If you shopped there in the 70’s, then you remember it as an outdoor mall.
I lived in NJ - Convent Station, Bradwahl neighborhood - in the 70s & 80s, but can remember going there a few dozen times in the early-mid-80s. Mostly to the Abercrombie-Fitch store. Sorry I didn’t clarify that. I seem to also remember a Marshall Field store there once upon a time, too; maybe I’m wrong. Also shopped at the Livingston Mall a few times.