In December 1987, Montana State University established a committee to begin planning the conversion of Garfield Street into a pedestrian mall. The committee was originally called the Garfield Mall Development Committee, but the name was eventually changed to the Centennial Mall Committee. The purpose of the project was to convert Garfield Street from 6th Street to 11th Street into a pedestrian mall. By the time the committee was established, Garfield Street had already been barricaded between 11th and 6th and only campus service vehicles still utilized the street. The mall was completed in 1994.

The committee appointed Don J. McLaughlin (of Place Architecture) as the architect for the project in December 1988. McLaughlin attained his Bachelor of Architecture from Montana State University in 1967 and received his Master of Architecture from Montana State University in 2009. The project also had major contributions from McLaughlin's partner at Place Architecture, Hilary Dustin, and staff member Ben Tintinger. Ben Tintinger went on to be principal of Mosaic Architecture in Helena, Montana. McLaughlin has been the Principal of Place Architecture, which operates in Montana and California, since 1985, and was a Principal at Kommers, McLaughlin & Leavengood Architects (Bozeman) from 1973 to 1985.

In 2011 the Centennial Mall was renamed to honor University President Michael P. Malone, who served as president from 1991 to 1999. President Malone took an active approach to changing the physical environment in which the university's students learn. He established funding to complete the Engineering and Physical Sciences Building and the Agricultural Biosciences Building, presided over renovations of the MSU Fieldhouse and Bobcat Football Stadium, and was instrumental in the creation of the Centennial Mall.