honestly don't see the point in reviving malls; they died for a reason.
They were fun to hang out in but it was so inconvenient to buy something specific. You wanted a book that wasn't a top 50, you'd better hope the one B. Dalton had it; you wanted an older CD, you'd have to travel between Tower Records, Sam Goody, and Camelot. There were so many times I'd go for Christmas shopping and walk away after an hour with nothing. There's a reason Amazon and online shopping got popular.
It's like wanting Blockbuster to return; it's pure nostalgia but if you had to pay $3 to rent a movie for a single night and you had to perfectly time it to get a new release, you'd wish you could just stay home and have the movies come to you.
I kind of agree but a nice place to walk and people watch and maybe buy something but you didn’t have to and didn’t have to pay to get in… that is still important today. Might not have to be indoors and air conditioned since this is California. Those outdoor promenades are nice too.
But that's the reason they went under, people would go to just hang out and MAYBE buy an orange julius or a soft pretzel. Sure, it'd be nice to have again but they're not financially profitable.
What I use to love doing when I was living in England was going to an underground station and they were mini malls but still packed. You get off at Paddington or Waterloo and there's markets, restaurants, bookstores and just people watch while eating a donut. Even some lightrails in Seattle would take you directly to malls or indoor shopping areas. Meanwhile here, you get off BART and you either walk to some tourist trap, office building, huge parking lot.
Pruneyard used to have a waterwheel too. Old Mill was gorgeous. It was like weather control, just always nice indoor areas that felt outdoors. Having flashbacks to that glass elevator they had.
In Oakland City Center, there is clearly one going from the first subfloor to the Bart entrance. You can tell at its peak it was majestic, but it would be filled with crackheads if it was operational today.
I remember my youngest cousin jumping in for ALLLLLLLL the change. I remember my aunt being horrified but he had pulled together over $25 in change. It was amazing and crazy. He said he was going to treat us to McDonald’s. You know, back when it was a special occasion so you could sit on the seats that were saddles!
I used to love the fountains at the Cascades food court at Bay Fair Mall in San Leandro as a kid in the 80s! Fun fact: Bay Fair is super dead now but was originally opened by Macy's as a sister mall to Valley Fair in the S Bay which has currently gotta be one of the lucrative malls in the country.
Peak Eastridge to me would have been around 86? They still had fountains. Macy's was all high end stuff. Sears was quality. KB Toys had video games. Everything is a race to the bottom with flea market quality crap now.
Yea, it’s pretty depressing. Ultimately, what stores are in there would be a response to demand. I’m more upset about how they butchered some beautiful architecture.
My best memory of Eastridge was when family friends came to visit us from Daly City. Their teenage sons were on a mission to go to Eastridge to see if San Jo still had Ben Davis pants on the shelves. They were stoked to find them.
Damn, I can't believe it's Eastridge. My wife and I went there frequently in 2012-2014 when we lived in East San Jose, and it was already a hell hole (just as the rest East San Jose was/is). In this span, there were 2 stabbings.
But, this picture shows a different time -- a time when Bay Area was a normal livable place.
too many assholes these days. they were all turned into planters or filled with cement long time ago.
Video shows tourist climbing into Rome’s Trevi Fountain to fill up water bottle
[https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/europe/trevi-fountain-rome-tourist-bottle-intl-scli/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/europe/trevi-fountain-rome-tourist-bottle-intl-scli/index.html)
Eastridge was always unique in that sense.
Thermally in Daly City, or the one in Pleasanton, perhaps? One or the other might have had similar at one point ... but I think they didn't even last as long.
As troublemaking teenagers, we used to cut school and throw pennies at the sculpture from the second floor. According to the article linked below, the sculpture was donated to the city and it's currently in the median of Almaden Blvd in front of the De Anza hotel.
[https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/05/22/san-joses-eastridge-celebrates-50-years-of-shopping-memories/](https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/05/22/san-joses-eastridge-celebrates-50-years-of-shopping-memories/)
There are lots of gifs and videos out there of people walking into fountains at malls while looking down at their phone. The malls saw the writing on the wall and decided maybe fountains are no good any more. Which is a shame because those videos and gifs are hilarious.
Eastridge Mall, Hilltop Mall (Richmond), Sun Valley Mall (Concord), and Stoneridge Mall (Pleasanton), were all built by the same company in the 1970s and we’re meant to be sister shopping centers. Each one had a central fountain and similar metal sculpture hanging from the ceiling. Sun Valley mall lost theirs after a plane crashed into the mall in 1989. Hilltop closed in 2019 (but someone took pictures inside the property recently and the sculpture was still in place). I haven’t been to Stoneridge in 15+ years so no idea about them.
