The Avenues Mall

Faisel E R S Altawheed

Professor Klepper

English 113B

29th October 2013

The Avenues Mall

            One of the things that Kuwait should be famous for its their malls. Five malls had been constructed in Kuwait during the previous ten years. The Avenues Mall is considered the oldest between them. Although there are many other new malls in Kuwait, people keep going back to the Avenues Mall, which leads to a person to think: what makes that shopping mall so special ? Even if the malls appear to be similar, the same entertainment facilities, restaurants,  and cloths stores. The Avenues is still so popular because it is well located, the road that leads to the avenues is on the opposite of traffic in Kuwait. In addition, the impressive structure is a dominate reason to go to the mall, it have over 800 stores spread over seven districts, each district has its own theme and attracts all kind of segments. In contrast, Al Hamra Mall it is the newest mall in Kuwait and so luxurious, yet it is always empty. The reason of emptiness is that it is located at the center downtown of Kuwait, where it usually too crowded with traffic, and it only attract certain segment of people. What makes a Mall occupied with people is the well organization of the mall, the location, and the design.

            The Avenues Mall is considered the 2nd largest mall in the middle east. The founders of the mall construction had a well studied future vision of the project, they have had decided to built that large mall in an empty area away from center of Kuwait. That idea had a tangible contribution to the success of that mall. It became so easy to drive to the mall without worrying about the traffic.

            Some people may argue that locating the Mall away from the center of Kuwait will force people to drive longer, which will lead to the increase of gas consumption, therefore, it will affect the economy and the environment of the country. But from a second perspective, locating the Mall at the center of Kuwait would lead to more traffic, and people will get stuck for more than an hour to just reach the mall. This traffic will lead to more gas consumption in addition to waste valuable time at traffic.

The founders have succeed in transferring what used to be an empty area that no one usually visits, to a business center that is hardly empty during any time of the week ... to be continued 

Faisel E R S Altawheed

Professor Klepper

English 113B

24th October 2013

The Good, The Bad, And The Empty

               In the early age of vehicles, people started to construct buildings horizontally, which had impacted our present world negatively, most of the empty spaces are built. The space is a recourse that may get consumed by the time if it wasn't managed carefully. A thought that no one can deny is that our daily routine usually consists organizing and reorganizing our workplace to enhance it performance, that is why we should reorganize the old building in a way to make it more useful.

The Meridian Pointe

            It is a residents complex located across the street from CSUN campus, it is considered as one of the closest apartments to the East side of campus. The first few glances once you enter the building will be astonishing , a big luxury lobby that have a spectacular view on a pool. But after taking a tour in the place, you would never like to live in that place. The hall ways resembles a jail, because of the cramped path and the bricks design. In addition, This kind of design usually blocks the phone signals at the complex. The apartment design is also missed up, the bed room is way much bigger than the living room. Humorously, sometimes you can find two doors to one apartment, but only one of them opens, because the other door is built on a wall by mistake. All of those negatives shows how is this space is designed carelessly.  Unfortunately, this great amount of space beside the campus has always been half empty, because students prefer to commute from faraway palaces, rather than living in a cramped complex.

            The Meridian Pointe made a noticeable effort on the complex entrance, but to be able to attract more students and get into the competition with the other complexes, it should work more on the hallways and the apartments. A great way to enhance this miss usage of space is to focus more on what would attract the students.

            Alex Steffen once said that "people all over the world are embracing the walkshed life style", by walkshed life he meant a life without vehicles. Since the complex is close to campus, the place should be designed in a way that encourages people to use bicycles to reach the campus. The only current place where you can park you bicycle is in the far back of the complex, away from CSUN, in an outdoor and very small gated area. Instead, it should be more in the front beside the main entrance.

            Other way to enhance the building is by rebuilding its walls in a more fashionable way, to avoid that jail impression. In addition, adding more windows to the complex, rather than the big bricks, would strengthen the phone signal.

            One of the main reasons that prevented me personally to live in that place is the smell of cigarette. The complex did not make a smoking room for the smoker residents, therefore, the smell of cigarette is spread in the hallways. What's  happening is that the complex is attracting the minority category of people "smokers" and pushing away the majority of the non-smokers. In order to attract more people to live in this empty complex, is by marking a space for smokers to smoke in, and forbid the smoking in halls.

            If the complex worked on these enhancements, it will definitely attract more people to move in. As what Steffen once said, “Urban retrofitting: creating different sorts of spaces and uses out of places that are already there.” People should learn how to improve what we already have, rather than  consuming space by building new more buildings.

 

Works Cited

"Alex Steffen: The shareable future of cities | Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth spreading. N.p., July 2011. Web. 24 Oct. 2013.

Steffen, Alex. "Alex Steffen: The shareable future of cities | Video on TED.com." TED: Ideas worth spreading. N.p., July 2011. Web. 25 Oct. 2013.

 

Spaces and Places

 

 

 

The California State University - Northridge Library, it is the first symbol that comes in my mind when I remember CSUN. It is the place where I usually go to study at. The library is located in the center, surrounded by a large green area, with a big stair blocks that people usually relax at. Although the library is supposed to be a public place to study at, there is a café that serves a great croissant for breakfast. When I see that place I usually remember doing my homework, and its related with a feeling of depression and running out of time. To be honest, I do not like to go the library that much, because I quite places where people are not allowed to speak.

 

 

 

 

The Student Union Center (USU). It is a place that is specialized mostly for events and activities. Usually, every other month a concert is being held there. This place is setup to maintain most of the events and orientations, due to the considerable amount of restaurants in it. In addition, there is a big hall that have four different restaurants and a big projector, where most of the students meet and watch soccer games. The USU is located at the West side of CSUN. You can find there the Student Recreation Center (SRC), which is CSUN's gym. This is the place where I spend most of my money at. I usually go Subway to buy my lunch after classes every other day. This place make me feel comfortable and relieved of my daily work. Every time I go to the Soccer Hall I meet most of my friends, talking about how awful our Calculus II class is going. This place usually reminds me of a person that I really admire, I met that person during an orientation, and I had no idea that the person would be a part of my daily life. This place really bring back old memories and my happy moments.

 

 

 

 

 

The USU Gaming Center, it is a place where the Student Union held Ping Pong, BRAWL, and FIFA tournaments. The main reason of this room is to chill out with friends and start competing with each others. You can find Wi, Xbox, Sony, Ping pong, and billiards. This place usually charge a small charge on each game you use. This place usually make me feel enthusiasm, because of challenging my friends with a various type of games. It usually reminds me of my early days at CSUN, we used to go there every Mondays and Wednesdays to play Ping Pong with my roommates. Unfortunately, my whole group who used to play at the Gaming Center wasn't able to come to the US again, because of visa issues. So every time pass by that place I remember my close friends.