Dear Melvin Simon and Edward DeBartolo Jr.:

I am writing you to comment on your plan to develop and redevelop your property at Northgate Mall in Seattle. I am very happy to see your willingness and confidence in investing in our neighborhood again. Your architects, however, seem a bit reluctant to consider designing outside the envelope of traditional design. About this I am saddened. Insofar as this mall was a groundbreaker in design when it was originally constructed I was hoping to see a similar breakthrough in mall design on this development project. Alas, the design is nice and safe, but rather traditional. I would suggest an alternative premise upon which the design could flow.

Some background first. A popular song by Joni Mitchell contained a now famous lyric about tearing down paradise and putting up a parking lot. At Northgate you lucky guys have the opportunity to tear down a parking lot and build a piece of paradise. Can you envision Northgate Mall as a park-like area with trees and flowers, with mothers and grandmothers pushing baby carriages, with children playing and teenagers teenagering while others meander in and out of the theater, the mall, the hotel, the business building and the library? This can be done with a little vision, some money, a lot of courage and a faith in the beauty and importance of nature here in the Northwest.

Your current design has about one-third of the surface area covered with parking or parking garages. I suggest a simple, but dramatic design change from which all sorts of new opportunities and ideas can develop. Simply, you sink all the parking underground and out of sight. But after you say "sure, but this will drive costs, not to mention our profits out of sight" consider the following:

Phase One - the initial development of the South Parking lot, were it to be sunken, would among other things allow the uncovering of Thornton Creek, which is currently 30 feet below grade at the east side of the lot. The creek would then serve as an intriguing outlook for the planned residential development along 5th Avenue Northeast. On the west side of the creek only about 1 to 1-1/2 stories of the garage would have to be above grade. This garage could extend all the way over to the Metro Park and Ride. Trees and vines could be grown along the east wall of the garage, to soften the effect of the concrete. Public art could be integrated on this wall as well. Maybe even a live graffiti wall, for example. Moreover, the wall could be modulated to add additional interest and mitigate the sense of bulk. On top of this two- or three-story garage you would then plant trees, bushes and flowers, maybe add a playground area for kids in addition to the planned water fountain. By sinking the parking you could also have part of the theater be subgrade which would eliminate the "Great Wall of Northgate," which appears to be bothering a bunch of people. You might also consider splitting the theater in half so that visual line from the center of the existing mall would continue south down the rest of 3rd Avenue Northeast. This change would bring the existing business park to the south into the full design. I suspect the result of that change would increase the probability that more consumers would come on up to the new mall than if a large wall were to welcome them as they came up to Northeast 100th Street. These design changes still incorporate the planned overpass from the North parking lot to the South parking lot on a gradual grade to the water fountain and beyond.

In due time the parking area in the northeast portion of the North lot could also be made subterranean. On the top of this garage new stores along 5th Avenue could open out onto these spaces, which would also be covered with trees, flowers, grass and other interesting surface materials. It would also be logical to incorporate a library in this development area and possibly a community center for the Maple Leaf/Northgate neighborhood. There probably would be room for a skateboard park, a couple of basketball/tennis courts or a running track. These type of amenities, all derived from creating space on the top of the sunken parking area would work synergistically with a theater engine of your current plan and ultimately increase spending in the retail stores. These amenities would also make it easier to rent space in the business highrise or rooms in the hotel. In addition, the stores, which would be on top of the new sunken garage in the North Lot could have condominiums or apartments below them so that the effect on 5th Avenue is to see walk-up housing similar to Chicago, New York, Philadelphia and Boston, etc. On top of some of the stores a carefully vertically modulated type of housing could be added in such a way as to mitigate any sense of "A Great Wall of 5th Avenue" effect. These additions would help increase our sorely needed housing stock here in Seattle and should make you some profits.

This sunken parking redevelopment concept of the existing parking area on the North parking lot would be relatively easily given the substantial step up in grade as you cross 103rd Avenue Northeast. Of course, the large amounts of excavated dirt could be a problem. However, the planned addition of a third runway at SeaTac Airport will require substantial fill. You might be able to find a willing buyer for the excess dirt there or elsewhere. Lastly, the number of parking spaces in a sunken southern parking lot could allow the building on the North Lot to be less intrusive to the existing commerce.

I shared some of these thoughts at a recent public meeting with your architects. Their kind response was that while the concept of sinking the parking could provide quite a different opportunity for a unique development, the costs of building such a garage was too much of a constraint, that bottom line issues are apt to prevent such development. I disagree with such a conclusion. It is my belief that a parking lot mall turned into a park-like area would lead to a substantial increase in the mall's usage. This increase on the demand side would justify higher rents, etc. This assessment does not even include the fact that these design ideas would increase both the rentable space as well as saleable space. In some respects, the "if you build it they will come" concept is also at play here.

With the coming aging of the baby boom and the incipient large group of grandparents to come it would be nice to have a mall which incorporate the opportunity to take one's grandkids for some play, some reading as well as for some food, shopping and movies. It would be nice to see an area which attracted readers and athletes as well as shoppers and viewers. This fuller civic experience I think would help build a stronger fabric in our community for the 21st Century. I believe you would thus create a superior shopping experience just as Walt Disney created a superior theme park. As I see it you have a great opportunity to make good money with your current design, but you have an even greater opportunity to make not just good money, but also help make a new urban village center come into existence. I believe you have the opportunity to make a fundamental change as to how we all look at suburban malls and the culture that has developed along with them. I hope you think it's worth a bit of time, thought and money to consider it.

I hereby request that you choose to give your architects another direction to think about, to suggest they step outside the envelope, in addition to their current design. It would be nice to present your neighbors here in North Seattle two visions of the future and see which one was preferred and should be worked on further. In advance, your consideration of these thoughts is greatly appreciated.

- KEVIN MCKEIGUE, Maple Leaf
(McKeigue wished to share this letter he originally submitted to the Northgate mall owners in June of 1998. Simon Properties is now the sole owner of Northgate Mall.