Glorietta

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Glorietta

Glorietta 4 (left) and Glorietta 5 (right) in 2024
Location	Ayala Center, Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines
Opening date	Old Glorietta 1 & 2: 1991; 33 years ago (1991) Glorietta 3: 1993; 31 years ago (1993) Glorietta 4: 1999; 25 years ago (1999) Glorietta 5: 2008; 16 years ago (2008) New Glorietta 1: November 5, 2012; 12 years ago (2012-11-05) New Glorietta 2: December 7, 2012; 11 years ago (2012-12-07)
Previous names	Quad (until 1997)
Developer	Ayala Land
Management	Ayala Malls
No. of stores and services	550+[1]
No. of anchor tenants	5
Total retail floor area	250,000 m2 (2,700,000 sq ft)
No. of floors	Glorietta 1 & 2: 4 upper[a] + 2 basement Glorietta 3: 3 upper + 1 basement Glorietta 4: 5 upper[b] + 3 basement Glorietta 5: 8 upper[c] + 2 basement[d]
Public transit access	3 Ayala  E  Ayala One Ayala  10   11   12   17   38   40   42   45   48   59  Glorietta 4  10   11   12   17   38   40   42   45   48   59  EDSA Ayala  EX01   NX01   WX01   L01   NR01   AX01   BA01   WE01   AX10  Glorietta 5
Website	www.ayalamalls.com/main/malls/ayala-glorietta

Glorietta (Tagalog: [gloɾˈjɛtɐ, gloɾˈjɛta]; stylized in all lowercase), also known as Ayala Malls Glorietta, formerly known as Quad, is a shopping mall complex in the Ayala Center, Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines. The mall is owned by Ayala Land and operated through its subsidiary, the Ayala Malls. The mall is divided into five sections (named Glorietta 1 to 5) and contains many shops and restaurants, as well as cinemas, gyms, arcades and two central activity centers. Visitors have described the mall as maze-like, due to the complexity of its interior layout.^[2]

Glorietta 1 to 4 is integrated with the nearby Greenbelt, SM Makati, Rustan's Makati, and The Landmark. Glorietta 5 is detached, located on the former site of an open parking area between Hotel InterContinental Manila (later replaced by One Ayala) and Rustan's Makati.^[3] Coinciding with the redevelopment, the tenants affected by the October 19, 2007 explosion were given an option to relocate there.^[4]

The mall got its name from the Spanish word glorietta, which used to describe the public meeting place in Spanish colonial-era designed towns throughout the Philippines; the spelling with double "t" reflects the Old Spanish alphabet.

Until 1997, the mall was previously named Quad, a name that was also borne by the four-cinema Quad Theater that was integrated into it. The name quad is a Latin word for four, reflecting the mall's original number of divisions.

Glorietta was originally a park centrally located in the Makati Commercial Center complex. The Glorietta park, with its outdoor stage for event hosting, was built in the 1970s. It was landscaped by Ildefonso P. Santos Jr., a National Artist for Architecture who was also credited for designing the entire complex.^[5] It was then surrounded by small shopping arcades, Quad Theater (also known as The Quad), and the Makati Supermart.^[6][7]

In 1990, Ayala decided to redevelop Makati Commercial Center, then branded The Center Makati, into a new development named the Ayala Center. The plan called for the redevelopment of the Glorietta park and the surrounding shopping arcades into a single shopping mall. Makati Commercial Center and the nearby Greenbelt complex were later merged to become Ayala Center in 1991.^[8]

The new Glorietta mall opened in 1991 with a gross leasable area of 250,000 m² (2,700,000 sq ft), envisioned as one of the largest malls in the Philippines. The mall was divided into four sections:

• Quad 1 - which retained the original four Quad cinemas until 2009;
• Quad 2 - which had an indoor theme park named Glico's Great Adventure, a shopping arcade named Goldcrest,^[9] and was soon to become the main setting for a deadly explosion in 2007;
• Quad 3 - which would soon be the home of international restaurants like Hard Rock Cafe and TGI Friday's;
• Glorietta 4 - a new hub for entertainment with a Timezone branch and seven additional cinemas, and also the home of Oakwood Premier (later, Ascott Makati), a premier hotel that stood on top of the mall and became the setting for the Oakwood mutiny, an infamous political siege led by the Magdalo Group which occurred in 2003.

