Westgate Wonderland – Singapore’s largest thematic outdoor playground in a mall opens tomorrow
Admission is free
Singapore, 25 February 2014 – In addition to shopping, dining and learning at Westgate (西城), you can now play there too! The mall’s highly-anticipated thematic outdoor playground, believed to be the largest of such mall amenities in Singapore, opens tomorrow. Admission is free.
Sporting a fantasy garden theme, the 11,000-square-foot outdoor playground located on Westgate’s Level 4 immerses children in a larger-than-life garden surrounded by oversized replicas of flora and fauna, including gigantic insects, musical flowers, a 10-metre tall tree house and an enormous watering can that sprays water. Named Westgate Wonderland (西城梦幻乐园), the playground boasts dry and wet areas, as well as different play zones catering to children of varying age groups. When night falls, the playground comes alive with special lighting and sound effects.
Interactive elements include: a large watering can with an active spray nozzle; musical flowers with flower bud steel drums; blue bells that respond to touch with musical sounds and lights; and large flowers with spinning canopies that create a kaleidoscope of light patterns on the ground.
This one-of-a-kind playground is designed by Adirondack Studios, an established US theme park designer whose previous work includes attractions at Universal Studios – such as The Simpsons Ride at Universal Studios Florida and the Revenge of The Mummy roller-coaster ride at Universal Studios Singapore on Sentosa – and Disneyland. CT-Art, a Singapore-based playground specialist, partnered Adirondack Studios in developing this playground.
Westgate Wonderland is the centrepiece of the mall’s Level 4 Family Zone, where shoppers can find a wide range of retailers that cater to their child’s every need. These include enrichment centres I Love Learning Achievement Centre, MindChamps Reading & Writing, Stalford Learning Centre, The Ballet School and Yamaha Music School; as well as activity and wellbeing centres BabySPA and My Gym. Parents can also shop for books, toys, apparel and heath supplements for their little ones at Avenue Kids, adidas Kids, Baby Elephant, Borders, Kiddy Palace, Mini Toons, Tom & Stefanie and Vitakids. Flash by Morffew, an established Australian photography studio specialising in children’s photography, has also opened its first branch in Singapore at Westgate. In addition, My First Skool child care centre can be found on Level 5 of Westgate.
Mr Eddie Lim, Centre Manager for Westgate, said, “Since the mall opened last December, shoppers have been enquiring about the opening date for Westgate Wonderland. We thank our shoppers for their patience with us and are pleased to present them with this unique thematic playground. With the playground’s larger-than-life imaginary landscape, we hope it will create an inspired play space for our young shoppers and make their visit to Westgate more enjoyable and memorable. Shoppers now have one more thing to look forward to at Westgate, the premier mall in the west of Singapore, where they can enjoy a shopping experience previously found only in the city.”
Since its opening on 2 December 2013, Westgate has brought the city lifestyle to the west of Singapore with more than 250 stores, including premium fashion and lifestyle brands such as Kate Spade Saturday, Armani Exchange, COS, Borders, Fitness First Platinum, and Samsung’s largest and first triplex Experience Store in Singapore with a Korean bistro. Japanese department store Isetan, another of Westgate’s anchor tenants, has opened its first supermarket outside Orchard Road at the mall. Popular F&B outlets that have opened their first branch outside the city at Westgate include Ippudo, Paul Bakery, Tonkatsu Ma Maison, Tsukada Nojo, Osaka Ohsho, Ryoshi Sushi Ikeikemaru, MK Steamboat, Royce and Tim Ho Wan. Excluding the Food Republic food court, about 30% of the mall’s dine-in F&B outlets serve Japanese cuisine. These include new-to-market Kinoshita, the Osaka restaurant credited with igniting the teppan nabe (“hot iron pot”) food craze, and Robata Robata, a new robatayaki grill concept. In its first month of opening, Westgate attracted 3.4 million shoppers.