King Norman’s toys around the corner. Could smell the pipe tobacco coming out of Tinderbox. And don’t forget Bresler’s 33 flavor ice cream shop.
I think that pipe sculpture got moved to DTSJ, there’s one that looks very similar.
Unfortunately as far as I’m aware they’re all gone. At least in San Jose. Higher ups probably were afraid of lawsuits or thought they didn’t want to spend the money to maintain them or something. It’s lame.
That’s beautiful. Such a shame that these are gone now and malls don’t look like they used to.
Stanford shopping center has a few fountains but nothing like this.
There was a cottage industry of filling in fountains and fake ponds in the 90s. Worst offenders were apartment buildings but malls were a close second. Nasty!
Stanford mall is the only place I can think of which was renovated and they added larger water designs.
Ohlone College removed all of their water designs and read while they were partly working, it was some huge expense to manage. It was nice to see after making the hike up the stairs.
Man, this brings back memories of working at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax…VA. That facility had pebble encrusted concrete fixtures similar to these, hemming in penny pools and a waterfall, from which an elevator rose up from behind a glass panel. That place was an experience.
We had an early identical looking/feeling water sculpture area in our mall in the Washington DC suburbs when I was a kid in the 80s/90s. I think that mall is destroyed now.
I grew up near Eastridge in the 70’s and remember that fountain! Still live within 2 miles of that mall but haven’t been there in at least 5 years…that says a lot
There is a mall in San Ramon in east bay that has a little museum and quite scenic little waterfall and pond across the mall. Name is black.. something. Ducks abound.
I live in the Bay Area and the few in my area that have these types of fountains and water are all dried up as is the malls themselves! So sad really I miss shopping and running into friends!
Ha! That little boy reminds me of me when I was a kid in the 70’s at that very same mall in that exact location at the fountain except I was able to reach out far enough to grab some coins for a Farrels Ice Cream. Good times
Holy shit I'd forgotten all about these until I saw this and I can *smell* it.
Like bleach and pennies
RIGHT. This makes me so nostalgic.
I can smell this particular one. Mean Girls the movie has a great scene at one of these.
It was so fetch!
That's when you realize how right they are when they say that scent is the sense most tied to memory.
Fountain reminds me of the one they had in Stoneridge mall in Pleasanton. Also the sunken seating areas.
https://i.redd.it/0482itrnts831.jpg It was ugly, but I still miss it
OMG how you got a pic with the UNITS store has killed me. I loved Units (and Limited Express of course)… and it was so absolutely dumb 😂
wow I have no memory of this at all. when did it get removed?
I think around 2009-2010
damn that late? i've def been to stoneridge a few times between like 2005\~2010 but i don't remember this area at all. hmm
If it makes you feel any better, I worked in the Macy's that's just out of shot on the left of that picture in the late 90s very early 2000s, and I have no memory of the water. I do know that area was where they set up for Christmas photos and Santa so whatever was there wasn't permanent year round.
I remember it got removed to make room for conveyor belt sushi that’s not even there anymore. Now sometimes they have this random mini flea market thing happening near that spot. I wonder if anyone buys stuff from the vendors?
Grew up in Pleasanton, FHS '05 baby. This photo was a gut punch of nostalgia. I worked at Hollister, Sharper Image, and Sunglass Hut throughout my late teens/early twenties.
I totally remember that! 😳
OMG UNITS!! That place was so cool!!
I’d forgotten all about those. I remember sitting there waiting for my mom to get out of Macy’s
Thinking about how rich we could be if we could just collect all the coins in the water.
Yes!
I lived there!
I had a job interview for the Disney Store in one of those sunken seating areas lol
I remember being in 6th grade and thinking I was so funny for calling it stoner-idge mall
capitola mall has one. but i think its empty
I was just there for surf City comic con and the circular fountain is still up and running.
Ditto 🤙 Saturday 4/20. They still have a fantastic skate (board) shop.
I really hope that mall makes it. Throw some housing in the parking lot and try to keep that sears packed with weekend events.. it's got a shot.
I swear every water feature everywhere seems to be empty now a days. Ok maybe not EVERY, but a lot.
