shopping malls Archives - Page 4 of 6

An SM Mall Story (As Told By 3 Malls) – Part 2: A City Opens in the North

December 12, 2018December 11, 2018 by The Urban Roamer

The second part of the Urban Roamer’s SM mall story looks at how SM City North EDSA first defined the PH mall experience.

An SM Mall Story (As Told By 3 Malls) – Part 1: An Introduction

January 19, 2019December 4, 2018 by The Urban Roamer

The Urban Roamer presents a new multi-part feature which looks at the history and evolution of the SM mall as told by its 3 prominent malls.

Of Bygone Days and An Uncertain Future: The Saga Of Harrison Plaza

December 29, 2019July 25, 2016 by The Urban Roamer

Before there was the mall, there was a park. Harrison Park as it was called and it was a pretty wide open green space. It served as breathing space in the midst of the growing congestion in southern part of the city. It also served as a natural extension to the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex located right across it as kids played football and softball in the greens. There is also Manila Zoo nearby, which made the park a children’s zone for play and fun. You can imagine how big the old Harrison Park was.

Unfortunately, the bigwigs at Manila City Hall (the land where the park is located is city government property, by the way) decided that the park had to give way to a commercial complex, the Harrison Plaza we know today which opened in 1976, a short while after the opening of Ali Mall.

The Good Ol’ Greenhills Shopping Center, Part 1

December 15, 2014 by The Urban Roamer

Mention the place Greenhills and automatically, the first thing that comes to mind is the shopping center there. But make no mistake of dismissing it as just some regular shopping area. Greenhills Shopping Center is itself a landmark of sorts that urban denizens and even tourists have come to know and love over the years, long before the shopping mall chains dominated the urban landscape.

EARLY YEARS

Greenhills Shopping Center came about from a masterplan of the development of the greater Greenhills area as a residential-commercial development project by the Ortigas and Company. Renowned architect Juan Nakpil came up with the design of the structure as construction would begin by 1966. By 1970, the shopping complex was completed with the opening of its first building that was to be occupied by what would become a landmark establishment in the shopping center and Greenhills as a whole, the Unimart Supermarket. But it would the opening of another building in the complex a short time after that would put Greenhills on the map as a shopping destination, the original Virra Mall. Soon after, Shoppesville opened as well.