Westlake Center

This article is about the shopping center in Seattle. For the mall in Bessemer, Alabama, see The Mall at Westlake.
Westlake Center
View from Pine Street, 2016
Map
LocationSeattle, Washington, U.S.
Opening dateOctober 20, 1988; 36 years ago (1988-10-20)[1]
DeveloperThe Rouse Company
OwnerBrookfield Properties[2]
No. of stores and services21
No. of anchor tenants2
Total retail floor area102,706 square feet (9,500 m2)
No. of floors4
Parking300 spaces
Websitewestlakecenter.com

Westlake Center is a four-story shopping center and 25-story office tower in downtown Seattle, Washington, United States. The southern terminus of the Seattle Center Monorail, it is located across Pine Street from Westlake Park, between 4th and 5th Avenues. It is named for Westlake Avenue, which now terminates north of the mall but once ran two blocks farther south to Pike Street. Westlake Park is considered Seattle's "town square"[3] and celebrities and political figures often make appearances or give speeches from the building's balcony.[4][5] The anchor stores are Saks Off 5th and Nordstrom Rack.

The current shopping center began construction in 1986 after over 20 years of planning, and opened its doors on October 20, 1988.[6] The building was designed by RTKL Associates on a site of 11,000 square metres (120,000 sq ft).[7] It had 82 tenant spaces and a 21-story office tower on its north side with 340,000 square feet (32,000 m2) of space.[8] Westlake Center underwent renovations in the late 1990s to add larger store spaces for new tenants in response to the opening of the adjacent Pacific Place shopping mall.[9] It was home to a small Neiman Marcus concept store called The Galleries of Neiman Marcus, which opened in 1999 and closed in 2002.[10]

  1. ^ Dougherty, Phil (January 10, 2008). "Westlake Center opens in downtown Seattle on October 20, 1988". historylink.org. History Link. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  2. ^ "Westlake Center". Brookfield Properties.
  3. ^ Downtown Parks Renaissance Archived 2006-03-23 at the Wayback Machine, Seattle Downtown Parks & Public Spaces Task Force Report, Final Report March 16, 2006. Page A1 (27 of 34 in the PDF). Accessed online 2014-01-19.
  4. ^ Executive Sims' National Day of Prayer and Remembrance address at the Internet Archive, originally at "Welcome to nginx!". Archived from the original on 2014-08-29. Retrieved 2014-08-29., the old site of Metro/King County, dated September 14, 2001. Ron Sims was County Executive at the time. Accessed online 2014-01-19
  5. ^ Kevin Pelton, Storm Celebrates in Style, storm.wnba.com, October 16, 2004. Accessed online 2014-01-19.
  6. ^ Stein, Alan (January 10, 2008). "Seattle's Central Association unveils Westlake Center plans on December 3, 1968". HistoryLink. Retrieved January 6, 2020.
  7. ^ Barry Maitland. The new architecture of the retail mall. p. 148.
  8. ^ Lang Jones, Jeanne (September 25, 2012). "Westlake Center's owner mulls a major remodel, new tenants". Puget Sound Business Journal. Retrieved July 11, 2024.
  9. ^ Kim, Nancy J. (October 4, 1998). "Westlake to unveil new look". Puget Sound Business Journal. Retrieved July 11, 2024.
  10. ^ Mulady, Kathy (January 14, 2002). "Neiman Marcus in Westlake is closing". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved July 11, 2024.