Though it now technically exists as “Marketplace 205,” Mall 205—yes, a mall named after a freeway—was Oregon’s first enclosed shopping center when it opened in 1970. It was built over the site of the former Morningside Hospital, a psychiatric institution that, over six decades of operation, housed thousands of people from Alaska, including many Alaska Natives, who were often forcibly separated from their families and institutionalized against their will; the hospital was also critiqued for its financially lucrative relationship with the US government. So Mall 205 may have been doomed from the beginning. Even before its interior section and food court closed in 2022, it was a virtual ghost town, most of its foot traffic credited to the DMV inside. (The long-running All American Magic, one of the last shops that gave Mall 205 a modicum of character, moved to Lloyd Center and now includes a theater to host magic and comedy shows.) These days, it's just a regular shopping center with Home Depot, Target, a place to get a haircut, and a DMV office. As there's no mall, there's no food court, but surrounding dining options include Olive Garden, Red Robin, Panda Express, the obligatory McMenamins, a Chipotle that used to be a Baja Fresh, and, soon, a Chick-Fil-A slated to take over a building that's been a Hooters and a series of strip clubs. —Michelle Harris

For east-side Portlanders, particularly back when the H-Mart on Belmont was still a Zupan’s, the opening of the Fubonn Shopping Center in 2006 signaled the dawn of a new day. No longer would a full grocery store’s worth of Asian produce, endless cans of anything that could possibly be pickled, 17 different brands of fish sauce, and 50-pound bags of sushi rice require a trip across the river to Uwajimaya. Today, the Fubonn grocery, and the small storefronts and restaurants that cluster around it in this indoor complex, are showing their age. The grocery store is still the main draw, though now it competes with not one but two Hồng Phát locations, one just to the north that opened in 2013 in an old Safeway and a "supercenter" just to the south that opened in 2024 in an old Walmart. Some adjacent business have shuttered or moved to sites with more visibility, but there's still a jeweler, a bubble tea shop, and a cosmetic store.  —Julia Silverman 

While it hasn't gone through a physical unmalling, like Mall 205, we're not really sure the Lloyd Center can be called a mall anymore. Is it just an ice rink? A Barnes and Noble? A collection of underused event and office spaces? An indoor walking track? A warming shelter with Wi-Fi? An empty husk waiting to become a concert venue? It's seen inklings of an indie renaissance, but that hasn't turned into foot traffic. The adults at Portland Monthly felt like our ideas of the mall were too clouded by its storied past to let us see it clearly today, so we asked some youngsters for their take. "Overall I would describe the mall as empty and close to being shut down," says Mo Novak, 14, who noted there were only a handful of national chains still operating, including GameStop, Claire's, and Forever 21. "Around every corner there were the empty massage chairs and stores with employees sitting around just waiting for a customer." Mo's cousin Max Novak, 12, agreed: "Upon entering the mall it is clear that the main attraction is the ice-skating rink. The stores on the outskirts are closed or don’t exist, and the populated stores are all roughly centralized. Many open stores with people seem to be kid-oriented, selling mainly toys." Toys, an ice rink, and an available massage chair don't sound all that bad to us.  —As told to Michael Novak & Margaret Seiler

Like Bridgeport Village, its sister to the southeast, the Streets of Tanasbourne takes a stab at mimicking the outdoor malls of sunny California. What it lacks in Bridgeport’s commitment to that bit, it makes up for in being more presentable than traditional shopping centers like Tanasbourne Town Center, a retail rival nearby on NW 185th Avenue. Opened in 2004, Streets still sports vestiges of its origins: the P. F. Chang’s stands tall, as does the Macy’s that opened as a Meier & Frank just before the name of the Northwest chain changed in 2006. Other anchors are a little more contemporary: An enormous H&M threw open its doors in 2013, and the demise of the Macaroni Grill has made room for (slightly) more local fare like the kitschy Rock Wood-Fired Pizza and no-nonsense Killer Burger. Mostly, you’re getting the basics, with a mildly upper-middle-class waft. There’s a Loft, a Banana Republic, and a Sephora; Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works make obligatory appearances. An REI helps establish this as a Mall in Oregon, and a complex near the eastern edge sporting a Zumiez, American Eagle, and Claire’s is reliable teen flypaper. Spirit Halloween has been known to make an appearance. There’s very little shock or awe on offer—save a lone fountain by the sushi bar—but it’s an easy in-and-out, with two parking lots plus a garage, and easy access to the 48 bus which runs from the downtown Hillsboro Transit Center to the Sunset Transit Center off US 26. —Conner Reed 

Whether it be the intrigue of a two-story Zara, the discovery that Raising Cane’s does in fact exist in downtown Portland, literal golden elevators extending toward a glass ceiling (a welcome change of pace from some other abandoned-Walmart-esque malls we’ve encountered), or the wait at Taiwanese soup dumpling destination Din Tai Fung, a trip to Pioneer Place may cost you more Parking Kitty meter refills than originally anticipated. (Next time, we’re definitely taking the MAX.) Spread over multiple blocks and connected by a skybridge and tunnels, this 1990s-era mall was intentionally designed to blend in with the city and accommodate pedestrians—essentially, to be less obstructive than typical retail projects—which resulted in tons of windows, lots of natural light, cityscape views for days, and the seemingly roundabout, dizzying architecture. Once home to a Saks Fifth Avenue (most of which is now the unconnected Apple store on top of the basement food court), Pioneer Place today is home to Gucci slides, charmingly cheesy Made in Oregon tchotchkes, and plushies vaguely resembling Squishmallows from Go! Calendars, Toys & Games. Jumbo Zara aside, relive your “my mom can drive us if yours can pick us up” teenage mall days at the somehow-still-in-business Forever 21 (sadly, there’s no Wetzel’s Pretzels to complete the picture). Or, snag some cheaper-than-Zara slacks and button-ups across the way at H&M. Catch a movie on the top floor, let the alcohol-and-arcade setting of Punch Bowl Social make your office happy hour less awkward, and pray for the eventual return of Hipster Santa, known to wear the Pendleton sweater of Big Lebowski fame and sit on a chair upholstered in the pattern of the old PDX airport carpet. Once a regular visitor, the iconic figure hasn't held court here since 2022. —Shannon Daehnke 

