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However, Gruen was commissioned to draw up a number of downtown plans. In [[Kalamazoo]], [[Michigan]] he designed the first modern downtown pedestrian mall, converting a formerly busy city street into an outdoor mall; this led to hundred of such conversion across the USA. And in Rochester, [[New York]], a scaled-down version of the Fort Worth Plan saw the inclusion of an indoor shopping mall named Midtown Plaza - the first central mall development of its kind.

However, Gruen was commissioned to draw up a number of downtown plans. In [[Kalamazoo]], [[Michigan]] he designed the first modern downtown pedestrian mall, converting a formerly busy city street into an outdoor mall; this led to hundred of such conversion across the USA. And in Rochester, [[New York]], a scaled-down version of the Fort Worth Plan saw the inclusion of an indoor shopping mall named Midtown Plaza - the first central mall development of its kind.

==Later Career==

==Later career==

Frustrated by what he saw as over-concentration on commercial gain over his aspirations for the social and cultural functions of his centres, Gruen turned to environmental issues, drawing up theories about ideal city forms (drawing heavily on the theories of [[Ebenezer Howard]]), principally what he described as the 'cellular city'. In 1968 he retired to his native Austria, where he founded an environmental research institute. He died in 1980.

Frustrated by what he saw as over-concentration on commercial gain over his aspirations for the social and cultural functions of his centres, Gruen turned to environmental issues, drawing up theories about ideal city forms (drawing heavily on the theories of [[Ebenezer Howard]]), principally what he described as the 'cellular city'. In 1968 he retired to his native Austria, where he founded an environmental research institute. He died in 1980.