It should be pointed out that Eden center is an exact replica of a strip shopping center in Saigon, south Vietnam circa 1968. In fact every summer there is a reunion in the parking lot of soldiers who served in the South Vietnamese army.
I knew you would notice this piece! Online, Eden Center is identified as copying the Khu Eden arcade in Saigon. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything about that, or any images of it.
One thing that strikes me about this situation is the small sizes of the spaces—to have 200 businesses in a mid sized plaza means that many have to be quite small. Small spaces lower the nut to get up and running and pay rent, allowing for more diverse businesses. The great number of interesting businesses make it a great destination. And it all comes back to lots of small spaces.
And here it gets really interesting: why isn’t this more commonly seen? Turns out small spaces are more expensive to build and operate. It’s more walls per sq ft of property, more doors, more fire alarms, more utility meters, etc. we should be looking for opportunities to creatively lower the cost of construction and make it more equal between small and chaotic and big and simple.
That's an excellent point. I think some of these businesses are in an indoor area with stalls or partitions, but I also think the storefronts have been altered over the years to fit more in. I'm not positive. I'd like to track down the specs of the place when it was first built.
It should be pointed out that Eden center is an exact replica of a strip shopping center in Saigon, south Vietnam circa 1968. In fact every summer there is a reunion in the parking lot of soldiers who served in the South Vietnamese army.
I knew you would notice this piece! Online, Eden Center is identified as copying the Khu Eden arcade in Saigon. Unfortunately I couldn't find anything about that, or any images of it.
Somewhere in one of the hallways there is a photo of that shopping center in Saigon and it is dated.
One thing that strikes me about this situation is the small sizes of the spaces—to have 200 businesses in a mid sized plaza means that many have to be quite small. Small spaces lower the nut to get up and running and pay rent, allowing for more diverse businesses. The great number of interesting businesses make it a great destination. And it all comes back to lots of small spaces.
And here it gets really interesting: why isn’t this more commonly seen? Turns out small spaces are more expensive to build and operate. It’s more walls per sq ft of property, more doors, more fire alarms, more utility meters, etc. we should be looking for opportunities to creatively lower the cost of construction and make it more equal between small and chaotic and big and simple.
That's an excellent point. I think some of these businesses are in an indoor area with stalls or partitions, but I also think the storefronts have been altered over the years to fit more in. I'm not positive. I'd like to track down the specs of the place when it was first built.