SM City North EDSA The Sky Garden In Photos

SM City North EDSA The Sky Garden In Photos
by Earth Rullan of Earthlingorgeous.com

Who would have thought that there is a great place to relax, unwind and get reunited with nature at the end of the busy streets of EDSA?

Busy and traffic annoying EDSA

To the left to the left

Yup that one!

Take a walk in the park and relax at the Sky Garden!

Sky Garden is what the SM City North EDSA dubbed as the shoppers own corner of the sky and will be open for public starting Friday, May 29. The formal press introduction of the Sky Garden will be held on Monday, May 25.

The new and improved SM City North EDSA

Luscious greens and relaxing sound of waterfalls

Mushroom like roofing

Lovely fountains

A park at the heart of the busy city

Modern but simplistic architecture

Unique structures surrounded by lush greens and flowers

Manmade hill at the Sky Garden

The hill is as tall as the Sky Dome

Sky Garden is an elevated curvilinear park at the second floor of the former parking lot offering much needed green space . It buffers the mall from the busy EDSA intersection, and serves as a living, organic link between the different components of the Block, The City Center and The Annex composing the SM City North EDSA.

Entrance and exit halls connected to the mall

The main attractions of the Sky Garden are the Roof Garden, the Sky Dome, and the water features that include two bubblers, a simulated river flowing at the center and waterfalls at the edge of the second floor.

This wonderful elevated park in the city encompasses 13,000 sq meters floor area, 2,000 sq meters were dedicated for the strings of retail shops and specialty stores like cafes, grills, and dining outlets on ponds or cluster around circular pocket gardens.

Experience Al Fresco dining

Floating restaurants Persian Grill to the left and Starbucks to the right

The manmade river

The main attractions of the Sky Garden are the Roof Garden, the Sky Dome, and the water features that include two bubblers, a simulated river flowing at the center and waterfalls at the edge of the second floor. The Sky Dome is a great venue for concerts and other activities that can seat up to 1,000 people. The stage and seats are movable to cater to cater to different kinds of events. The Roof Garden has about 55 species of plants, grass and trees.

The Sky Dome

Half of the dome is see-through to save light at day time

Completing the experience will be the food and retail outlets that will give customers an al fresco dining and shopping experience. Restaurants such as La Mesa Grill, Persia Girll, Padi's Point, Ineng's BBQ, Pixie's Sinugba, and Gerry's Grill will be at the grill area. Coffee shops like Starbucks, Coffeeworks, Coffee Experience, and Curassco Express will be present too. Art's Cream Gallery, Cello's Donuts and Dips, Do Eat Cotton Candy, Ferino's Bibingka, Green Mango, Kitchen of Cakes adn Coffee, Tita Lyn's Suman, Fruits in Ice Cream, Heavenly Chocolate, Freshbar by Big Chill, Blushing Cupcakes and Chef Tony's Popstore are some of the fun specialty food stores that will be visible too.

Strings of specialty stores can be found at the Sky Garden

What's great about the Sky Garden has its own operating hours which is from 7AM to 2AM. It is an accessible hang-out place for the entire family, escalators and elevators are provided at the ground level. The ground level has a parking area and public transport terminal. The bridge way is connected to the MMDA overpass and the entire development will be connected to the combined LRT1, MRT1 and MRT7 Grand Terminal in the future.

Some other interesting pieces that can be found at The Sky Dome:

The sculptures on the next two photos were still covered with plastic as they were just installed that day we had our tour.

After lunch the structures were uncovered and this one was cute funky shapes and colors

The Sky Garden's project team includes Arquitectonica, Conceptual Architect; W.V. Conscolluela and Associates, Architect of Record; New Golden City Builders and Development Corporation, General Contractors; and D A Abcede and Associates, Project Manager.

http://www.earthlingorgeous.com/2009/05/sm-city-north-edsa-sky-garden-in-photos.html

My Memories Of 2nd Biggest Mall In The World

My Memories Of 2nd Biggest Mall In The World
by: Earth Rullan of Earthlingorgeous.com

Believe it or not SM City North EDSA is the biggest mall in the world and the biggest mall in the Philippines. I know you would protest and say that SM Mall of Asia is the biggest mall but actually its not. SM Mall of Asia is bigger in terms of land area, but SM City North EDSA is the biggest when it comes to floor area imagine it has 460,000 sq meters with more than 1,000 shops and concessionaires as their tenants .

