What does it feel like to walk through a dead mall? It’s a complicated blend of nostalgia, sorrow and magnificence. There’s no greater reminder of your own mortality than to see your childhood literally crumbling to the ground. Yet in the case of Sunrise Mall in Corpus Christi, TX, it’s hard to wallow in the loss of a magical era when tropical plants are green and thriving, and reflective surfaces are shining with sunlight.
Sunrise Mall is the very mall where the 1985 classic The Legend of Billie Jean was filmed. Raise your hand if you remember Billie Jean’s backpack filled with marbles in the infamous chase scene?! As Dan Bell notes in his Dead Mall series tour of Sunrise Mall, “There are many, many films that have been shot in malls. The difference between those films and The Legend of Billie Jean, and specifically the mall locations, is either the malls are gone or they’ve been renovated to a point where it’s not even recognizable…This may be the only mall from the ’80s where they shot a film where it looks exactly the same.”
Do yourself a favor and check out Dan Bell’s tour of the mall… he juxtaposes his shots of specific locations with the same locations as they appear in the 1985 film. You won’t believe how little this mall has changed! Since Bell’s tour, there have been a couple of big changes. For one thing, the iconic fountain is no longer running (scroll down for images of this amazing water feature).
Another change: the upstairs is basically closed off (and stifling from the minimal air conditioning in this mall). I managed to get past some signage and snap a shot or two of storefronts, but there are floor-to-ceiling barricades upstairs that make it impossible to get a thorough tour of the mall.
So what was it like walking into this space after wanting to see it for so long? The first thing to hit me when heading through the entrance closest to the parking garage was a wave of cigarette smoke (an employee who’d been smoking out front had recently re-entered the mall). This definitely contributed to the retro feel! The corridors are as sparse as you’d expect from a dead mall, but the main area, with its abundance of greenery and glass, is unbelievably bright and welcoming. In other words, after a few footsteps, I was totally transported back in time to the glory days of this mall. It’s not hard to imagine Sunrise Mall at its most popular.
From the arched skylight windows and wooden railings to the bold angles and curved tile pattern, ’80s flourishes abound in this spectacular space. The mall opened in February of 1981, and its late ’70s/early ’80s roots definitely show. The stone and tile work alone are modern marvels.
And then there’s the fountain…the one Helen Slater runs across in that iconic Legend of Billie Jean chase scene. Many if not all of the fountain plants are now faux, but there’s something about the tile and the remnants of blue paint (not an original feature) that make this fountain seem alive on some level. It’s begging for a starring role in an ’80s fashion shoot!
Moving past the unforgettable main atrium, Sunrise Mall has a LOT more to offer ’80s design enthusiasts. In his tour, Dan Bell points to the amazing chairs and tables that haven’t changed since the ’80s. These are the chairs that were on my patio when I was a kid. I’d completely forgotten about them until I spotted them during my visit:
Other standout ’80s features to fixate on include slanted wood paneling, Deco details and brass trim. There’s also an abundance of geometric windows. Here are more photos to enjoy…
For those of us who spent weekends in the ’80s and ’90s basically living at the mall, the dead mall experience takes on an added weight. Times change and trends change. Columns crumble and chain stores close their metal security grilles one last time. But that doesn’t make walking through a deteriorating past any less bizarre.
A 2015 Washington Post piece by Emily Badger titled “Why no one likes indoor malls anymore” notes that the new city center-style outdoor malls represent a revitalization of the old urban downtowns. There’s a true community center feel. There are refreshing benefits to this format. Badger writes, “The mall that’s dying is, in fact, a specific kind of mall: It’s enclosed, with an anonymous, windowless exterior, wrapped in yards of parking, located off a highway interchange. It’s the kind of place where you easily lose track of time and all connection to the outside world, where you could once go to experience air conditioning if you didn’t have it at home.”
There’s nothing in this article that I don’t agree with, and this interpretation of evolving mall culture is shared by many. It’s nice to have a city center-style downtown feel when you’re stuck in the suburbs. I just wish I could have my cake and eat it too…the rise of the outdoor shopping center AND the revitalization of indoor malls.
To someone who was a kid in the ’80s, the loss of a childhood mall is substantial. There was something magical in going someplace where the outside world faded away. And losing track of time was absolutely blissful. Indoor malls were totally fabricated, but when the design was THAT good and each storefront (and the beautifully designed products inside) represented a brand’s bold vision, the experience was unreal…in the best possible way. To see that glorious vision barricaded and forgotten can be heartbreaking.
But there’s also something undeniably significant about walking through a dead mall, like you’re witnessing an important piece of history in this demise. Sometimes all you can do is visit these locations before they crumble any more, camera in hand, reimagining the space at the height of its impact on shoppers with what memories are left from childhood.
