Contemporary urban American teenage culture is characterized by its interiority.  It is suggested that the decrease in time teens are spending outdoors results in Nature Deficit Disorder, impairing their cognitive, psychological and physical development.   In lieu of the evidence that indicates the importance of exposure to the landscape during our formative teenage years, this thesis begins to identify the evolution of the disconnect and opportunities for (re)exposure to the urban landscape .  

The act of promenading, walking for display with the intention of being observed and observing,  has long been associated with adolescence and characterized as a coming of age activity.  Where it once was sited in the landscape on the promenade, it now occurs in the insular, anemic architecture of the American shopping mall.  

The mall is both an architectural and etymological derivative of “promenade.”  Examination of mall and promenade precedents informed a hybridized landscape/architecture of the shopping mall that encourages existing adolescent behavior to be sited outside.