Metreon
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Metreon is a shopping center located in downtown San Francisco at the corner of 4th St. and Mission St.. It is a four-story 350,000 square foot (33,000 m²) building built over the corner of the underground Moscone Center convention center. Metreon opened on June 16, 1999 as an entertainment center, the first of a proposed chain of Sony urban centers aggregating dining, gaming, music, exhibitions, shopping, and movies. Sony intended the ambitious 85 million dollar project to be not only a theme park and gallery for Sony products but a way to reinforce a hip image for the Sony brand. In 2006 Metreon was sold and it has been refashioned as a food-oriented mall.
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[edit] Stores and features
The Metreon 13, an IMAX 3D movie theater operated by AMC Lowes Cineplex, is currently the most popular attraction. Additionally, the second floor is home to a Tilt arcade and coin-operated games.
The Sanraku sushi restaurant is located in the Metreon. There is also a bookstore and a food court.
The Metreon is also home to the Walk of Game, which is loosely based on the Walk of Fame — honorees include Shigeru Miyamoto, Nolan Bushnell, StarCraft, Sid Meier, Mario, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Link from The Legend of Zelda series.
[edit] History
The Metreon's original attractions included a movie theater including both standard and IMAX screens, a multimedia edutainment presentation involving audio-animatronics and 3-D film based on the famous book The Way Things Work by David Macaulay, a play area for young children based on Maurice Sendak's popular children's book Where the Wild Things Are (sharing a floor with an In the Night Kitchen themed restaurant), and an arcade and bar, the Airtight Garage, based on French comic artist and graphic designer Jean "Moebius" Giraud's graphic novel of the same name and featuring all original games.
In October 2001 Metreon, in partnership with Sony's anime television network, Animax, was host to an anime festival, in which numerous anime titles were broadcast across its Action Theatre.[1] As a hub for Sony products, the Metreon often hosted special events for the public when new products were released. Consumers flocked to the Metreon for high-demand items such as the PlayStation 2 or PSP.
Although Sony opened two additional centers in Tokyo and Berlin in 1999, the original center failed to turn the expected profit. Despite promising first-year foot traffic of six million, one million ahead of pre-launch projections, by the summer of 2001 "The Way Things Work" was closed and a major tenant, the Microsoft store, exited in late 2001. The other major exhibit, "Where the Wild Things Are," closed sometime after July 2004.
The Airtight Garage's games proved unpopular, with the exception of Hyperbowl, a 3D obstacle course bowling game featuring air-supported bowling balls used as trackballs, and they eventually were gradually replaced by other, better-known games, until the arcade was finally closed, then reopened as "Portal One," which preserved the decor, full bar, and Hyperbowl but was otherwise a more typical arcade. Sunday May 13, 2007 was Portal One arcade's last day of operation. The arcade was relaunched again as a Tilt.
The 15-screen Loews (now AMC) theater was a success, becoming of the most profitable theaters in the country and claiming a good portion of Metreon foot traffic; however, the lease agreement did not apportion ticket or concession sales to Metreon.[2]
By 2002, there were persistent rumors that Sony wished to pull out of management of the property. In February 2006, Metreon was sold to The Westfield Group, the owner of the nearby Westfield San Francisco Centre shopping mall, and Forest City Enterprises, a real estate development company.
In early 2009, Sony announced that it would be closing the Sony and PlayStation stores, the last flagship stores located in the mall. Following the announcement, on March 3rd, 2009, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency approved plans from owners Westfield Group and Forest City Enterprises to renovate Metreon into a "restaurant-centric" mall. Expected modifications include relocation of the Fourth and Mission street entrance to the center of the block and the installation of a food terrace facing Yerba Buena Gardens. The San Francisco Filipino Cultural Center and the "Tavern on the Green" restaurant are projected tenants. [3]
On May 15, 2009, a seven-day-a-week farmers' market opened as an interim tenant in the former Discovery Channel Store space.[4]
[edit] References
- ^ Metreon media release, Anime News Network, 9 October 2001.
- ^ Lazarus, David (January 24, 2003). ""Metreon's great view wasted"". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/01/24/BU187234.DTL&hw=LOEWS&sn=002&sc=847.
- ^ Upton, John (March 4, 2009). ""Revamped Metreon slated to be restaurant-centric"". San Francisco Examiner. http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/Revamped-Metreon-slated-to-be-restaurant-centric-40700262.html.
- ^ Said, Carolyn (May 15, 2009). ""New farmers' market finds a home at the Metreon"". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/15/BUJP17KOL6.DTL.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Metreon |
- Metreon Website
- Island Earth Farmers' Market Website
- Pia Sarkar and Ilana Debare, "Metreon gets new lease on life: Purchase by Westfield and Forest City adds failing center to growing S.F. retail empire", San Francisco Chronicle, February 23, 2006
- David Lazarus, "Metreon's Shattered Dreams", San Francisco Chronicle, February 24, 2006
- The "Where the Wild Things Are" attraction at the Metreon, July 23, 2004. A six-part video on YouTube.
Coordinates: 37°47′04″N 122°24′12″W / 37.784374°N 122.403424°W
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