It’s incredible! It never ceases to amaze me how deep in my bones “the mall” is. Actually – you said it perfectly in the opening paragraph “It’s a complicated blend of nostalgia, sorrow and magnificence. “. Indeed.
So, I’m curious? When did it close? I mean – there’s still stuff in the Musicians Academy storefront?
And also curious – is it just open to the public? Or did you make arrangements to gain access?
Thanks Kate!
It;s still an official location of their shop according to Academy’s web page.Fantatsic store front design BTW.
One of your best posts ever!!! I feel exactly the same way about the deteriorating Irving Mall in Irving, TX.
I am curious too. The Prezel World still have lights on. Was it set for visitors?
Looks like it’s still open – popcorn didn’t turn into huge ball of fungi.
I moved here in mid part of 2000. The mall was on its way out then. The shops that were inside the mall were an odd assortment with Mervyns on one end and Montgomery Ward on another end. In a few short years they were both out of business. Once they were out of business, I stopped going to the mall altogether except for the occasional visit to Wilcox (they took over the former Ward’s location) and my daughters seeing dollar movies in the upstairs theater that was there at least until they graduated in 2007. I have been inside the mall once in the last ten years. It’s still nicely maintained except none of the water works inside now. I guess it’s not really that old…less than 50 years?
I wish someone would buy this place. It would make a great school. It will probably be torn down like everything else in this city. There was a restaurant by funtrackers built in the last 15 years that was torn down and a beautiful Mexican style bank across the street that was even newer and so gorgeous inside but is now another gas station. Everything in this city is so odd.
It’s like the city knows its just a matter of time until it’s gone. It could be so beautiful here especially now that we can sail past the barrier island into the actual GofM. Instead, it’s like another country. Every few feet a store is closing down. New restaurants are gone within five years replaced by some local people who cannot keep that restaurant open and then reopen with another family member taking over only to eventually become a used car lot or torn down altogether.
Downtown San Diego (California that is) was like that. Somehow they got it together and built one of the nicest, prettiest, and prosperous downtown’s in the country. Perhaps the so-called leaders of this corpus morietur will really work at changing things for this city so it can actually live up to its name Corpus Christi.
I did not grow up in the 80s. My earliest memories are the early 90s when the 80s influence was already fading, then on into the 00s. Ugh, the 00s. The 90s were, on the one hand, a deeply cynical time, and on the other hand, frought with attempts at holding onto 80s influence — at least in the early 90s. At least judging my the people on Supermarket Sweep from the era, lol. But it went downhill pretty quickly. The mental outlook was already like an 80s crumbling mall. Its a good metaphor, I guess, for… well, you know.
I dislike how heavy and unfilfilling all of that is, and I am so fascinated by the 80s. Its the exact opposite in basically every way. Everything was about fun and appeal, and was so optimistic and light. I love all the PSAs, hahaha! Like cartoons to show kids what to do if they get sand in their eyes, and how not to open the door for strangers, things like that. Unlike now, they were authoritarian and dictatoral. They were sincere.
Sometimes I really wished I had lived through the 80s, but then times like these, with the delapidated mall… Well, sometimes you see people who lived through the 80s and they loved it sooooo much, and they’re just heartbroken that its gone. And you see it all the time… Honestly, I cannot imagine how bad that feels, based on the longing for the 80s from people who lived in it. The 80s are a novelty to me, but these people really do hurt.
Gee, the first time my dad showed me a Whitney Houston video, — it was completely baffling. I couldn’t figure it out. “Is this… children’s music?” There were no obscenities, nothing was raunchy or explicit, the song wasn’t about sex, the music was fun, there was humor — even self-dereciating humor; in other words, it was in no way sociopathic. — It didn’t make any sense. “Nooo! Its Whitney Houston: America’s Sweetheart!” Gosh, I really wished I had lived in a time where stuff like that — so fun and appealing, so not-degrading — was what “pop” was. Sigh~ It seems so wonderful… Gee, I’ll bet stuff like that was playing on mall speakers or store speakers in this very mall. Or walkmans! Lol, no wonder people were happy: they just wanted to dance with somebody – somebody who loved them, or walk like an egyptian, or have fu-un. And it was like everyone was invited: blue collar workers, white collar workers, different cultures and sub-cultures.
I mean I know no time was perfect and people always have their troubles and personal sufferings, but gee, it must have been a lot easier to have troubles in a time like that than in a pessimistic – dispairing? nihilistic, hedonistic, degrading, cruel, annoying, negative, narcissistic, sociopathic – time like this.
The 80s are a glorious time gone passed for me, and in a way I’m glad I didn’t live through it, because wow, … it just must make contemporary times seem so swimmingly lame and even more obnoxious. They already seem that way to me, I can’t imagine contrasting that in my mind to actual 80s experiences, an “80s world,” so to speak.
But I can also see how living through an optimistic time could give you strength that the world doesnt have to be… like it is. — I hope that’s also what you experienced.