First Plaza Galeria: The Underground Dead Mall | Retail Archaeology 

I grew up in the Galleria 40 years ago. My family owned two stores here, Country Casuals (a clothing store) and Shooze (a women’s shoe store) for about 20 years. Yes, that flooring is original and so is the fountain; in fact everything you see in this video is original. I was visiting the Galleria yesterday to remember my mother (she passed recently)... I’m not exaggerating: this place is a time capsule that takes me back to my childhood, it has not changed. All the fake plants are still the same even. That small room on the ground level with the checkered flooring used to be a little deli called Frank’s. They had amazing hotdogs with poppy seed buns and my favorite treat: pistachio ice cream. I’d eat there at least 3 times a week with my dad. I grew up there with a friend whose parents owned the next door store called China Gifts, all the stores in the Galleria had a “secret” back door that led to the service hallways which was how store owners were supposed to accept their deliveries instead of through the mall. My friend and I would routinely get into trouble with security playing and running through them.

Lol that guy was having a blast in that chair

This architect should make video game levels.

I just went there a couple days ago and they’ve renovated the carpeted area by the escalators. They redid the escalators and replaced them with stairs, put new flooring down by the stairs, added more neon lighting on the ceiling by the stairs, redid the elevators with wood paneling that looks even more 70s than what was there, and all the flickering lights were fixed - also the fountain is still on!

What an absolutely gorgeous place - it really has a '70s sci-fi vibe going on

I usually find 70's architecture hideous, but this place is awesome!

08:14 that guy rocking the chair looks like an animation that would be in mall tycoon.

I know this is an older mall, but you can tell the architect was going for a ''fururistic' design/look. Really neat. I think these type of shopping centers would benefit from the night market culture. Its sad to see it empty.

8:26 That dude is having WAY too much fun in his chair

Two words. “Apple store” a mall where I use it live was dying and the owner brides Apple to come to his mall with five years of free rent and I think he even paid them, of course all the other renters complained but it brought in so much traffic it saved the mall and even helped the fellow merchants that had complained. It paid off big time.

Never knew watching a defunct mall could be so relaxing

I kinda adore the idea of an underground mall Idk there's just something about places like that that just fascinate me

Shame the place is as dead as it is. Somebody could at least restore this place as it isn't too far gone like other dead malls. Got a nice 70' s aesthetic. Could put some retro type shops and maybe a few multi room barcades.

malls are so modern now. I do miss the old dated 80s 90s look. I guess it takes me back when I was still a kid and was excited to go with my mom to the mall

Very cool mall, man. And I'm not shocked to see that there's a massage parlor in there lol...Unique structure, and fantastic commentary as always!

At one time there actually was clothing stores, a Hallmark card store, more than one restaraunt in there. About 12 years ago is when many of the stores started closing up. When the Gap left that was when the majority of the businesses left. The big restaraunt that left use to be a favorite place to go eat and have drinks for people who worked Downtown.

The architecture looks like it could have been used in a 70's sci-fi movie or something. Even now it's a mix of strange and cool.

8:24 I was totally waiting for that dude to flip backwards in that chair! And that shoe shine chair was awesome. Good video! 😸🎃👻

It could be a train station! And that fountain is aesthetic af

Wow this is SUCH a gem. There are so many things I love about this. The fountains and escalators go easily be on the cover of a vaporwave album. The exteriors of the defunct hair salon and restaurant gave them a miniature feel and made the mall feel like a city within a city, even when all of them are gone already. And I LOVE those glass-covered entrances. I can already smell that 80s-90s bank smell. So glad you got to document it before it's gone! 👍🏾

In the 90's and early 2000's the PATH system in Toronto looked like this. It's mostly all been renovated though, and it's not dead by any means.

The way the plants spill over into the fountain is so beautiful! The whole mall seems like it has a very cozy and inviting atmosphere.

There's a giant mall in Winnipeg that's underground called Winnipeg Square. It extends to 4 buildings with underground tunnels and also connects to a massive above ground skywalk that basically connects the entirety of downtown Winnipeg.

Looks more like a college student center rather than a mall

Retail Archaeology The inside fountain has a lot of pool lights aimed upwards that were designed to light up the fountain water jet at night, I bet at night if you look through the glass on the outside enclosure it looks amazing! This place is incredible warm, inviting, modern, yet timeless....so much potential. Be nice to see them spruce it up and try with stores again! This is something that you don't want to "modernize" since it is timeless and with some minor refurbishing would be perfect once again.

That look just reminds me of childhood. Put on your cords, baseball tee and stride rite shoes because we are going shopping. If not to the mall then the shopping center. There is a 62% chance the shopping center is named Town and Country Village, and if not a 92.4% chance the word Village appears at the end of it's name.

