The author of this project is Rem Koolhaas, who embodied the corporation's ambitious ideas in concrete forms.
On an area of 82,000 sq. m, just three kilometers from the Colosseum and the Forum, a multifunctional center will appear in 2008 - uniting an office complex, shops, restaurants, leisure facilities and cultural institutions. Most of them will operate 24 hours 7 days a week.
The new Mercati Generali will consist of the Great Media Library (a huge bookstore, a public library equipped with the latest technology, a congress center), Modern Thermes (fitness clubs, sporting goods stores, etc.), the City of Tastes (a variety of restaurants and food market), Resinto (markets, art galleries, about a hundred boutiques), as well as a cinema, theaters, broadcasting center and nightclubs.
Mayor Walter Veltroni said that Mercati Generali will become Rome's Covent Garden - a place where everyone can find entertainment to their liking, including a very high cultural level.