After nabbing a parking space within one of the nearby lots or garage, moseying around Tigard's swanky outdoor mall starts to feel like a set visit to The Good Place, with its fake-turf "village green," covered firepit seating area, summer live music series, and steady stream of wholesome events (watch for Mrs. Claus Storytime and a holiday parade during the cold months). The teen experts we consulted are less disturbed than their parents by the one-size-fits-all myth put forward by the problematic Brandy Melville, and they don't make quite enough at their babysitting gigs to frequent Mario's 3.10, Madewell, Pandora, Crate & Barrel, or the newly expanded Apple store. They don't even seem to care that a Whole Foods and an REI sit just across the street. But they dig the atmosphere, along with the attached movie theater and the dining options it's easy to get friends to agree on, like Shake Shack and Pastini. —Margaret Seiler 

"They just have a lot there," another member of our mall youth panel, Jane Engler, 15, says of Washington Square. She also appreciates that the concourse maps in this land of plenty are interactive, displaying the path directly to the shop you're looking for, whether it's Apple or Arc'teryx, Lego or Build-A-Bear or the Star Wars shop, BoxLunch or Hot Topic, Pottery Barn or Oregon's only official Yankee Candle store. Beginning construction in 1972 and welcoming its first tenant (Meier & Frank, which morphed into a Macy’s) just over a year later, Washington Square underwent an embiggening in 2005 that solidified its place as the local stand-in for the Onion’s satirical story “Family Takes Rare Trip to the Good Mall.” Accessed by not one but three exits from 217, Washington Square is definitely in car country, but multiple TriMet lines let off passengers just steps from the doors to JC Penney and Dick’s Sporting Goods. Fifty Licks, Cheesecake Factory, and Din Tai Fung (the chain opened its first Oregon location here in 2018) make this an eating destination as well as a shopping one. The place doesn't feel quite as bursting with life as our No. 1 pick, and the upstairs food court seems transplanted from somewhere less classy (why are there stores off the food court? to make them smell like a food court?), but at least being inside Washington Square doesn’t make you feel like a witness to the demise of the American mall. Instead, you can bask in convenience, luxury, and choices galore. —Margaret Seiler 

Your typical mall delights abound: If you want to relive the days of yin-yang choker necklaces from Claire’s and do a formal taste test of Wetzel’s Pretzels vs. Auntie Anne’s, this is your spot. As at Washington Square and Clackamas, Vancouver Mall boasts dueling Ulta and Sephora shops, while competition rages between surf and skate shops Journeys, Vans, Tilly’s, Zumiez, and PacSun. But if you’re going to be a mall 20 minutes away from tax-free Portland, you’ve got to go above and beyond mall staples—and this is where Vancouver Mall soars. The food court has Ukrainian varenyky, handmade biang biang noodles, mangonadas, boba, pho, and Orange Julius, with a bungee trampoline to help settle your stomach. Jami (and its smaller second location, also in the mall, Jami II) sells pillows plastered with K-pop stars’ faces, and Vancouver Art Space offers art supplies and workshops. There’s no shortage of things to do: electric motor-powered stuffed Angry Birds that your kid can take on laps around the Cinnabon, a movie at AMC, and laser tag. Other malls have those, too, but they don’t have the biggest draw: Round1, a Japanese chain full of arcade games like Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero, plus bowling lanes, a bar, and claw machines rewarding players with extremely cute stuffed animals and packages of spicy Buldak ramen. And the mall has a library. Downsides extend beyond that annoying sales tax, though. In the Alley Cat Pet Center—old-school in a decidedly uncomfortable way—sad-looking puppies sit for sale in glass cages. And Vancouver Mall has the misfortune of being the site of the Portland area's most recent fatal mall shooting, an apparently targeted attack by a man in a Joker mask during an indoor trick-or-treating event. —Katherine Chew Hamilton 

Born in 1981, Clackamas Town Center might be a geriatric millennial, but it's all the rage with the Gen Z-ers on our panel. It hasn’t always been everything and more in the mall department. There was the media circus that swarmed the place during the Tonya Harding episode in 1994, the closing of that old rink in 2003, the fatal shooting here two weeks before Christmas 2012, and the many times the mall's parking lot has seen a news mention in conjunction with heroin busts and racial profiling by security guards. But do the teens of today know about all that? They came of mall age long after a major renovation and the opening of the Green MAX line in the late ’00s kicked off a renaissance. They do know, though, that Korean bakery chain Tous Les Jours makes adorable cakes, that Mirakutei is good for a ramen date, that Windsor can be counted on for a cheap homecoming dress and LadySecrets for stunning quinceañera garb, and that their money goes farther at Dough Zone than it would at Din Tai Fung when they're craving soup dumplings. They also know they can find Popeye’s and Bonchon fried chicken chains, a two-story Barnes & Noble, a 20-screen cinema, an escape room, Puffle Waffle, mochi doughnuts, Jamba Juice, minicars and mechanized animals to ride, a bungee trampoline, and a fricking carousel. —Margaret Seiler