Seems to me, it would be aperfect place for micro apartments! beautiful!

There is a calming familiar vibe to this mall. It's hard to explain, I'd love to see it.

damn the architectural design aesthetic on this mall is so ahead on its time it feels like it was build on the 2000's but it was from the 70's

You were in my stomping grounds and I didn’t even know it! I used to be a contractor for the Gap when they were here, and it was them who kept the place looking decent, probably the only real source of income to provide for quality upkeep. It is odd to see the fountain running again Too bad you missed the Kmart here on Carlisle, it still had the original 90’s neon at the time of close

That building is beautiful, thank you for taking the time to document it.

Omg this is pure early 1980's ... It's my shangrala. The brown and cream brick work. The soft unvarnished wood. The perfect use of brass. The circles! What a beautiful place. Thank you.

World Trade Center once had a mall underneath it. It was called Mall at the World Trade Center. It was quite of a size, and was the biggest mall in New York City at its opening in 1975.

This mall is so rad. I remember going here in the 90's for some art junk with my Grandma. Whenever I visit clients next door in the US Eagle building I make a point to come over and walk around. I'm trying to work on a BP to open up a tap room in the old La Esquina front.

Nice to see a mall with the fountain on & no whitewash on the ceiling & no removed boiserie (wood paneling) & the unique windows. All it needs is a brick floor. Cyan is between sky blue & seafoam green.

There's a scene from 2009's film "Crazy Heart" filmed here where the kid Jeff Bridge's character's supposed to be taking care of gets lost...... That's the original parquet floors from the 1970's because I used to go to the movies there in the mid 1970's... Methinks that you can make out where the cinema was.... I loved that place because it used to remind me of the domed city from the film "Logan's Run"..........

So this is what happens when you make a left in Albuquerque.

I love the look of the place! It's got that 1970s futuristic sci-fi reject look to it! Sure wish they still build buildings like these today... Most of the modern building they build today really kinda lack that futuristic/sci-fi look to them (with the exception of the new WTC mall), especially all those round windows and smooth rounded corners, that's something you don't really see in today's buildings.

That restaurant is where a scene from "Crazy Heart" with Jeff Bridges was filmed, the scene of him losing the little boy, "Buddy".

The building is going to be the new home of TaskUs, with 695 new jobs in renovated space. There are bigger plans to renovate and transform the entire building with hotel and residential uses.

This mall freaked me out when I was a kid in the 80s living in Albuquerque. Downtown was weird for me, but this mall was really strange. I have memories of it lodged somewhere in the dark recesses of my mind.

Great find! These below level shopping concourses were quite common in the 60's and 70's. Many of them at the heart of internal padestrian networks connecting multiple buildings downtown. Some cities still have them doing well, some not so much. I could go on and on about urban planning and how we are wired to move and shop about our communities reflected by history. This kind of mid 20th century planning has been a passion of mine for over a decade. Always check downtowns for these little concourses. They will rarely disappoint you

Cool space. Can really imagine the place in the Carter era (late 70s); the shape of those escalators has a certain futuristic opulence. And those windows have some real character. Thanks for posting!

One thing I've noticed you have a "flair" for is, whether you're in Mesa or Scottsdale or Albuquerque, New Mexico, whether they be of the genteel or "rub & tug" variety, more times than not, you have a talent for scoping out and finding shopping centers that house massage parlors. ;) But this is definitely a first for me - a dedicated, underground mall. Almost has a secret, "exclusive" feel to it.

There is a place like this in Akron, OH called Shoppes at Akron Center. Not quite as big but same underground vibe.

Great video. Goodbye malls, they will soon be a thing of history, gone but recorded in rare videos kept alive on the internet

First thing that came to mind to me (as I am a Southerner) was Underground Atlanta. I haven't been there since I was a kid (probably 1991), but it was a pretty cool place back in the day. Atlanta has some cool malls.

This is a beautiful. Love that 70's look. Thanks for sharing!

I live in Houston and we have an underground mall too. It's downtown and under the skyscrapers. You should go check it out. It's been there for years! It's part of the 7 miles of tunnels running underground under the Theatre District. Awesome videos! I really enjoy them! ✌️🏼😊

I know what vibe I feel. Artsy. It’s really artsy and that makes the space extra cool. Those floors. Doesn’t need any updating. Those floors are timeless. Stunning.This would be a great spot for gallery and studio space for artists. Hartford did that with a few old buildings and it’s working very well. Thriving arts community and it helps everyone to give a lower lease for artists and then they bring money and more artists to the city enriching the community.

Japan has so many underground malls like this, I’d say the reason why they are so successful is because you can use them to get the the railways or go under really busy traffic instead of walking through it for a shortcut.

