Living in a Mall salon.com 8.15.08

Living in a Mall
salon.com 8.15.08

What does "Home" mean to you? For the past four years, Adriana Yoto and Michael Townsend have called Providence Place mall in Providence, Rhode Island, "home." They crafted a secret apartment within the mall...

"After their experimental week, Yoto and Townsend returned regularly for four years, attempting to transform that storage space into a luxury apartment furnished by the mall. They built a wall with 39-pound cinder blocks that they hauled in themselves — there was plenty of hard physical labor involved in their attempt at the high life. They added sofas, tables, lamps, a TV, a china hutch and a Sony PlayStation (which was stolen while they lived there, which suggests their presence wasn't entirely secret), and stayed for days at a time. They planned to install pre-laminated wood flooring and a portable toilet."

Fascinating and informative: The couple who lived in a mall.

Pics: Stephanie Ewens

Comments (9)

ahhh, good old providence place. That place is horribly designed... not a surprise there are whole unused lengths that someone could live in for months on end without being discovered.

posted by closertotheocean on August 15th 2008 at 11:03am
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This is fascinating! How did they get a sofa in there? That's hilarious.

posted by BambiJo on August 15th 2008 at 11:15am
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this more scary than interesting

posted by LittleRock on August 15th 2008 at 11:19am
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Either this is old news or they lifted this concept from the crew that did it originally.

posted by NathanSE on August 15th 2008 at 11:24am
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I loved that article. Very well written!

posted by annika on August 15th 2008 at 11:28am
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It is old news Nathan - these kids were busted a year ago. They didn't actually live there but spent a lot of time in the place.

posted by alexis on August 15th 2008 at 11:40am
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What a stunt!

posted by madampince on August 15th 2008 at 2:28pm
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Wouldn't work for me. I don't like malls . . . too many people, too much noise, etc.

posted by williamsweyr on August 15th 2008 at 5:19pm
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I dont know why anyone would want to live in a New York mall or use new york portable toilets. I guess some like to live their lives on the edge. Laminate flooring sounds nice though... ha

posted by Waster on May 20th 2009 at 7:41pm
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