Eight Dollars

Victor did.

Victor was a young Austrian architect who emigrated to the US. When he landed he had $8 in his jeans and didn’t speak English .. and took whatever design work he could find … before long he talked himself into one job and then another … just 13 years later he had his own architectural firm.

Well, one day the family behind Dayton Department Stores chain challenged him to design something special for a huge suburban complex they wanted to build outside the Twin Cities in Minnesota. It was to have apartment buildings, schools, medical facilities, a park, a lake and a very specific, new type of structure at its centre. The structure would be the first of its kind anywhere in North America. Well the special building took two years and 800 workers to build and had a massive 800,000 sqft of floor space … 40,000 people attended its grand opening and It was a smash success. So much so that Victor was flooded with commissions to build similar buildings everywhere .. and, as a result became one of the most influential architects of the 20th century.

Today, over 60 years later, that first building that Victor Gruen originally designed in a Twin Cities suburb still stands … and inspired thousands more just like it in just about every major community across North America … and you’ve been in one … The Indoor Shopping Mall.

The Indoor Shopping Mall a great idea because if you do something challenging .. success might just be in bag!