Lakeside Center
44th Avenue and Sheridan Lakewood (Denver), Colorado

Located near I-70, Lakeside Center, originally Lakeside Mall, was built to serve a suburban area of Denver that was built beginning in the early 1960s. Lakeside originally had three anchors, one formerly a Montgomery Ward. While technically, all three anchor spaces are occupied, an Avanza Supermarket, a Target, and offices, the mall currently has 19 tenants, nearly all of them local.

The former Montgomery Ward space is currently an Avanza Supermarket. Technically, there is a mall entrance, however the mall entrance is minimal.

The Avanza Supermarket occupies the former Montgomery Ward space. The Montgomery Ward label scar is visible to the left.

A former Montgomery Ward Auto Center with signage on the West side of the mall.

A look at the ceiling architecture within the mall. The store to the right is Gen X Clothing, which occupies several stores. It does not have a mall entrance.

Looking toward the west end of the mall from center court. In the far right is the closing of a mom and pop clothing and shoe store.

A look toward the short north end of the mall. We are unsure of what was there originally.  The working theory is, a theater. The north end of the mall is the beginning of this mall's transference from a traditional mall to a business/educational complex.

This is the external of the former anchor on the north end of the mall, transformed into offices as part of the "Lakeside Corporate Center".

It speaks volumes to the vacancy rate of this mall when you can find a musicland label scar.

Like a lot of malls (especially Canadian ones), Lakeside Mall featured a downstairs. It has two separate lower levels, one for the food court, which is closed.

This is a shot of the food court, visible from above.

The mall last had a full remodel in 1976, so the bulk of the design comes from that era. Portions of the Target end of the mall were revamped in 1983.

This is a view of the main entrance. Only the bird store (rear right with gold lettering) is open in the main hallway of the mall.

While the inside hasn't been remodeled since 1976, the outside of the mall appears to have a recent facelift.

The outside front portion of Lakeside Center, facing 44th Avenue. From far left, the Avanza Supermarket with the pink marquee, GenX Clothing, and a Liquor store, also with no mall entrance. There are bars on the windows of the liquor store.

If anyone has any information on the history of Lakeside Center, feel free to e-mail future_architect@msn.com, or bclions2002@yahoo.com. I'd be happy to add information to this page.

Update:

I'll award myself a Captain Obvious Award. The Lakeside Center website features a nice brief history of the mall, without historical pictures. Still, it's a nice write up which you can read here:

http://www.lakesidecenterdenver.com/who.htm