John Graham, Senior was born in Liverpool, England and migrated stateside in 1900. Soon after arriving in Seattle, he established an architectural firm known as John Graham & Associates. A son, John Graham, Junior, came along on April 8, 1908. 

John Graham, Junior attended the Moran Military Academy and graduated from Seattle's Queen Anne High School in 1925. He earned a Bachelor's In Architecture degree -from Connecticut's Yale University- in 1931. Jobs were hard to come by in the midst of the Great Depression. John Junior worked a retail position at Allied Stores until 1937, when the economy began to improve. He took a job at his father's architectural firm and relocated to New York City, in 1938, to work at a branch office.

RETAIL REVOLUTION 

After John Senior's retirement, in 1946, John Junior returned to Washington State to head his father's firm. A name change, to John Graham & Company, was instituted soon after. In 1947, John Junior was commissioned to design a suburban shopping center for Allied Stores, who operated Seattle's The Bon Marche chain. This shopping facility, originally known as NORTHGATE CENTER,  revolutionized the retail industry.

John Graham, Junior's NORTHGATE was officially dedicated between April
and July of 1950. The 1962 graphic above promotes the mall and the Jet
City's Century 21 Exposition-World's Fair.
Advert from the Alstores Realty Corporation

 

NORTHGATE CENTER was the first shopping complex in America to be configured as a "mall." A long corridor was lined, on both sides, by rows of inline stores and an open court fronted on a 3-level The Bon Marche anchor store. The complex, which was built in an outlying location, was also surrounded by a large parking area.

MALL METAMORPHOSIS

America's first major shopping complex to be marketed as a (quote-unquote) "mall" was Paramus, New Jersey's BERGEN MALL, another project designed by John Graham, Junior. Like Seattle's NORTHGATE, the BERGEN property was also developed by Allied Stores; this time as a vehicle for their Stern Brothers chain. The complex was dedicated in November 1957.

By this time, John Junior had three major shopping mall projects under his belt; the aforementioned NORTHGATE CENTER, plus CAPITOL COURT (1956) {Milwaukee} and GULFGATE SHOPPING CITY (1956) {Houston}. These were followed by NORTHSHORE CENTER (1958) {Greater Boston}, ALA MOANA CENTER (1959) {Honolulu}, WELLINGTON SQUARE (1960) {London, Ontario} and LLOYD CENTER (1960) {Portland, Oregon}.

John Graham, Junior's most celebrated structure is the Space Needle. This was built for the Jet City's Century 21 Exposition (a.k.a. Seattle World's Fair), which was held between April and October 1962. The tower eventually became a major Mid-Century Modern icon.

LIFETIME LEGACY

Graham went on to envisage three more Seattle-centric shopping centers; TACOMA MALL (1965) {Tacoma}, SOUTHCENTER (1968) {Tukwila} and ALDERWOOD MALL (1979) {Snohomish County (Lynwood)}. Eventually, he was responsible for the design of over seventy mall-type complexes; these located in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, France and Australia.

John Graham, Junior retired in 1986, doing only consultant-type work from then on. He passed away on January 29, 1991, at the age of eighty-two.