Super-Sweet Mall Apartment

Townsend, who is preoccupied with the study of buildings, said he noticed the existence of the void that became the apartment during construction of the mall from 1997 through 1999, and that he later found a way to slip inside undetected. The collective first spent two cold nights in the loft in October 2003, then launched the project that December. The wall and door were installed by early 2005, allowing extended stays.

The collective’s ambition to, as Townsend put it, make the apartment “super-sweet” with laminated wood flooring and other embellishments was terminated Wednesday. He and a visiting artist from Hong Kong walked into the storage room and were confronted and handcuffed by three mall security men wearing dress shirts and ties...

Excerpted from 1 room, no view

Apologies:
First and foremost I extend my most sincere apologies to the fine folks at General Growth Properties and specifically to the security staff at the Providence Place Mall. I have always firmly believed that you do an incredible job and have remained professional and consistent. This apartment was never designed in any way-shape-or-form to undermine the great work that you do. I recognize that it exists far outside the spectrum of expectation and as such - no fair, discriminatory, or level headed staff person would have expected something like this to occur. It is important to me that you know that I have a great deal of respect for the work you do and I am very sorry that I wasted some of your valuable time today. This project is in no way a critique on security or what defines safety in contemporary society.
In addition, my thanks goes out to the Providence Police Department for being a model of civility, fairness, good humor and professionalism. Again, I am embarrassed that I chewed up so much of your time in the steps necessary to help assess what transpired. I genuinely appreciate the honest and straight-forward candor of all those I have met and want you to know that I really admire the manner in which you have handled this peculiar case.