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Values and Variety



Brooklyn’s Fulton Mall is one of the most-traficked, most profitable commercial streets in North America. Despite its objective success, the value of the street has eluded generations of planners and developers, largely because of its clientele, low and moderate income African-american and carribean shoppers. Values and Variety was an outdoor exhibition that was installed in Fulton Mall’s information kiosks from the fall of 2004 to the summer of 2007. The exhibition was deployed to inform public discussion about the future of the area in the wake of the city’s 2004 redevelopment plan for the area. The exhibition made use of the geometric information kiosks installed during the mall’s 1980’s pedestrianization. Borrowing heavily from the cheerful language of historical signage, and commercial advertisement, the kiosks celebrated the contemporary life of the mall with oral histories and portraits, highlighting an alternate history (from Biz Markie, to the evolution of street vending) of the street.



This exhibition was a project of the Center for Urban Pedagogy (CUP) and Place in History(PiH) with support from the Metrotech BID. Portraits by Leigh Davis. Graphic design by Project Projects.

Street Value




As measured by foot traffic and retail volume, the Fulton Street Mall has been one of the most successful shopping districts in America for nearly a century. But despite these indicators of success, the city rolls out a new revitalization scheme for the area every few years. This book contrasts interviews with several generations of city planners with a pointed visual history of the area to tell a tragicomic story about politicians, bureaucrats, merchants, shoppers, fear, race, and ideology on the street.



This book builds on the outdoor exhibition “Values and Variety” to tell a sordid but commonplace story of planning, paranoia, and race in a downtown shopping district. The book features photographs from Leigh Davis, Gus Powell, and Jamel Shabazz. This book is the initial offering of Inventory Books, an imprint of Princeton Architectural Press designed by Project Projects. The book’s format is intended to recall the provocative disposable paperbacks of the early seventies.

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