MegaBox: Hong Kong's new 19-storey vertical mall

[wyliepoon]

Tired of big box shopping? Try MegaBox shopping.

Hong Kong's newest vertical mall, the 19-storey MegaBox, is set to open this month. It is located in Kowloon Bay (two MTR subway stops north of Kwun Tong, subject of another UT thread), formerly a mostly industrial and warehouse area in Kowloon next to the old Kai Tak Airport. Today the area is still largely industrial, but with the airport closed and the height restriction lifted, developers are transforming the area into a new business district, with its own cluster of office towers.

Here's a section of the mall. Like some of the newer vertical malls in the city, MegaBox's floors are divided into themed zones, connected by a system of long express escalators that skip floors.

The biggest attractions in the mall are the large multi-storey atriums, spanning six floors and offering great views of the city through glass curtain walls.

The mall has an interesting "Park and Shop" feature. A lot of the floors in the mall have parking spaces. Using a series of express ramps, drivers can park their cars all the way up on the 16th floor if they want to shop there.

Photos (credit: "leomak" of the HK-Place forum)

Exterior view. The 19-storey MegaBox mall (clad in red) is topped by twin offices towers, adding another 15 floors to the building.

The MegaBox building compared to a neighbouring 50-storey office tower (which is the Asian headquarters of Esprit).

Exterior view of the "ball atrium", one of the multi-story atriums in the mall.

Mall directory

Interior of the "ball atrium" spanning floors 5-10. On the right is the "Video Eye", a circular video screen 10 metres in diameter.

On the right is a pair of express escalators spanning floors 5-8.

On the 10th floor is the mall's ice rink, which is a regulation hockey rink. It forms the base of another large atrium.

Parking spaces on the 15th floor

"Ball atrium" lit up

MegaBox website (in English)

 

[interchange42]

Yowza. Repellent, yet fascinating!

42

 

[roch5220]

Thats what HK needs more of, more malls. Because the 1000s of other ones have become too dirty. So instead of cleaning and fixing them up, they just build new ones.

I wonder which HK stars will show up for store openings? Leon Lai? Sammie? Ekin?

 

[scarberiankhatru]

I bet Dubai's already planning a 190 storey UltraBox Mall.

 

[Edward]

No doubt with parking on the 180th floor.

 

[Hipster Duck]

It must get annoying cleaning up all the footprints that Billy leaves behind in the Family Circus.

 

[tayser]

B&Q!!!! aww those poor dear old expats' hearts will melt.

 

[samsonyuen]

Looks great!

It's HK's first B&Q.

 

[Oliver Tweed]

Astounding. A bit like Metropolis here in T.O., only on a greater scale.

 

[Canuck]

The concept is nice, but the execution is quite unattractive.
I'd venture to say this slides into the Fugly category.

(Than again we're getting Metropolis/Toronto Life Centre and those in glass houses...)

 

[wyliepoon]

I wonder which HK stars will show up for store openings? Leon Lai? Sammie? Ekin?

Don't know what the mall has planned on the Canto-pop front for entertainment at its opening, but it's been reported that Chris Pronger will be a special guest at the hockey rink's first major tournament.

No word on whether the Stanley Cup will be there.

http://www.asianpacificpost.com/portal2/ff80808112c44f4e0112c4803d320016_Pronger_s_hockey_night_in_Asia.do.html

 

[wyliepoon]

More photos...

A pair of the many floor-skipping escalators in the mall

View from one of the restaurants, looking north

Ice rink ready for hockey

View from the 19th floor sky garden

One of the public artwork pieces in the mall... this one letting people know that wireless internet is available in the mall

Night view

 

[samsonyuen]

They should get some of those skip-level escalators in Metropolis too!