All four components were home to a variety of shops and restaurants. Quad 1 and 2 opened in 1991 after renovation was completed in 1990, while Quad 3 opened in 1992 and was completed in 1993. Glorietta 4, delayed due to the construction of Oakwood Premier, opened in 1998, the same year as Oakwood, and was completed in 1999.^[10] Quad 1, 2 and 3 would later be renamed Glorietta 1, 2 and 3, respectively.^[5] Those were divided by walkways radiating from the activity center to their namesake major roads (clockwise from north): Ayala Mall, EDSA Mall, Pasay Mall, and Makati Mall.^[11]

Tenants that set up shop in Ayala Center prior to Glorietta's development, most notably Mercury Drug, Automatic Centre, Jollibee, Max's, and McDonald's, also found a home in Glorietta. The department stores surrounding the mall – SM Makati, The Landmark, and Rustan's – were utilized by Glorietta as its anchor tenants for its supermarkets and department stores.^[10]

In the mid-1990s, Glorietta emerged as a premier mall, boasting an air-conditioned atrium, children's playground, and activity center.^{[citation needed]} The mall transitioned to its present name from "Quad" in 1997 and underwent expansions from 1999 to 2005. Glorietta 5, an additional wing detached from Glorietta 1 to 4, was opened in 2008.^[12] As part of the Ayala Center Redevelopment, construction work on Glorietta 1 and 2 began in 2010, with reopening on November 5 and December 7, 2012, respectively, along with the addition of Holiday Inn & Suites Makati (opened in 2013) and two office towers on top of the mall.^[13][14] On November 29, 2012, Move to the Vibe of Glorietta, a fashion show, was held at the mall's new Palm Drive Activity Center and broke the Guinness World Record for the “Most People Modeling on a Catwalk” with 2,255 participants.^[15]

A Chuck E. Cheese's was meant to open here in 2013, but the plans were cancelled due to the mall layout.^[16] Further developments followed, including the opening of Uniqlo's flagship and largest Southeast Asian store at Glorietta 5 in 2018,^[17] the unveiling of "Top of the Glo" roof deck in 2019, and the completed renovation of Food Choices in Glorietta 4 and of the atrium in the same year.^[18][19]

A major redevelopment of Glorietta is being done in phases since the first quarter of 2024. It will feature layout changes, along with new interiors and exteriors, and increase its gross leasable area (GLA) by 10 percent. It is expected to be completed in 2026. Ayala Malls has tapped Australian architectural firm Buchan for the redesign of Glorietta.^[20][21]

Atrium

Palm Drive Activity Center

Activity centers of Glorietta

Glorietta, located in Ayala Center, has a GLA of 250,000 m² (2,700,000 sq ft), making it the ninth largest shopping mall in the Philippines in terms of GLA, tied with Greenbelt. It is divided into five sections: the contiguous Glorietta 1, 2, 3, and 4 and the fully detached Glorietta 5. Glorietta 1 to 4 features up to five levels of retail. Glorietta 5 has three retail levels and five levels of BPO offices. Although detached above, it connects to the rest of Glorietta through a pedestrian underpass at Basement 1. Level 2 walkways link Glorietta to SM Makati and The Landmark. Basement and elevated connections to One Ayala are pending, and previous links to the former Park Square 1 and Park Square 2 existed before the 2010–12 redevelopment.^[22] Adjacent parks are Glorietta 3 Park, Dolphin Park, Palm Promenade, and Terraces Square.

