by Aurelio Peña
WHEN I FIRST saw the Cebu Ayala Mall 12 years ago, I was sure that was the most beautiful mall in the country. I remember the many times I spent reading books and magazines quietly under the shady trees beside a lagoon (or was that a fishpond?) on the right side of that most modern shopping mall–at the time.
By then, I was already hooked to the idea of a beautiful shopping mall surrounded by green patches of landscape, natural gardens, rocks and waterfalls, mini jungles and tropical forests, etc. To me, this was the ultimate idea of how a shopping mall should be designed and constructed.
Frankly, I hate the idea of a shopping mall looking like a big concrete monolithic monster that gobbles up all the old trees and shrubs, digs up huge chunks of earth that wipes out whole hectares of green grass that used to be a sight to behold—before those construction equipment arrived.
Perhaps the thought of putting up a giant shopping mall in North EDSA wasn’t such a grand idea because of the cramped space that was available there to the Ayala group. How in heaven’s name can you put up tropical gardens, forests and lagoons right in the most crowded highway corner of Metro Manila?
But when the Trinoma Ayala Mall opened in Manila a few years back, I was delighted to find little “tropical gardens, bamboo forests and a lagoon right INSIDE the shopping mall.
If you’re familiar with Trinoma, remember that little coffee shop right beside a little Japanese “bridge” over the lagoon that gets a lot of “fog” hanging over the water in the evening? That was fantastic. I couldn’t think of any other place in Manila that really cools and relaxes your mind just hanging around—- even if you don’t order any cup of coffee.
Finally, when the Abreeza Ayala Mall opened last May 12 in Davao, I couldn’t believe it would turn out like this— it’s even more beautiful than Ayala’s own Trinoma on EDSA.
This was the common impression I got from hundreds I talked to when I took strolled through the three levels of Abreeza Ayala Mall over the weekend. Walking through Abreeza is like walking through a dream, a dream that you wish you’d never wake up from.
And just to coin the words they used even before they started building the mall several months back, a new “breeze” is blowing our way as we’re about to enter a new era, feeling the “winds of change” all around us.
Davao City, believe me, will never be the same again. I could feel it in my bones while walking through Abreeza Ayala Mall. The bamboo forests, the little “forest trails” the beautiful gardens with all kinds of exotic tropical plants, accented by Eugenia shrubs, the swaying palm trees that line the pathways—-all these on top of the overall concept and design of the shopping mall—-will change the face of Davao forever….
(Comments? Email me at : goldelyonn@yahoo.com)