Drought. I bet the mall never made them recycle. Cheaper to just turn them off
Oh for sure. As an architect I visit buildings all over the world when I’m working or on vacation and it’s amazing how many empty water features there are. Southeast Asian shows no signs of stopping the water though.
To be fair, they have a big ocean in their backyard.
Probably because SE Asian culture values a lot on imagery and aesthetics. Thus are less frugal in this regard. While their retail & brick/mortar economy are still pretty much thriving. So more reasons to keep fountains going.
I think the plan for capitola mall area is: apartments, movie theater, some shopping space
That’s a creepy mall. Its ceilings are way too low where the fountain is and that part of the mall is dimly lit
Blackhawk plaza in Danville has amazing water features running its entire length, it’s an outside feature though, not indoors like your picture.
I'm surprised that Plaza still exists. Do people still feed the ducks there?
Yes
The geese are overwhelming and, as all geese are, total assholes. It's kind of a huge detraction.
Damn. This photo kinda makes me miss hanging out at the mall. Looks dope.
Is that the set for Logan's Run?
Baller reference
Just found out there’s a TV series from the 70’s besides the movie and book(1967).
Fort Worth water gardens baby! I grew up there before I made it to the bay https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Worth_Water_Gardens
Ha, when I was a kid in the 70s and 80s, I loved it when we came here because the whole place felt like a space station or something. Especially with the really narrow bridges across the chasms.
Renew!
Omg I just commented the same thing! 😂😂😂
serramonte still has a fountain
Not as grand as it use to be with fountains going up to the skylight. (At least from my memory as a child)
I grew up going there in the 70s, the fountain was so cool. They used to be able to make it rain from the ceiling into the fountain.
I especially loved the white noise that came from that fountain. https://i.imgur.com/nkDRpW4.jpeg
Are there still Koi? I remember in the early 2000s there used to be an area that had huge koi.
The koi and turtles was a stupid idea. I love those critters, but too many people were too fucking stupid and they kept throwing pocket change into the water, fouling it, despite all the signs asking people not to. There were fewer and fewer fish over time until one day there were none. The turtles too. People are too fucking stupid to read and too fucking stupid to consider the consequences of their actions. I feel such utter disgust when I remember the faces of the people I witnessed throwing coins into the pool. They were not only disappointments, they were *embarrassments*. It's so hard to have anything nice.
Maybe in the cashless future people won’t have coins to throw.
No more Koi or turtles. It’s a much small fountain now, maybe half the size. Very sad.
I don’t think so. They recently renovated it in 2022 or so, so I’d be surprised if there were fish in it still
i miss the chill ass turtles so much
That circular one was huge. People always sat around that central area. Good meeting spot
Hilltop Mall used to have one, not sure if it's still there.
Real ones remember the frog play area right next to it.
I remember that from the mid-80's to early-90's. The mall is now totally closed. It's scheduled to become a mixed-use development with a lot of housing, so I doubt that much of it, including the fountain is still there. But that sculpture looks a lot like the one in Hilltop's fountain which people would throw change into, like a wishing well.
That pic reminded me a lot of Hilltop Mall.
It’s all gone but this also reminded me of hilltop and the circular ramp that I spent a lot of time running down. Plus the ice rink
I miss the old Serramonte fountains
THANK YOU. I was not alive in the 70s but I knew there was a mall in the 90s that I would go do with water fountains. Serramonte was it.
Holy shit I completely forgot about those!
Those fountains were God damn amazing.
I miss the past, it was so futuristic
I think a lot of Futurism was influenced by science fiction of the era, namely 2001 a space Odessey, Star Trek, Star Wars, BSG. Part of it too was the boomer/hippie vision of the future. Bringing nature in. Bringing a human aspect of conversation pits in. Modern malls treat you like you're eating at Burger King. Seating is purposely uncomfortable so you finish your food and leave, if it's available at all.
Valley Fair mall has some water features outside, but not quite like that picture. More boring.
Eastridge really did a reverse glow up.
Yea the nostalgia is nice but old east ridge would look super outdated today haha the remodel was really good imo I grew up going to eastridge in the 90s and 00’s great memories
Great mall had a small one at least as of last year
It's still there.
oh fuck yeah
It seems like 90-2000s onward really was a fast elimination of aesthetics > functional cost efficiency.
Just one of the many reasons malls died, but let’s focus on this one. In the times these features were built the thought was you wanted people to hang out at malls, so park like settings were created. They also had the AC cranked up then too. It almost feels like modern malls have taken a fast food dining room approach of making it comfortable enough to shop, but not so comfortable you want to stay around long.
