Growing up in Oregon, Lloyd Center wasn’t just a mall. It was a landmark of childhood. It was where weekends happened. Where your parents took you when you were bored. Where Christmas felt bigger somehow. Where the echo of your footsteps mixed with the smell of pretzels, pizza, and new clothes straight off the rack.
So hearing that Lloyd Center is set to fully close later this year, with plans to tear down what’s left and replace it with millions of square feet of mixed-use buildings, doesn’t land like just another redevelopment story. It feels personal. Like losing a place that quietly watched you grow up.
For decades, Lloyd Center was the place. When it opened in 1960, it wasn’t just another shopping mall. It was one of the largest malls in the country and the largest in the Pacific Northwest.
At a time when Portland was still figuring out what it wanted to be, Lloyd Center already felt futuristic. It had fountains. Wide indoor walkways. Department stores that felt enormous to a kid. And then there was the ice rink right in the middle of everything. Not tucked away. Not hidden. Just there. You could lean on the railing with an Orange Julius and watch skaters glide by, blades cutting clean lines into the ice while the rest of the mall hummed around them…