Glorietta 3 is home to clubs and restaurants (including Hard Rock Cafe) and international luxury labels.^[10] Glorietta 4 is home to seven cinemas, Food Choices food court, Rustan's Department Store (shared with the adjacent Rustan's Makati building), and The Marketplace supermarket (also shared with Rustan's Makati). Glorietta 5 is home to Uniqlo's largest Southeast Asian branch and the Makati church of Christ's Commission Fellowship.^[17][23]

"Top of the Glo" is an al fresco roof deck attraction featuring Japan Town (under Mitsubishi's partnership), K-Park, and the Omniverse Museum at the fourth level of Glorietta 1 and 2.^[24][25] Its retail area has a GLA of 2,500 square meters (27,000 sq ft).^{[26][27][28][29]} An atrium is situated at the center of the contiguous Glorietta, as well as an activity center in between Glorietta 1 and 2, facing the Palm Drive entrance. Both spaces are frequently utilized for hosting events.^[1]

Above the contiguous Glorietta stand office buildings such as Glorietta 1 Corporate Center and Glorietta 2 Corporate Center, as well as hotels such as Holiday Inn & Suites Makati and Ascott Makati.^[30][31] Those buildings are all accessible at Glorietta's ground level, with Holiday Inn & Suites Makati accessible through the fourth level as well.

Glorietta is supported by three levels of basement parking shared with the aforementioned hotels,^[32] interconnected with the basement parking of the adjacent Park Terraces residential complex and Terraces Square.^[33] It is also served by other distinct parking facilities nearby, such as The Link, 6750 Steel Carpark, 6750 Ayala Avenue Office Tower, Park Square, and One Ayala's basement parking, which is planned for connection to Glorietta's.

• 
  Entrance at Ayala Avenue
• 
  The rebuilt Glorietta 1 & 2
• 
  The facade of the rebuilt Glorietta 1 & 2 along Palm Drive
• 
  Glorietta 4
• 
  Glorietta 5

On May 17, 2000, thirteen (13) people were injured in an explosion at Glorietta 2. Police said the blast (by a homemade explosive) originated from a restroom of a restaurant and affected a nearby branch of Timezone, a game arcade center, as well as the ceiling of the bridge connecting Glorietta 2 to the then Park Square 2. Two rival gangs were seen fighting near the restaurant shortly before the blast occurred.^[34]

Magdalo soldiers led by Lt. Sr. Grade Antonio Trillanes IV took control of the Oakwood Premier. Glorietta, where the hotel stood, was also closed during the siege.

An explosion in Glorietta 2 killed eleven people and injured a hundred others. Initially, authorities termed it a liquefied petroleum gas explosion in a restaurant, but later began investigating the possibility that the explosion may have been a C-4 bomb.^[35][36] The explosion destroyed much of Glorietta 2's main lobby and vehicles parked outside. Several days later, October 23, 2007, senior government officials expressed "a high level of certainty" that the explosion was an accident,^[37] but the bomb theory has not been totally ruled out. This was brought on by the inability of experts to find bomb components after four days of rigorous investigation. It is believed that the explosion was caused by underground structures in the mall that might have triggered the blast, pending further investigation.

• October 21, 2007: A fire broke out at noon PHT (GMT+8) in the kitchen of one of the restaurants in Glorietta 4, not affected by the 2007 Glorietta blast two days earlier. It was put out by firemen an hour later.^[38]
• November 20, 2016: At around 8 in the evening PHT, a fire struck a restaurant in Glorietta 3 right above the Gold's Gym branch, without injuries or casualties.^[39]
• April 10, 2017: A minor fire broke out at the Glorietta 2 roof deck past 6 in the evening PST. A fire out was declared less than 25 minutes later.^[40] There were no reported injuries.^[41]
• May 19, 2019: A minor fire incident occurred at a milk tea shop being renovated at Glorietta 2 at between 5:59pm and 6:20pm PST. Bureau of Fire Protection declared a fire out at 6:31pm. The incident left one injured.^[42][43]

• Ayala Center
• List of largest shopping malls
• List of largest shopping malls in the Philippines
• List of shopping malls in Metro Manila

• Glorietta Official Website
• Media related to Glorietta complex at Wikimedia Commons