page_title: Munkkivuori
section_title: Future
hierarchical_section_title: Munkkivuori / Future
caption_attribution_description: English: The Munkkivuori shopping center in Helsinki, Finland. Suomi: Munkkivuoren ostoskeskus Helsingissä.
context_page_description: Munkkivuori is a quarter of the Munkkiniemi neighbourhood in Helsinki. The buildings and the plan of site are typical of the late 1950s. Most of the residential buildings in Munkkivuori are within a loop formed by Ulvilantie ring road. The automotive traffic to the residential buildings is routed along Ulvilantie whereas Raumantie no through road terminating in the center of the Ulvilantie loop provides access to public services and limits the through-traffic in residential areas. A designed network of crushed stone walkways provides easy accessibility around Munkkivuori for cyclists, pedestrians and other non-automotive traffic.
  Munkkivuoren ostoskeskus, the first shopping centre in Finland, was built in 1959. The small shopping center, known as "Ostari" amongst the locals, is the focal point of Munkkivuori and is the home to some 40 companies. Many everyday services are available at the viable shopping center. These services include two grocery stores, a post office, a cafeteria, a nearby church, a couple of barber shops and fast food restaurants, one larger restaurant, a pharmacy, a privately owned health center, ATM, various bank branches, a bookstore and an Alko liquor store.
context_section_description: A reticent period in the history of the shopping center followed the 1994 modernization. During 2001–2002, the board of Munkkivuoren Ostoskeskus Oy started to discuss how to cope with future challenges. Many of the ageing shopping centers around Finland had seen a downturn as they failed to develop a strategy to compete with modern shopping centers. In particular, the Sello shopping center that was to be built in Leppävaara, a short distance from Munkkivuori, was seen as a serious threat to Munkkivuori shopping center. The board concluded that it was essential to provide modern premises for two supermarkets that would then in turn attract other services. A larger business area would result in the growth of the customer base. New parking spaces would need to add to cope with this growth.
  Helsinki City Planning Department ("Kaupunkisuunnitteluvirasto") funded an architectural research carried out by a consulting firm between August 8, 2006 and December 20, 2006. Munkkivuoren Ostoskeskus Oy and the representatives of the surrounding real estate companies participated in the study. The purpose of the study was to a find a mutual agreement between different visions on and interests in the enlargement.
  The study concluded that the shopping center cannot be enlarged without extending the building site northwards and thus realigning Naantalintie. The shopping center site is bounded by Raumantie road in the South, by Huopalahdentie road in the East and by Naantalintie road in the North and the West. In February 2007, The Helsinki City Planning Department started another negotiations based on the findings of the previous study. The negotiations try to determine whether Naantalintie can be realigned or not. Since the shopping center is the first of its kind in Finland, it is considered to have architectural and historical value and is subject to architectural conservation. This fact combined with the limited size of the building site may render the enlargement plans impossible. Munkkivuoren Ostoskeskus Oy has not agreed on the terms of the architectural conservation. However, the officials promoting the architectural conservation have the last word.
  Nordic Construction Company has planned a new five-story office building with a floor space of 2,500 m² (26,910 sq ft) for 650 employees to near the intersection of national road number 1 and Huopalahdentie road at Ulvilantie 2a. The building and parking space for 233 cars were originally scheduled to be completed in 2011, but the late-2000s recession has postponed the construction.
caption: The extension of the north wing (on the right) of the shopping center has been under debate
exif: {"Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D2X", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "240", "Image YResolution": "240", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2009:07:15 00:34:56", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "862", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "4325", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/125", "EXIF FNumber": "10", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "100", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2009:07:11 15:10:31", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2009:07:11 15:10:31", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "870723/125000", "EXIF ApertureValue": "415241/62500", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "38", "EXIF SubSecTime": "32", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "32", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "32", "EXIF ColorSpace": "Uncalibrated", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4137", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2747", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[2, 0, 2, 0, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "57", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}