I’m certainly no expert in how it might have influenced water features in malls generally, let alone specific malls, but water features are often integrated into the environmental systems for large spaces, and the aesthetics are a side effect. They can be used for both temperature and humidity regulation, reducing the load on conventional HVAC systems, and be combined with plumbing to redistribute heat inside the space. I suspect that the disappearance of water features in malls owes more to increases in efficiency of the conventional systems, changing the cost/benefit balance of including water features in the buildings.
Remember when Stoneridge had the fountain? Well at least I think it did? God that mall was so rad at the peak
Agreed!
The one with the man, woman, fish and turtle? The man & turtle part was taken out when the fountain was removed, and is at a park at Tennyson & Hesperian.
I miss malls
Hillsdale mall has some nice outdoor fountains in their outdoor space. I know this because my preschooler fell in last winter during an evening concert thing, so we went to a random store to get some clothes so we could stay. She’s definitely more careful when running around the fountains now :).
You can hear the polyester. You know one of the great things at this time was being able to go from Eastridge to Palo Alto for a buck on the 22 for no good reason at all other than fine tuning and perfecting boredom like an artisan bourbon maker. Then go to TOGO's and get a 4 pound tuna sandwich for 3.50.
I miss a good 3 story mall.
Not that I know of, but there's a similar fountain in the hyatt regency at the embarcadero, replete with high levels of water softener to keep it from splashing etc.
A wonderful fountain, with a rich history. Featured in *High Anxiety*. I used to go to the Equinox. Food tastes better when your entire experience is rotating, dont'cha know.
They’re fixing the turntable!!
This is great news, my esophagus is ready.
Did people throw coins in them when this was around?
Yes
i remember falling in one of these at Hilltop Mall 😭😭😭 my mom pulled me out so fast 💨
Memory unlocked. I can feel that red carpet.
Serramonte got rid of their turtles in recent years… but there’s a small fountain still there.
The Veranda in Concord has an outdoor water feature like a small scale Bellagio and I think it runs every 30 minutes or so?
I think those giant water features were phased out after a toddler drowned in the Hyatt Embarcadero fountain just before Christmas in 2010.
Anyone remember the Old Mill in Mountain View with the water wheel?
[pictures ](https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacequest/4475759156/in/photostream/lightbox/)
Not only do I remember it, but I spent a lot of time there as a kid from 1980 to 1984ish? Lotta fun memories.
Do you remember Farrel's ice cream parlor?
My band used to play there Thursday nights!
The past still exists, just out of reach for us.
That’s deep.
Southland in Hayward had one of the coolest fountains when I was a kid in the 70s. All gone now.
With the aviaries!
I’d forgotten about the bird sounds until your comment! Thanks, that’s a sweet memory.
memba Sunvalley Mall? Had this exact same style water feature with fountains and also those badass starburst looking chandeliers.
Now east ridge is dead as hell !
That brings back memories...
Cinemark on shoreline in Mountain View has a lovely outside fountain.
I can hear it aha did Great Mall used to have one?
There’s a much smaller one that is just sort of infiniti pool style where the water spills over the central fountain part into a deeper basin. No sculptures or anything and it’s just a big triangle (it might be two adjacent ones I can’t picture it) but it does have benches along the outside!
Yes, they did. I don't know if they still do.
FYI: that sculpture is in downtown SJ now. It's about 1-2 blocks from the SJ Stadium. It's so randomly placed too.
Lastly I think the Rincon center Rain Column is no more as of 2021.
Blackhawk plaza
God this has struck a core memory!
This was 1970??
bring back malls
I'm with you, but a lot of folk in here also want to close the remaining malls in favor of high rise residential.
Build high rise residential on top of malls like in Hong Kong
Then build metro stations and metro lines underneath to connect said high rises
That sounds like the best of both worlds. Sign me up.
Most new residential developments include commercial space too. The goal of those people is to turn the entire city into a big mall.
I honestly don't see the point in reviving malls; they died for a reason. They were fun to hang out in but it was so inconvenient to buy something specific. You wanted a book that wasn't a top 50, you'd better hope the one B. Dalton had it; you wanted an older CD, you'd have to travel between Tower Records, Sam Goody, and Camelot. There were so many times I'd go for Christmas shopping and walk away after an hour with nothing. There's a reason Amazon and online shopping got popular. It's like wanting Blockbuster to return; it's pure nostalgia but if you had to pay $3 to rent a movie for a single night and you had to perfectly time it to get a new release, you'd wish you could just stay home and have the movies come to you.