SM City North EDSA was built in 1985 one of the trying times in Philippine history. It was just a couple months before the historical EDSA Revolution 1, the time of the People's Revolt against the dictatorship of President Ferdinand E. Marcos. We lived in Baesa, Quezon City, then Q.C. Mayor Jun Simon was our neighbor back then and I just turned 8 years old. I barely had an idea what all those "tora-tora" flying overhead were about. All I know is that people were on the street and I was enjoying the airshow.

That was also the time my brother was kicked-out of the Philippine Military Academy (PMA) for something he did not do. President Marcos already approved his return to the PMA but was not able to sign the papers because he was suddenly evicted from office. Anyway he was referred to a cool job just a stone throw away from SM City North EDSA. He was my motorbike riding ass-kicking brother who took my sister and I for a date at SM City North EDSA every weekend. His colleagues even thought we were his daughters since we have this 14 years gap.

Anyway, he was the one who introduced me the SM mall. SM City North EDSA is where I watched my first movie. I think it was the movie My Step Mother Is An Alien or Mac and Me. I recalled my brother did not like watching Tagalog movies.

After the political unrest and my brother became busier, it was my older sister who continued the SM City North EDSA adventures I had. She was the one who introduced me the concept of cutting classes. It was the time when SM City North EDSA was not that strict with student wearing uniform going in their mall so we were able to freely spent our time in there.

I barely recalled what we do there but according to my sister we would just roam the SM Department Store and drool over the nice stuff we see wishing they were ours and even promising to each other one day we will be able to buy stuff on our own. When we get hungry we would go to the SM Foodcourt at the basement or to Dunkin Donuts near the SM Grocery, French Baker and the SM City Annex entrance. We would also play a couple games at the arcade.

According to my sister we turned SM City North EDSA our school for a whole week until our parents discovered that we were not attending classes anymore. After that incident I heard the mall no longer allows students in uniform during school hours to come inside the mall without an adult with them and that rule is being followed until now by SM malls and management all over the country.

I also recall that we used to do our weekly grocery shopping in there, it's either SM or Triftway. We would also play bowling with our cousins at the bowling lane back then. My father would stop by there to take home a box of Dunkin Donuts for us or a Happy Meal from McDonalds. I can't forget my McDonalds lunch box!

Years passed and we moved out, SM City North EDSA was too far from me to visit. I was only able to return when I was in college. It is where my first boyfriend and I used to watch movies together.

Now is my turn to pass the SM family tradition to my daughter. She definitely enjoys The Sky Garden as she loves looking at the sky and loves the sight of the water fountains and streams. The greenery is also something she enjoy as there is not much around. I love the concept that it is an elevated park so that people won't have to take the smoke from the vehicles passing by. The parking area and the public terminal below it is very convenient also. Although we frequent SM City Fairview as she like playing at the SM Story Land and its closer to us than (SM City North.

(Photo courtesy of Iris of Pinayads.com taken during the The Sky Dome Press Walk )

Looking back SM City North EDSA is the only mall I know with a relevant history behind it not just for me but for every Filipino. The time it was built was a trying time and yet it emerged successful. SM North was the one that started the mall trend in the country. It used to be just a block of a vertical building at the middle of the cross-roads to the North back then.

Then the extension mall came The SM City Annex where Binggo Bonanza was housed. There was a time I think SM City North deteriorated people grew tired of the usual things in there and since too many malls came about that that picked a cue from them.

It's great to see that SM City North EDSA reinvented itself. With the three cycle renovations it underwent I could say the new SM City North EDSA is the best thing they've done. It is no longer a just a shopping mall but a one-stop-shop venue for everything anyone could possibly need. With its latest addition The Block, The Cybermall and The Sky Garden, SM City North EDSA stay true to their claim that "We got it all for you!"

Oh, by the way, I bet you have heard of SM West? There is no such mall. SM West and SM North is one and the same. Nobody can really tell how the name SM West emerged by I also recall it was a common name for SM North more than 20 years ago.

How about you? What are your memories of SM City North EDSA?

http://www.earthlingorgeous.com/2009/05/my-memories-of-the-2nd-biggest-mall-in-the-world.html