Totem Lake Mall, Kirkland, WA

A dead mall

-UPDATE BELOW-

11 January 2025

(Source)

Due to its geographic limitations, the entire Seattle area is a bit more densely built than the average American urban core. There's really just a narrow strip of land that's suitable for development between the Cascade Mountains and the Puget Sound, and much of that is dotted with lakes and swampland. So builders in this region never have had as much land to play around with as the Houstons and the Chicagos of the world. This fact has contributed to one positive outcome- the Seattle area, despite its consistent growth and its being home to of one of the nation's first shopping centers, has never had an overabundance of malls.

1 & 2- Totem Lake Mall can easily fool the average observer into thinking this is merely another big-box power center.  3- The northernmost mall entrance next to Ross.  4- The unmarked southern entrance portico.  5- The front side contains the healthiest part of the mall, a series of big boxes that still draw in a respectable audience.  6- The flanking side of the mall, including some groovy old school stonework.

Not counting the downtown verticals, there have only been a handful of traditionally designed and marketed enclosed centers ever built in the entire Seattle-Tacoma metropolitan area, with the addition of a few more smaller facilities when the consolidated area's outlying counties are taken into account. Of those few, all but three remain healthy and viable. Lakewood Mall, constructed in the south sound town of the same name, was never much of a draw and was recently converted into a power and community center while Shoreline’s Aurora Village Mall was taken down in 1993. The other black sheep, probably soon to follow in those footsteps, is Kirkland's Totem Lake Mall.

-UPDATE- Totem Lake Mall lease plan ca. 1975.  View the full PDF version here.

During the numerous times that I had visited the Puget Sound region in the early 2000s, I had no idea that Totem Lake Mall even existed. Then, not too long ago, I read about this unlikely anomaly, a dead mall that couldn't survive in a market crowded with many more shoppers than facilities for them to frequent. Based on what I gathered from descriptions and viewed in photographs, it seemed to be a pretty insignificant player. Even with its desirable location along an exceptionally busy stretch of interstate, its limited size and selection never made it popular among the local populace with major competitors like Northgate Mall and Bellevue Square within a short drive.

1- New retailer My Home now takes up the anchor spot originally occupied by Seattle-based Lamont's. 2- The walkway to the East Mall crosses 120th Avenue.  3- Looking down the East Mall breezeway to My Home.  4 & 5- The East Mall shops.  6- The northwestern rear façade.

It was a chilly and overcast day in early May when I first went to see The dead mall of Seattle for myself. The unassuming structure was just a short walk from the nearby freeway transit center while being surrounded by several large multi-level medical and professional buildings. Just past their modern façades and down a small hill lay the oversized and rather disused carpark along with a lofty sign declaring Totem Lake Malls looming over it. I could see how its modest design could easily be mistaken for that of either a tired old strip mall or an unpopular power center, as the front face is lined with entrances to various spaces, a few larger than others while some sat vacant next to others' still doing business. Then, through one of the unmarked side entrances, I made my way into the barren interior.

-UPDATE- Totem Lake Mall lease plan ca. 2005.  View the full PDF version here.

The concourse was everything I expected it to be. While still lit fairly well, there were no shoppers to take advantage of this luminescence. The corridor was of a more than adequate width and featured several funky seating apparatuses at regular intervals. But there was nobody to use them, and no reason to require any rest. I was pretty disappointed by one unexpected find. I was hoping to catch a shot or two of a wonderful Gottschalk's label scar from above the former anchor's entrance, but, alas, its gates were risen and the insides brightly lit. There were streamers crossing the drop ceiling along with a banner exclaiming "Grand Opening." A new addition named My Home had recently moved into the space, adding a little spark of life to the otherwise forgotten place. Damn.

1 & 2- The northwestern interior of Totem Lake Mall.  3- I love the stonework on the anchor's walls, but I hate that its original, natural hues have been hidden under a bland coating of white.  4 & 5- My Home is open where Gottschalk's used to be.  6- “Center Court.”

Totem Lake Mall came to be in 1973, following a long period of planning that had commenced in 1968. The one major anchor, a 40,000 square foot Lamont's, opened a few months later that year. It joined an Ernst Hardware that was located on the northern end of the building. The mall did well enough for its first couple of decades, but its misfortune began in 1996 with the shuttering of the Ernst space. Though it was soon subdivided and leased to Ross Dress for Less, Car Toys and a Famous Footwear, the complex never seemed to fully recover. The center also saw the departure of some of its larger tenants such as Rite-Aid, Comp USA and Gottschalk's, which had taken over Lamont's, by the late 2000s. The smaller shops followed closely behind, effectively abandoning the place to its inevitable fate.