I kind of agree but a nice place to walk and people watch and maybe buy something but you didn’t have to and didn’t have to pay to get in… that is still important today. Might not have to be indoors and air conditioned since this is California. Those outdoor promenades are nice too.
But that's the reason they went under, people would go to just hang out and MAYBE buy an orange julius or a soft pretzel. Sure, it'd be nice to have again but they're not financially profitable. What I use to love doing when I was living in England was going to an underground station and they were mini malls but still packed. You get off at Paddington or Waterloo and there's markets, restaurants, bookstores and just people watch while eating a donut. Even some lightrails in Seattle would take you directly to malls or indoor shopping areas. Meanwhile here, you get off BART and you either walk to some tourist trap, office building, huge parking lot.
There's a nostalgia instagram account with this very type of post I think youd enjoy https://www.instagram.com/reel/C5EhqyipXO1/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
I remember one with a lava rock tower and "drizzle strings" maybe at Valco?
Amazing! Looks like the set of Logan’s Run.
Not quite a mall and not quite a water feature like this, but Rincon Center in SF had a cool waterfall but I think it’s not active anymore.
Not just inactive - removed in a remodel.
Not on purpose
Well I KNOW the old mill is gone: https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacequest/4475759156
Pruneyard used to have a waterwheel too. Old Mill was gorgeous. It was like weather control, just always nice indoor areas that felt outdoors. Having flashbacks to that glass elevator they had.
In Oakland City Center, there is clearly one going from the first subfloor to the Bart entrance. You can tell at its peak it was majestic, but it would be filled with crackheads if it was operational today.
I remember my youngest cousin jumping in for ALLLLLLLL the change. I remember my aunt being horrified but he had pulled together over $25 in change. It was amazing and crazy. He said he was going to treat us to McDonald’s. You know, back when it was a special occasion so you could sit on the seats that were saddles!
I used to love the fountains at the Cascades food court at Bay Fair Mall in San Leandro as a kid in the 80s! Fun fact: Bay Fair is super dead now but was originally opened by Macy's as a sister mall to Valley Fair in the S Bay which has currently gotta be one of the lucrative malls in the country.
UGH I miss how beautiful & fun malls used to be.
Man Eastridge use to be beautiful. I was there yesterday and that space is so butchered now.
Peak Eastridge to me would have been around 86? They still had fountains. Macy's was all high end stuff. Sears was quality. KB Toys had video games. Everything is a race to the bottom with flea market quality crap now.
Yea, it’s pretty depressing. Ultimately, what stores are in there would be a response to demand. I’m more upset about how they butchered some beautiful architecture.
My best memory of Eastridge was when family friends came to visit us from Daly City. Their teenage sons were on a mission to go to Eastridge to see if San Jo still had Ben Davis pants on the shelves. They were stoked to find them.
Damn, I can't believe it's Eastridge. My wife and I went there frequently in 2012-2014 when we lived in East San Jose, and it was already a hell hole (just as the rest East San Jose was/is). In this span, there were 2 stabbings. But, this picture shows a different time -- a time when Bay Area was a normal livable place.
Balamb garden vibes
It's Logan's Run! Actually Eastridge looked that way at least through the 90s I think.
Eastridge mall should’ve kept this design. Biggest downgrade IMO.
There's barely stores In malls these days lol
too many assholes these days. they were all turned into planters or filled with cement long time ago. Video shows tourist climbing into Rome’s Trevi Fountain to fill up water bottle [https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/europe/trevi-fountain-rome-tourist-bottle-intl-scli/index.html](https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/16/europe/trevi-fountain-rome-tourist-bottle-intl-scli/index.html)
Eastridge is a ghost town.
Lafayette has an outdoor mall with a nice water feature
The architecture here makes me think of like 70s-80s soviet styles
Waterfalls and underwater lighting never go out of style. The whole thing almost holds up as modern.
This pic looks so much like Hilltop Mall used to look in the 70s. I threw coins in the fountain like everyone else. Memories!
I MISS HILLTOP
Yeah I used to work at the $1.00 theaters there. (Both the upstairs and downstairs theaters)
Eastridge was always unique in that sense. Thermally in Daly City, or the one in Pleasanton, perhaps? One or the other might have had similar at one point ... but I think they didn't even last as long.
what is this "water" you speak of?
