Robert G.
Yelp
Perimeter Mall is and always been my favorite shopping mall in the Metro Atlanta area and this is from someone who doesn't really like them all that much. I am more likely to shop at outlet centers. But, every once in a while, a visit to a mall to make a purchase, or, more so to eat, is needed.
Perimeter Mall is wonderfully sited, sitting at the noon position on the "clock" that is I-285. And, with major thoroughfares such as Ashford-Dunwoody Rd. and Peachtree-Dunwoody Rd. coming off the freeway, and sort of bounding the mall, accessing it is easy. Also, Georgia 400 intersects with I-285 slightly west of this mall.
The mall itself is nicely put together, has circulation that is not too difficult to comprehend, has the standard big department store anchors, in addition to a less common Von Maur, many stores, and decent choices inside the mall to get a snack. But, more so than all this, Perimeter Mall has a dignified air, and I'm not referring to anything uppity, but rather to quality that it has maintained over the years. I have received good service here and, the last time I visited, it was from a woman in one of the department stores who was a transplant from the tri-state New York area and of Italian heritage. (Why does this always happen to me?) You know that it will go well, and that the exchange will neither be phony nor boring.
I have never really liked Lenox Mall or Phipps Plaza closer to the crossroads of what is cool in Atlanta, meaning Buckhead. They seemed like "work" to deal with. Also, I have never set foot inside the big shopping center at Cumberland, at I-285 and I-75, and I never liked Gwinnett Mall, even when it was newer and the one probably most popular with the Karen crowd, because it had that go-go vibe of a Gwinnett County that was growing too quickly. Today, Gwinnett Mall is closed. While for different reasons, it reminds me of the shuttered Hawthorne Plaza in the town of the same name, and home of the Beach Boys, that is in Los Angeles's south suburbs.
Perimeter Mall might as well be considered the centerpiece of the Perimeter Business District. I don't know, or don't remember, which came first - the mall or some of the attractive and earlier office towers near it. (Some, such as Concourse, obviously arrived later.) It has also given rise to other nicely put together shopping centers in close proximity to it, most of which are open air centers with parking around them.
Lastly, not that parking is a problem, MARTA rail also reaches Perimeter Mall, with the big Dunwoody station and parking structure to the west of the mall property. This mall has a great location, a sense that it is a quality operation, nice visual appeal when inside, pleasant vistas in all directions from its exterior, in part because of the effective landscaping and thick stands of pine, and can be accessed in so may ways, including via rapid rail service.