I love the Galleria, used to drink at that restaurant bar whenever I got super depressed LOL

The structure has held up amazingly well for being 46 years old. Maybe if people want Albuquerque to "come back", they should make more Bugs Bunny cartoons. Thanks for sharing!!!

Yep. That restruant was owned by my freinds dad, he retired soon after he closed the shop, it was a nice place, just had no business. Online everything closed many brick and motor stores. But I love this place, another neat little mall is on San Mateo and Montgomery, called "montgomery crossings"

What a cool mall and what a beautiful fountain.

Absolutely love this underground menagerie and haven. My mom is a retired attorney and her offices were near here. We had a membership at the athletic club since I was a baby and I spent much of my childhood in this building. I feel so, so lucky that I did.

I lived in Albuquerque in the early 90s. I was in college at UNM and had a cheap apartment very close to there. My mom was a teacher at the catholic school downtown right by that mall. I used to meet her there to have coffee and a pastry or a meal and chat before she went home for the day two or three times a week if the traffic was bad. It wasn’t ever crowded but there were people in and out through there. Mostly tourists or business people. I also ate at that restaurant with a guy I was dating before a Tori Amos concert in the early 90s. It was a quiet and classy type of vibe

i miss mall fountains , used to be a lot at malls i used to go to and still go to but they were removed as they were renovated over the years

Happy to find your video. I worked at a restaurant on the main floor in 1976-78 called El Prado. We occupied 2 floors with the restaurant on the main floor and our bakery, smoke house and cafe on the first level below ground. I was a waiter while attending UNM. It was one of the best jobs I've ever had, outstanding team spirit. We had a very serious Austrian Chef, baked all of bread and pastry in-house, smoked our own meats and generally delivered a 5 star experience. The restaurant was owned by 3 guys from San Francisco. We were a little too formal for 1976 Albuquerque but the service and the food were outstanding. The restaurant was hang out for the ABQ power brokers at that time. You should also know that the fountain originally was open to the street level and water cascaded 360 degrees to the lower level. The skylight was not there at that time. At the time I worked there the building was very new and it was alive with shops open and people visiting. If I remember correctly the building was an early attempt at urban renewal for downtown ABQ which definitely a mess at that time. Thanks again for documenting.

There’s actually a similar thing here in my hometown of Nis, Serbia. Basically it’s an underground passage that stretches along the entire city center and has multiple entrances. It used to be a cold war era bunker but it was renovated in the 90s to be a mall. It’s not dead however

Thanks for taking us on a tour of this! Very cool looking place; sad that it feel to abandonment. While there were no retail locations open, I'm still surprised at just how empty is was. Even if nothing else, so many spots there (such as 8:55) are screaming 'Instagram blogger' as a place to take a photo. And if I worked in the area, I'd certainly be using it as a quiet lunch spot/place to get a break from work. Is the city responsible for upkeep of it now? It looked surprisingly clean (I didn't see any litter or anything); I know if this were here in NYC, it would be filled with garbage in no time. And I didn't see any vagrancy/graffiti either; interesting that the place is abandoned, but it still seems to be in good shape.

3:56 Those Barcelona chairs are the classiest sitting furniture i've ever seen in a mall (and they are worth some money).

Holy shit I've never seen a mall so beautiful. The crisp white, copper, wood, and live plants give a very peaceful minimalist aesthetic mixed with a little late 60's Sci-Fi. This place would be an awesome spot for portrait photography.

Beautiful complex, would be a real shame to lose it

ahhhhh!!! I've been here! Visited ABQ for a convention 2 years ago and jeez, what a bleak and depressing city.

omg, memories from 1987, me my mom and brother were standing right at the front door

Nice recap of the mall. I really did like the structure and the vintage feel to it, and more than anything all those different shape windows. I felt like I was at the mall back when I was like 6 yrs old throughout the whole entire video, well done. Thank you.

I’ve been in Albuquerque since 2007 and this is the first I’m learning of this mall. I’m guessing that the rent hikes and confusion on parking cost this mall it’s customers. Traffic flow to get to said parking might have also been a factor. Turning onto another street or into a garage/lot in the downtown area can cost you a bumper.

This was a cool busy place circa 1979 when I briefly lived here as a kid

I've lived in Albuquerque all my life. At 23 years old, this is the first time ever seeing this. It's still open here in mid 2021 surprisingly. I'm sure older people know about this mall, but I know for a fact me and my friends never knew about it.

I never thought I'd be in love with escalators before.

