Wow, I have been in Southdale Mall in Edina, Minnesota many times throughout my early life but never knew of Victor Gruen. It does feel comfortable in a way, and I don't even like malls. Southdale is still a very high-end mall.
That's why Southdale has a feel to it that subsequent malls don't.
I don't frequent malls that often and it's due to the fact that I'm generally on foot, the sea of parking lots usually destroy any incentive I have to go to a mall and any time I've seen a mall embedded in residential zoning I'm quite fond of it.
I still prefer having spliced zoning though, either NYC style with residences over commercial or by intermingling them laterally (i.e. shop-front, shop-front, apartment, shop-front, apartment) which would make a pretty awesome mall actually.
See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Westminster_station (there are currently two residential towers in the station, a third being added)