-UPDATE- Totem Lake Mall lease plan ca. 2011.  View the full PDF version here.

There is a strip center associated with the enclosed portion called the East Mall and it seems to be doing relatively good business. In the main facility the front facing larger stores like Ross still seem to host a steady stream of customers. But the diminutive enclosed portions, like so many of its peers nationwide, gives today's time starved shopper no incentive to come inside. There are generally two kinds of retail client these days- those who just want to park immediately in front of their targeted destination in order to grab what they need as expeditiously as possible and those who would rather make the visit to their preferred retail complex an all-encompassing event, spending hours browsing its wares and sampling the different cuisines. Totem Lake, in its present format, cannot offer the convenience needed by the former type nor the selection required by the latter type. There really is no place for meager malls like this, even in a relatively sparsely served market like Seattle.

1- Totem Lake Mall’s southeastern concourse.  2- One of the funky seating areas. 3 & 4- Vacancies that may never be filled again.  5- Looking northwest down the entire of the main corridor.  6- The southeastern mall entrance from the inside.

-UPDATE-

-11 January 2025

Since my original post, I’ve read up a bit more about the history of the Totem Lake Malls.  What I first discovered as a run of the mill, white and pastel tiled nineties template of a shopping facility was in its younger years quite a bit more distinctive than it was during its latter days.

1 to 3- The outward facing façade of The Village at Totem lake’s southeastern portion.  4 to 6- The southeastern portion along the development’s main street.

The initial version of what was originally called Totem Lake Center upon its conception paid homage to its Native American inspired name.  The interior was designed to resemble a longhouse with indigenous designs inspired by Pacific Northwest artist Kenton Pies.

In addition to the artwork, the earliest version of Totem Lake Mall boasted an interior utilizing local wood in its scheme.  The weight bearing beams were covered in a cedar façade leading to vaulted ceilings allowing enormous amounts of natural light into the corridors, a departure from most malls of its day.

1 to 3- A view of the northwestern front block of The Village at Totem Lake along the main street.  4- A pedestrian walkway in the same area.  5- A seating area with a cozy fire.  6- The residences in the northwestern portion.

All of these earth toned wonders stood above handsome floors in a wooden parquet pattern, lending the diminutive retail destination its own distinctive personality.  Man, I would have loved to have seen Totem Lake Mall in its heyday.  What it lacked in size it made up for in uniqueness.

The Village at Totem Lake Mallmanac ca. 2024.  View the full PDF version here.

Of course, all of that was expunged in the mall’s only full renovation just after Ernst’s closing in the late nineties.  Many noted that the one chief element going for Totem Lakes had been unceremoniously done away with, and the shopping center was soon in the beginning of its precipitous decline.

1 & 2- Looking down 120th Avenue to the southeast and to the northwest.  3 to 6- The central area fronting the rear portion all fancied up for Christmas.  7- One of the water features.  8- The canyon of residences overlooking 120th.

The Totem Lake Malls were demolished starting in 2016 with a replacement development, The Village at Totem Lake, raised in the following year.  Only the extreme northwestern portion of the original mall, from Ross Dress for Less onward, was retained for the mixed use center to be built around it.

My first visit to the retail destination in over a decade was in early 2025.  I have to say that, despite the loss of another indoor shopping complex, I really like what’s replaced it.  Brands such as  Nordstrom Rack, Whole Foods and Cinemark have joined Ross in what is a well-designed collection of retail and residential spaces.

1- The northwestern entrance to The Village at Totem lake.  2 to 6- The flanking façade of the only portion of the original mall to remain along the far northwestern corner.  7 & 8- The shops occupying space in the original buildout of Totem Lake Mall.

Joining Aurora Village, Lakewood Mall and Northgate as the only malls that to this point were nearly completely demolished for replacement formats, I like what sits in Kirkland much better than the first two’s replacements which turned out just to be single-use power centers.  I hope that other mixed-use replacements for former enclosed facilities such as MidCity District and Pembroke Square end up just as successful.

The Village at Totem Lake official website