The Accidental Room (2018) (99percentinvisible.org)

by blewboarwastake 6 comments 62 points
Read article View on HN

6 comments

[−] gwbas1c 64d ago
"Secret Mall Apartment" is a documentary on Netflix that includes a lot of the videos that Townsend took during the whole project. (There's a few stills in the article.)

It's quite interesting to watch, because Townsend himself is quite the character. There's a scene where he's having an argument with his (now ex) wife that shows that Townsend has extremely different priorities than the typical person. (And why his first marriage failed, too.)

[−] salynchnew 61d ago
When I learned that this person was one of the RISD art students who started Fort Thunder, it all made a lot of sense to me. That was by all accounts a very strange and unique intentional space for people who didn't want to live in a conventional manner.

Here's an archive of the old Fort Thunder website:

https://web.archive.org/web/20091025093813/http://fortthunde...

[−] linksnapzz 64d ago
(2018) Also, the old picture shown on the page wasn't the State Prison on Smith Hill (where the mall is now); it's the Adult Correctional Institution in Cranston-the octagonal stone building from 1878 is still used as a maximum-security prison.
[−] gzread 64d ago
These days you'd be caught by the surveillance network on the first day.
[−] hyperhello 63d ago
But there wouldn’t be a new mall, either.
[−] kjshsh123 63d ago
We need more mixed use development like this