I did "running" work for a travel agent in this mall back in 1988. I then returned in 2008 with another company, and left again in 2014. It was a lovely, vibrant place in 1988, but not so much from 2008 to 2014. The latter visit was to an environment of homelessness, drugs and the element downtown can bring to a city. I'll never forget the woman bathing naked in the fountain in the courtyard area one fine day, or the smell of urine in just about any of the less traveled spaces (both memories from my second stay). And such a shame! It is truly a remarkable space!

Really cool vid. Most people don’t know that there’s a underground pedestrian tunnel system in downtown Houston. They used to sell food etc there.

This looks almost exactly like the Crystal City underground mall right outside DC. There's like nothing there. There's a Dress Barn, a puppet store, a discount shoe store, a rundown clothing store, an italian restaurant, a Potbellys, a store that sells random tchochkes and coins from around the world, a defunct bank, and other weird shit. And I've never seen more than maybe 15 people (aside from the people operating the shops) in there at the same time.

OMG, the CDi Tetris music, officially the chillest Tetris ever.

8:12 I couldn’t help watching that guy rocking in that chair and almost tipping it and not listening to a word you said. Don’t worry though, I rewatched that clip and listened.

i love the aesthetic, i really like the wood parts, i feel nostalgia because of the design that came from a previous era.

So sad . What a pretty building. Love the soft padded seats around the fountain.

Thx soo much for your uploads!! As someone who grew up in the 80s and 90s I find these uploads Erie yet extremely interesting

Gorgeous.....had a nice vibe......reminded me of my favorite little hide away mall in bensalem, pa.....from the 70's..also had a fountain.....Woodhaven mall......long gone :(

If you ever come to Southern New York State, it might be interesting to see you take a look at one of these malls: Arnot Mall in Horseheads and the Oakdale Mall in Johnson City. Mainly because these malls aren't dead yet, but they aren't exactly thriving and it could be nice to see the in between of thriving and dead.

I used to patronize a hair salon here, about 1977-78. The classic 70s look - hair, mustache - was in. They carried Redken products, and so that was my introduction to conspicuous consumption regarding hair products.

I remember while in elementary school, our class went on a field trip down there. At that time, (early 90s) there was an Explora science learning center in there. From what I understand, it's still in business. But as you can see just not there anymore.

I wish I could have watched this with my Grandma, she loved these dead mall videos and her sister lived in Albuquerque so it's very possible she went to this mall.

I love the uniqueness of this mall, very cool. Thank you for documenting this place.

Absolutely gorgeous old mall...i’ve always loved those little niche elegant high end malls, they always seem to have interesting small shops and art galleries to explore. Also the way the light is reflecting around the escalators around 6:45-6:50 totally gives me Mirrors Edge vibes.

The wood flooring reminds me of the floors at Pike Place up here in Seattle. Along with the lighting.

This has to be a yuppie heaven back in the day.

Greetings from Albuquerque. I've lived here 20 years and regretfully have been to that mall once. Thanks so much for taking the time to film it.

When I was a little kid, we went on a field trip to the Galeria to a place that used to be there called Explora. It was so much fun. I went back a few times, but I forgot about it. When I saw your video everything just came back to me. I'm so happy you documented it. When I get back to Albuquerque I'm planning on a visit there.

Excellent video! Thank you for showing us!🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

That building has a very classic Southwestern look with the stucco, round windows, and natural wood. It reminds me a lot of places I remember growing up in southern Arizona.

Absolutely stunning... and that fountain! Man if I lived in that area, that fountain area would be my main hangout spot and bring friends along too. That's a nice spot. I love the idea of an underground mall, I wish I could go to one. It makes me sad every time I visit a dying/dead mall or even watch videos about 'em, but interesting at the same time.

Great video keep up the great work

The place was quite busy up until the early 90’s. The fountain used to be an enclosed waterfall from a giant pond above, (long since paved over and planted.) There was a twin movie theatre, a very swanky Mexican restaurant, (it was in the movie Crazy Heart with Jeff Bridges, in fact a lot of the Galleria was shown) a number of art galleries, no less than five sandwich shops, three at street level, two underground, the Galleria served the building above, and back then it was full of offices, banks, city and county offices, travel agencies, it even had a health spa with a pool! I went there in 19’ and it was indeed sad to see one of my teen hangouts abandoned. At least it is well kept and is now a nice retreat from the empty streets above...

Thanks so much for capturing this!! This was weirdly refreshing to watch after the Dollar General video lol

What a beautiful mall! I love the soundtrack btw, gonna have to jam all the time now!

Now that mall is aesthetic. Just another reason why I wanna got to Albuquerque sometime soon. It really is a hidden gem.

Wow. Lived in Albuquerque for over 5 years and didn’t even know this place existed.

Honestly, this looks like a great place to have (a socially distanced) lunch in peace. That outdoor fountain also reminds me of Peavey Plaza.