I sat down with Michael Townsend, one of the mall apartment occupants, and asked him if he thinks the mall has changed much. ...

A group of artists turned a hidden shopping center nook into a clandestine home: "At that time, I had a copy of Dwell and I was like, How do we make this something livable and desirable?" Colin ...

If “Secret Mall Apartment” stuck to a sardonic comic groove, it’d probably still be worthwhile. But director Workman and company find more than that, in a true story of a truly nutty living ...

'Secret Mall Apartment' chronicles lives of artists living in a forgotten section of the Providence Place mall. Mark Patinkin notes the mall was taking away living spaces from folks in Eagle ...

"Secret Mall Apartment" director Jeremy Workman, right, poses with artist Michael Townsend on April 27 at a replica of the hidden space Townsend and his friends once lived in at the Providence ...

May 05, 2025 at 2:19 pm PDT. In 2003, eight young Rhode Island artists created a secret apartment in a hidden space inside the Providence Place Mall.

The Providence Place mall was designed to be an economic engine, with higher-end department stores like Lord & Taylor and Nordstrom and its own movie theater. When the mall finally opened in 1999, it ...

The artists of Secret Mall Apartment built themselves an ... who in the mid-2000s decided to covertly create an apartment-style living space hidden inside the massive Providence Place shopping mall.

As the artists discuss how living in the mall began to influence their sense of self, the film raises profound questions about authenticity in a consumer-based society. A portrait of human ...

Eventually the apartment was discovered, although Townsend was the only person linked to it (and remains banned from Providence Place). But “Secret Mall Apartment” makes a compelling case that ...

Once the mall was built, he and his friends went poking around until they found the space, then set about making it their own, smuggling in a sofa, a curio cabinet, a dining table, a coffee table ...