Marina Square? - Not Quite

If the name of a place is only as recognizable as, and distinguished by, its contents, then surely when the latter changes the name would cease to hold any meaning. And when the changes to the place are completely and pervasive, leaving the name the only noticeable thing that remains unchanged, perhaps the name of the place ought also to be replaced. For a name is significant in so far as its contents conjure up certain images that are associated with it. How can the same images possibly be imagined when everything about the place has been stripped bare of its former appearance and substance? Like a person who has undergone a major plastic surgery and given a makeover but who retains the same name, the name loses its erstwhile meaning - it is an incongruous match with its new appearance. That was the impression formed when i visited Marina Square yesterday.

Marina Square today is simply unrecognizable. (When one says that one is comparing with what it formerly looked like; if Marina Square is no longer called Marina Square, all these thoughts wouldn't even have come about in the first place because there wouldn't be any basis for comparsion.) When i walked into Marina Square through the link from Suntec City, almost instantaneously i felt coldly unfamiliar and alienated: it wasn't Metro, the department store, that greeted me - i didn't, for once, have to walk past the lingerie section having to shut the colourful displays of brassieres and panties out of my vision; the air-conditioning felt and smelled decidedly new; and the shops that were within immediate sighting looked unfamiliar and rather empty, though the latter fact didn't seem to bother the staff the least bit.

I slowed down my pace a little to give myself more time to take in the alien surroundings - though it could well be that the alien surroundings drew me to slow down my pace so as to take a clear notice of them. Either I have not been here for a long time or that the contractors renovating the place must have been dilligently working round the clock for the past year. I was simply amazed that yet another seemingly new shopping centre has sprung alive in fast-paced changing Singapore, where the city centre is in endless reconstruction, and everything seems as young as the nation's modern history. Not so far from this shopping centre, the new National Library - devoid of its former character and history - will open in a month's time, i think, taking its pride of place next to the rather awful architectural exterior of the nation's third university. All in all, this second downtown area seems ready to burst anew with young buildings interspersed with older ones.

As i walked further into the shopping mall, the images that my eyes saw and registered in my congested mind competed with others that were stored in my memory but which are no longer visible. Where once walking through the mall means walking along a long stretch with neat rows of shops at its flanks, now it has become a less straightforward task, though admittedly this has to do with the fact that it was my first time setting afoot at the new Marina Square. Plenty of eateries and restaurants abound, most of which were desolate. (It is the after-lunch-before-dinner time, i was quick to inform myself.) It was only later that i foolishly realised i was probably at the 'food section' of the mall. A good mega retail space - the rest of Marina Square - is still in the midst of renovation. This made me wonder what greater surprises (read: distortions) await to be seen.

Many of the restaruants, i did not recongnise or know. Then again, Marina Square was seldom the choice of dinning in the past. Walking on, it was curiousity to find out just how much has changed that made me exploring every corner and alley, rather than interest to know what exciting new shops can be found in the spanking new mall. A lot of apparel shops, i guess, are located at the part of the mall that is not finished with renovation yet. Even so, already there are the few standard shops that reminded one that this mall, after all, is going to be yet another one of the dozens of malls around: Giant supermarket sits at the second level, while Swensens, Starbucks, Coffee Club - even that Pure Milk - are amongst the familiar shops around. So much is new, yet so much is also not.

Having satisfied myself that nothing is worth more than a cursory glance, i decided it was time to leave. That was when i realised i actually experienced difficulties in finding the right way out. I was not lost: the word to describe my state is that post-modernist appropriation, 'disoriented'. What else can one expect from a shopping mall that is half in operation, half in renovation, where one exit is never quite the exit that would lead you out to the right side? It was thus no coincidence that not once or twice but a couple of times that i came across shoppers who carried the disoriented look, who walked down a corridor only to turn back at the end. I felt an improbable sense of union established amongst us disoriented souls at that moment. Secretly, however, i heaved a sigh of relief, knowing that i am not the last mortal to set foot on this revamped mall. As the search for that elusive exit continued, i thought of how simple and unconfused Marina Square was before. But such thoughts are futile: Marina Square has been irreversibly altered.

There is no need for panic however. Dizzying though the layout of the mall might be to the first-time partron of the mall, there is nevertheless - thankfully! - the floor-plan/map available in every mall to assist the disoriented shopper: it speaks a reassuring universal language that even an idiot would be able to decipher; and it is his answer to getting out of the living hell that he inevitably would realise had him entrapped in. But just before i returned to the outside world, two new unexpected discoveries were made. First: a new fast food restaruant, Carl's Jr., is located at a corner away from the other eating places. Ah ha, this place finally has something new to offer; thank you, we can do with one less Macdonald's at this shopping mall, though the truth is that Macdonald's will probably be located at the other part of the mall that is still currently under renovation.

The second has something to do with the male toilet. If you are imagining something indecent, it is not. It is just that this was the first time i've visited a male washroom where a mirror takes the place of the wall that is usually above the urinals. Maybe this is not something uncommon. But, mind you, opposite the urinals are the washbasins, and, above them, more mirrors. Everyone understands the principle of reflection, and if you can now imagine what i have described, the implication is this: whether you are washing your hands or pissing at the urinal, you have quite a clear view of the entire toilet, except, of course, the private cubicles. It escapes me why the designer of the toilet deems it necessary or perhaps creative to have a mirror replace the wall above the row of urinals. There's no need to give a description on how we men go about relieving ourselves; suffice to say that it feels awkward seeing your reflection in the mirror and your surroundings as you quietly go about your business.

It wasn't until after a long walk around the mall that i finally saw the prominent esplanade mall across the road. I was out of the mall, away from the beguiling array of shops that invariably surrounded me as long as i was inside the mall.

The Marina Square that i think of will continue to be the familiar one that remains etched in my memory, not the present one. No shopping mall is ever in a static state; changes will always be the norm. But while tenants come and go like the mall's visiting shoppers, such changes are not usually massive and bold like those which happened to Marina Square. Retaining the same name does not retain its identity. It may take many more years down the road when new memories of the place replace older ones before the 'Marina Square' to me truly looks what it is.