Mamilla Mall

In the Mamilla mall there are a number of leading brands in the world, such as Tommy Hilfiger, Dior, Padani, The North Face, Adidas, Nike, Pierre Cardin, Diesel, Swarovski, Rolex, Foot Locker, Mango, Zara, Stradivarius, Tous, Marccain, Columbia, H.stern, TopShop and many others. ==Location==

Mamilla Mall runs perpendicular to the Old City Walls between Jaffa Road and Yitzhak Kariv Street. It opens onto the intersection of King Solomon, King David, and Agron Streets at its northern end, and Jaffa Gate at its southern end. ==History==

The original Mamilla Street extended from the Mamilla Pool to Jaffa Gate. Along this street, wealthy Arabs constructed homes, offices and stores in the 1800s. Toward the end of the 19th century, and especially during the British Mandate era, the street became a fashionable commercial district. Both Arab and Jewish businessmen operated high-end shops for furniture, textiles, housewares, art, photography, and automobile showrooms. In 1970 the Jerusalem municipality proposed to overhaul the slum-like area and replace it with a mixed-use development of luxury housing, hotels, and shops. Mayor Teddy Kollek asked architects Moshe Safdie and Gilbert Weil to draw up a plan. to move over 700 families Workshops and garages were relocated to Talpiot, where they formed the core of the nascent Talpiot industrial zone. The Ladbroke Group of London, which won the original tender to develop the Mamilla project in 1989, pulled out in the early 1990s and development was handed over to Alfred Akirov of the Alrov Group of Tel Aviv.) When the government refused to approve Akirov's zoning changes, Akirov sued Karta and froze construction on the mall for several years, leaving a swath of half-finished buildings and construction cranes in clear view of Jaffa Gate and the Old City Walls. ==Architecture==

(right) in Mamilla Mall Mamilla Mall, along with the other components of the Alrov Mamilla Quarter, was designed by Israeli architect Moshe Safdie. Several historic buildings were integrated into the mall design. These are: • Clark House, an 1898 structure built by American evangelists living in Jerusalem. • Convent of St. Vincent de Paul, operated by the Daughters of Charity, an order of French nuns. Housing an orphanage, old-age home, and a shelter for mentally and physically handicapped people, it was the first structure to be erected on Mamilla Street, in 1886. It, too, occupies its original site. • Stern House, a private home in which Zionist leader Theodor Herzl had lodged overnight during his 1898 visit to Jerusalem. was dismantled brick by brick and warehoused for ten years until builders were ready to reassemble it on Alrov Mamilla Avenue. There is also a two-story, domed atrium housing shops and restaurants. The mall sits atop a six-story parking garage with space for 1,600 cars and 60 buses. From the outside, the over-ground structure appears as a series of tiered terraces overflowing with greenery. Skylights built into the terraces admit natural light to each parking level. Outside the entrances to the parking garage stand terminals for city buses. Safdie writes: Like urban centers elsewhere, Mamilla encompasses a mix of uses, but even the commercial structures facing the pedestrian street never present their backs to the city. On the contrary, apartments and offices are accessed from the surrounding streets. Parking is never visible. The two thousand parking spaces and major bus terminal in Mamilla tuck under Mamilla Street, fitted carefully into the topography so that all exterior walls become carefully planted terraced parks, connecting the historic valley and national park with the pedestrian streets above. ... Mamilla will seem to have been woven into the historic fabric of Jerusalem.I consider this as a project of invisible mending, in the sense that each strand of fabric – each alley, each street, each mass of existing building – finds a continuity and counterpoint in the project that has been constructed in its midst. At its southern end, the promenade opens onto a small, multi-tiered, landscaped park facing Jaffa Gate. ==Retail==

store in the mall Mamilla Mall contains of retail space. Its 140 stores appeal to all economic strata, from high-end international chains Tommy Hilfiger and Abercrombie & Fitch; to Israeli designer boutiques such as Castro, Dorin Frankfurt, and Ronen Chen; to mid-range restaurants and a "supermarket-style" pharmacy. The Gap store, which opened in the mall in August 2009, is the chain's first store in Israel. Among the cafes are branches of Café Rimon, Aroma Espresso Bar, and Spaghettim. Due to the diversity of retail establishments, the mall attracts a wide cross-section of Israeli residents and tourists. These include secular and religious Jews, Christians, Muslims, Armenian monks, young couples, families, and students. ==Exhibitions and events==

To appeal to its broad consumer base, the Alrov Group presents changing exhibits of sculpture and art along the promenade. During the summer and Jewish holidays, the mall hosts free concerts, street performances, folk dancing, and family activities. During Hanukkah, a Chabad candle-lighting ceremony takes place here nightly.{{cite web|url=http://israelmatzav.blogspot.co.il/2010/01/video-mayanot-israel-flash-mob-at.html|title=Video: Mayanot Israel flash mob at Mamilla Mall ==Attempted terror attack==

In August 2013 the Shin Bet uncovered a plot by Hamas members from Ramallah and Jerusalem to bomb the Mamilla Mall on Rosh Hashana; two of the suspects were employed as maintenance workers at the mall. ==References==