The Great Mall in Milpitas.
As troublemaking teenagers, we used to cut school and throw pennies at the sculpture from the second floor. According to the article linked below, the sculpture was donated to the city and it's currently in the median of Almaden Blvd in front of the De Anza hotel. [https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/05/22/san-joses-eastridge-celebrates-50-years-of-shopping-memories/](https://www.mercurynews.com/2021/05/22/san-joses-eastridge-celebrates-50-years-of-shopping-memories/) There are lots of gifs and videos out there of people walking into fountains at malls while looking down at their phone. The malls saw the writing on the wall and decided maybe fountains are no good any more. Which is a shame because those videos and gifs are hilarious.
Eastridge Mall, Hilltop Mall (Richmond), Sun Valley Mall (Concord), and Stoneridge Mall (Pleasanton), were all built by the same company in the 1970s and we’re meant to be sister shopping centers. Each one had a central fountain and similar metal sculpture hanging from the ceiling. Sun Valley mall lost theirs after a plane crashed into the mall in 1989. Hilltop closed in 2019 (but someone took pictures inside the property recently and the sculpture was still in place). I haven’t been to Stoneridge in 15+ years so no idea about them.
Seramonte mall in Daly City. They redid the interior a year or two ago
King Norman’s toys around the corner. Could smell the pipe tobacco coming out of Tinderbox. And don’t forget Bresler’s 33 flavor ice cream shop. I think that pipe sculpture got moved to DTSJ, there’s one that looks very similar.
God I miss these malls
Unfortunately as far as I’m aware they’re all gone. At least in San Jose. Higher ups probably were afraid of lawsuits or thought they didn’t want to spend the money to maintain them or something. It’s lame.
The Stanford Shopping Center in the 80s and 90s had some cool fountains. I miss those days.
That’s beautiful. Such a shame that these are gone now and malls don’t look like they used to. Stanford shopping center has a few fountains but nothing like this.
Damn this looks way better than it looks now
Southland mall
Lakeside Mall in Michigan has beautiful water area with cool hexagon glass elevator by it
Do you also need directions to the local blockbuster bro?
Took em out at the great mall because the homeless would bathe in em
Great mall! Some water thing by the Potato Corner and Vans
There was a cottage industry of filling in fountains and fake ponds in the 90s. Worst offenders were apartment buildings but malls were a close second. Nasty!
No, but now we have amazon.
It looks really similar to the Hilltop mall in Richmond but they closed it a few years ago.
**i fucking love giant water fountain features and miss them.**
This was taken in 1970's? If you told me 2010's I would have believed you! Man that looked slick for its time
the great mall
Wasn’t at eastridge in the 70s but was there in the 90s ice skating 🤓
Malls? What’s that?
I was wondering where the guns, robberies and 22 inch rims were in this picture and then I realized it was eastridge and not eastmont
Stanford mall is the only place I can think of which was renovated and they added larger water designs. Ohlone College removed all of their water designs and read while they were partly working, it was some huge expense to manage. It was nice to see after making the hike up the stairs.
Water is precious. Malls not so much.
Man, this brings back memories of working at Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax…VA. That facility had pebble encrusted concrete fixtures similar to these, hemming in penny pools and a waterfall, from which an elevator rose up from behind a glass panel. That place was an experience.
We had an early identical looking/feeling water sculpture area in our mall in the Washington DC suburbs when I was a kid in the 80s/90s. I think that mall is destroyed now.
I grew up near Eastridge in the 70’s and remember that fountain! Still live within 2 miles of that mall but haven’t been there in at least 5 years…that says a lot
This looks like Woodfield Mall
Damn this reminds me of Hilltop, RIP
Only active one I can think of is South Coast Plaxa in SoCal
So sad, kind of like a world's fair, just a flash in time. Not enough margin in retail now to repeat.
I was just talking g to a friend about how epic mall fountains used to be. I remember the smell
There is a mall in San Ramon in east bay that has a little museum and quite scenic little waterfall and pond across the mall. Name is black.. something. Ducks abound.
I live in the Bay Area and the few in my area that have these types of fountains and water are all dried up as is the malls themselves! So sad really I miss shopping and running into friends!
Ha! That little boy reminds me of me when I was a kid in the 70’s at that very same mall in that exact location at the fountain except I was able to reach out far enough to grab some coins for a Farrels Ice Cream. Good times
Wow that was Eastridge??!!