Birmingham, Ala. (May 24, 2016) – The first McDonald’s opens in Moscow. Smoking is banned on all domestic flights. Driving Miss Daisy won the Oscar for Best Picture. The U.S. Census Bureau recorded 249 million U.S. citizens. The Americans with Disabilities Act became law. The first known web page was written. Operation Desert Storm begins with air strikes against Iraq, and Michael Bolton’s “How am I Supposed to Live Without You?” hits #1 on the pop charts.
In the ‘90s, enclosed malls and department stores were dominating the retail market. In the period from 1990 to 1995 CMH designed 12 malls and 23 department stores in 11 states.
In 1997, the face of retail architecture changed dramatically with the advent of what we now call the Lifestyle Center, an open-air upscale shopping environment. The Summit in Birmingham, a CMH design, which opened that year was one of the first such shopping venues in the country. Other Lifestyle Centers such as The Avenue projects, which CMH designed as well, followed The Summit as the preferred upscale shopping experience. The advent of Lifestyle Centers signaled the decline of enclosed malls.
In addition to retail developments, CMH designed numerous corporate, educational and institutional projects in the ‘90s, check out some of them here!