Arctic Mills
Arctic Mills is a mall and plaza originally built in 2017 by ZaidCatDog, adjacent to the Ice Lake in Arctic Spongecraftia.
History
SpongeCraft Classic (2017-2018)
First conceived as the Village of Winter Mall in August 2017, Arctic Mills was one of the most controversial builds in SpongeCraft Classic, as it was created by connecting two previously separate malls together; one of the two was a neighboring mall that had been built by tvguy, who had abandoned the build due to arguments with Zaid. The combined Arctic Mills was Zaid's "flagship" creation in SpongeCraft Classic, and was the focus of much of his time spent in the server. According to him, it was envisioned as a build inspired by real-world malls operated by the Mills Corporation, reflected mainly in its expansive and (later) highly-colored concourses.
Arctic Mills was officially closed by SC operators in November 2018, after Zaid's ban from SBC. Several weeks later, it was demolished in a controlled demolition carried out by sbl, OWM, and HawkbitAlpha. However, prior to its demolition, a complete copy of the mall and its surroundings was also placed on the map far outside of Spongecraftia limits; in the post-closure public release of the Spongecraftia map, a portal in a corner of the Grand Spongecraftia Directory named "Arctic Mills Museum" will teleport players to it.
SpongeCraft Frontiers (2024-)
In August 2024, shortly after Spongecraftia was revived as a second map for SpongeCraft Frontiers, Hawkbit used WorldEdit on the "Museum" copy of Arctic Mills, restoring it to its original plot of land in Arctic Spongecraftia, where it remains on the server today. Since Zaid's return to SBC in the same month, he has also returned to developing the mall at its original location, radically changing almost every aspect of its design to "bring [it] up to code". The "1.0" version of the mall as shown in the "Museum" portal also remains outside of the map limits, permanently protected by WorldGuard.
Zaid would continue working on Arctic Mills since, adding new hallways, demolishing older buildings and redoing others, he has even opted to add stuff around the mall area, like a new Dunkin' Donuts building (replacing the original on the old build) and a planned older style outdoor shopping center nearby.
Images
