As one of the first post-war suburban shopping centers in the US, the Northgate Mall in northern Seattle defines classic mall architecture.

Its architect, John Graham Jr., pioneered the dumbbell, big-box shape for malls, in which two rows of stores face each other and two department stores anchor each end. Graham also gave Northgate Mall a grocery store (which later became a food court) and a huge parking lot. In the decades that followed, malls around the country copied Northgate's layout, which became the model for most American malls throughout the late 20th century.

This design may not be working in the 21st century, however. Hundreds of malls and thousands of mall-based stores have shuttered in the past two decades, and many more may close within the next 10 years. One of the most recent retailers to go down is the jewelry chain Claire's, which filed for bankruptcy in March. Sears also said Thursday that it's closing 63 stores, on top of the more than 160 locations it has already shuttered this year. Both Sears and Claire's have blamed plummeting mall shopper traffic for their declines.

Traditional malls need to transform themselves to stay alive, and many are making changes to attract more business — including Northgate.

Developers are now turning many of the mall's parking spaces into a light rail station, which will connect the neighborhood to downtown Seattle. Other parts of the lot have been turned into LEED-certified apartments, senior housing, a medical center, more retail space, and a bioswale that keeps runoff away from the nearby creek.

Malls of the future have an opportunity to fulfill other community needs besides commerce, June Williamson, a City College of New York architecture professor and the author of "Retrofitting Suburbia," told Business Insider.

"Northgate [Mall] evolved as the neighborhood around it — which was mostly built in the '50s, '60s, and '70s — did," she said. "People are tired of the traditional mall."

Here are what may become of the many failing malls of today: