MTM: West Edmonton Mall - Part I

Yes, part one! You may have heard of the mall we have here in Edmonton, some of you may have even seen it, or parts of it. It is the largest mall in North America. When it was completed in 1999 (phase IV), it was the largest in the world. It held that title until 2004 and is now the 5th largest world-wide.

From Wikipedia: West Edmonton Mall covers a gross area of about 570,000 m² (well over 6 million sq ft).^[1] There are over 800 stores and services^[4] and parking for more than 20,000 vehicles. More than 23,000 people are employed at the property. The mall receives 28.2 million visitors per year; it also attracts between 60,000 and 150,000 shoppers daily, depending on the day and season. The mall was valued at C$926 million in January 2007.^[5]

If the mall had an apartment/condo complex attached, you would never have to breath fresh air! (Apparently they do have the permission and zoning for it, but haven't started yet) There is an Hotel, if you only want to stay a few days...or are loaded!

 Click any photo to enlarge

They have about three food courts, many full restaurants, banks, any kind of shop you could possibly want, a shooting range and a casino. There is also a gym, a chapel, a petting zoo and a few nightclubs.

This is Professor WEM's Adventure Golf

 Europa Boulevard (upstairs from the golf)

The dragon leading up to an Imax theatre, it actually breathes fire!

(just not at 9 in the morning)

 Chinatown...just in case you can't read the sign ;)

 One of a pair of vases and you can see the edge of the supermarket sign.

 

More art.

Lovely fountain, bridge and gate. (sign in front of the pond asks that you don't throw food or coins in the pond as it is not good for the koi.... sadly there are no koi there anymore.)

 

As you can see here, the fountains are in need of some work.

 This is what they are replacing the fountains with.

 

And of course we have to have an oil themed statue. If it weren't for oil, we wouldn't need such a blatant show of excess.

Many things have changed since Phase I opened in 1981. There used to be birds (a beautiful white peacock, parrots and many other exotic birds - they couldn't take the noise though) and a car dealership. The area known now as Chinatown used to be the International Marketplace and had all sorts of cool little shops. But that is the way of malls, things have to change. Some things are pretty constant and I will be highlighting those in their own posts over the next few weeks.

In the meantime, to enjoy more My Town Monday posts, visit the MTM blog.

Have a good day all.

Future posts will be on: the World Waterpark & the ice rink; Galaxyland; and the Sea Life Caverns & lagoon.

Photo Finish Friday: left overs

Confetti from New Years?

Have a good weekend all.

The PFF is the brainchild of Leah over at The Goat's Lunch Pail

MTM: Ice on Whyte

I may have mentioned that we have a lot of Festivals here in Edmonton. Well, they continue over the winter too - they have to, otherwise we would go crazy ;) One that I enjoy is the Ice On Whyte Festival. This year it was very international, with carvers from our sister city, Harbin, China. Other entries were from Russia, Armenia, The Netherlands, Alaska and of course Canada.

 'Carousel'

'Who will be the first to see the Sun'

'Surprise'

This was the dragon slide.

There were many snow carvings and more ice carvings, they had several kiddie slides and an ice maze for the youngsters. There was also hot chocolate and live music. I have uploaded more photos to my flickr account.

Have a great day all.

For more My Town Monday posts, visit the MTM Blog

Photo Finish Friday - Phone Photo

I just downloaded the photos from my phone ;)

This is my friends new office building.

Have a good weekend all.

PFF is the brainchild of Leah (my cousin) over at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Photo Finish Friday: Snow ?

Looks like a snow mullet to me :)

Have a good weekend all!

PFF originated with my cousin Leah over at The Goat's Lunch Pail

Thank you Hilary for the POTW nod. I am very honoured.