MRT-3 builder transforms N. Triangle to a nature-endowed center

The Metro Rail Transit Development Corporation (MRTDC), the builder of the

Mass Rail Transit (MRT) III, has started transforming the North Triangle in

Quezon City into a futuristic yet nature-endowed center.

Excavation and construction of the R4.6-B endeavor started on Nov. 4, 1996 and

work on the project will be completed by the year 2001.

MRTDC officials appointed Jerde Partnership of Los Angeles, USA, as project design

architect.

The engineering plans itself would make one look forward to a tomorrow of comfort

and ease, of high technology mixed with the soft and alluring touch of nature, of

buzzing activity embedded with ambience, of a situs where all can touch base with

anything they desire and hope to have.

Grand Boulevard, a semi-circular main road with lush landscaping, cuts over and

around the centers four-level complex which houses, in its depressed first level, the

depot for the MRT III 73 Czech-made, air-conditioned and rider-responsive rail cars

and a four-level commercial and entertainment area.

The Boulevard is linked with EDSA, the countrys busiest thoroughfare, which provides

easy, fast and comfortable access to the center for an expected 600,000 to a million

commuters likely to ride daily the MRT III.

The MRT III North Triangle station is similar to New Yorks Grand Station, upon its

completion by the end of 1999.

The Boulevard is equippd with intermodal transport services and will serve as a link

between the center and existing and proposed developments in the immediate

vicinity.

Above the EDSA MRT III storage yard will rise a spherical commercial an entertainment

complex. Project planners have put in designs based on national facets, meaning that

sights and sounds characteristic of the Philippines has been interpreted and imbibed

for the retail and entertainment area.

The complex theming related directly to the Celebration of The Philippines and

focuses on ecological concepts of the islands, the Sun, and the Sea, and the

progressive concepts of the Philippine Dream and Past the year 2000.

Plans show that the complexs conical roof artistically resembles the countrys

evolution, through volcanic activity, into an archipelago of 7,100 islands. The Banaue

Rice Terraces, one of the worlds wonders, is in the complexs interior layout.

Patterns of the Philippine sky and sea known by foreign visitors as friendly ecological

partners can be found in two individual sections of the complex.

Another section brings the visitor to Dream Street where a labyrinth of spaces is

developed and urges one to further explore, learn and dream of a brighter future in his

homeland.

The complexs exterior features, colors, designs and patterns akin to Filipinos. Even

the landscaping and garden schemes are inherent to the Philippine spirit.

The presence of performance areas, interior and exterior landscaped terraces,

restaurants, cinemas, sidewalk cafes, and extensive tropical water garden and a lot

more can be experimental an nurturing to those who frequent the center.

The commercial and entertainment complex interfaces with a crescentshaped arcade

called the Urban Collar and a landscaped parkway interlink.

Plans developed for the perimeter buildings parallel to North Avenue and Mindanao

Avenue Extension show that the structures will be high-risers. A mixed-use hotel is

proposed along the arcade fronting the commercial and entertainment area.