Part
of my childhood in Pateros, then a small municipality in the east of Metro
Manila, about 13 kilometers from the capital Manila, I and my high school
classmates would sometimes foray in the adjacent Makati City. We considered it
an urban adventure of sorts. Pateros was kind of rurban, part of the urban
sprawl but retaining some provincial characteristics. Makati City, particularly
Ayala Center in its central business district, was an enticing attraction,
along with Cubao in Quezon City. A hulking gray structure, SM Department Store
was the one of the biggest malls then. Nearby were rows of stores and
boutiques. Glorietta was more of an expansive but drab park with a small
cluster of stores in the middle. Alemar’s Bookstore was a
favorite.
Over
the years, this area in Makati City has experienced many changes, transforming
itself into a dynamic and beautiful city destination with modern and intriguing
architecture, pocket gardens and parks, numerous shopping and dining choices,
events happening almost everyday, etc., and becoming the Philippines’
loveliest urban development inside the country’s leading financial
hub. It is uplifting to note that complementing the progress is the space given
to arts and culture with such institutions as the Ayala Museum and the
Filipinas Heritage Library and with regular cultural events being held in
different parts of the area.
Recently,
the Ayala Center, already branding itself as a cosmopolitan lifestyle hub, has
become diverse in its developments. Three big hotels—Fairmont
Hotel, Raffles Suites and Residences, Holiday Inn and Suites—were
opened. Many people are making this area their home with the rise of upscale
residential projects such as The Residences of Greenbelt, Park Terraces and
Garden Towers. The Residences at Greenbelt and Park Terraces are now fully
sold, while Garden Towers is already at 77 percent. The Residences at Greenbelt
has about 2,800 residents living in Ayala Center, and the first residents of
Park Terraces will move in by March 2015.
Ayala
Center continues to grow in 2015 and beyond with the expansion of retail
spaces, the building of two new hotels including Ayala Land’s
own Seda brand, two office towers and a public transit terminal. Crowning these
developments is a new business convention facility. These are all part of a big
redevelopment plans of Ayala Land, which owns and manages Ayala Center, for the
surrounding areas.
In
2012, Ayala Land earmarked P60 billion for redevelopment with the launch of the
city’s Make It Happen, Make It Makati
campaign. Now, an additional P65 billion was committed for the grander second
phase of the redevelopment, which will start in 2016 and will continue for the
next five years.
“What we established then was that
Makati will always remain our top priority—our crown jewel, our
largest source of value, our most important asset,”
announced Meean Dy, vice president and group head of the Strategic Landbank
Management Group of Ayala Land.
During
the launch in 2012, Ayala Land presented the master plan and design, echoing the
philosophy of many Ayala Land mixed-use projects in the country. The design
caters to the currently lifestyle, addressing the many facets of modern living
and acknowledging their being integral to each other. The goal was to create a
quality environment not just for business. For that, main “themes”
were identified for several areas, coming up with “nodes.”
“What you have in Makati is a work and
life balance,” Mel Ignacio, assistant vice president
of Ayala Land, explained. “The idea of
work-and-life equilibrium also appeals to other Filipinos which is why two
years ago, via the Make It Happen, Make It Makati campaign, Ayala Land
announced its plans to invest P60 billion pesos in the development of six nodes
in Makati. We embarked on the development of six nodes because we wanted to
cater to a broader market base.”
“There will always be a
place to eat, to work, to live, to relax—all within a short walk. This is what we aim to
achieve with the six nodes,” Dy added.
The six nodes are the McKinley
Exchange, the transport hub; the Ayala Center, the lifestyle cosmopolitan hub;
the Makati Central Business District, the business hub of the country; Ayala
Triangle Gardens, the urban oasis; City Gate, the young and creative hub; and
Circuit Makati, the entertainment hub.
In the next several years, Makati City
will be changing its face as new structures are built and the landscape
redesigned
According to Joel Luna, head of
Innovations and Design Group of Ayala Land, the design of the development
follows the design of most of their flagship and signature projects, the root
of which traces to their principals, who are very involved in the design. Ayala
Land has been known for the designs of its structures, as well as the seamless
fusion of the natural and built environments and the use of open space.
“I would like to
assume probably it’s more of the feel that you get, not so
much the form or color or the aesthetic treatment. That’s
how I like to think on what makes our projects different. It’s
more of the experience ‘pag pasok. Because if you look
at different projects, we use the same finishes, sometimes the same architect,”
said Luna. “To my mind, it is also the way we
inject the civic spaces in our projects. And we add a different feel to each
place.”
He further said: “What
we wanted to do is sort of create a little bit of diversity, different types of
activities. That’s the idea behind the nodes. Each one
is a destination. While we want to make sure that each destination has the same
elements like officies, condominiums, the retail, the residential, civic space,
we tried to give each a certain focus. So Ayala Center has a little bit more of
shopping and commercial…So Makati will have multiple
destinations that many visitors will be interested in.”
More than shopping at the Ayala Center
The Ayala Center is still the premiere
shopping hub of Makati City. The recent developments, which started in 2009 and
was completed in 2012—increasing the gross floor area by 23
percent or 228,000 square meters—have seen the rise of
new hotels, which brought the number of hotel rooms in the area to about 3,000,
and residential spaces. This has lent a more leisurely and varied vibe to the
area in general.
Further redevelopment will cover 2.5
hectares of land and will include the Ayala Avenue-Edsa corner of the district,
which will see the rise of retail spaces, two new hotels including Seda, two
office towers and a public transit terminal that improves the link of the MRT
with city buses along Edsa and internal transit within the Central Business
District.
Redevelopment in the area includes the
InterContinental Manila Hotel, which raised concerns among several architects
and heritage conservationists because the 45-year-old hotel is the work of
National Artist for architecture Leandro Locsin, protected under the National
Cultural Heritage Act of 2009. Ayala Land stated that it is coordinating with
the Leandro V. Locsin Partners and heritage conservation groups in this matter.
Breathing space at Ayala Triangle Gardens
A sizable green space in Makati City is
the Ayala Triangle Gardens (ATG), which has recently become a venue for the
city’s two signature events: Makati
Independence Day and Christmas Lights and Sound Show. Thus, the area is
designated as a place for gatherings and celebrations against a backdrop of
greenery. A healthy and active lifestyle is also being promoted here. Moreover,
ATG is home to a heritage structure, the Neilson Tower, the only pre-World War
II building in the central business district, built in 1937. The area has the
distinction of being the first airport in Luzon and one of the first
international airports in Asia. Ayala Avenue and Paseo de Roxas, which border
two sides of ATG, were actually once runways for planes. The control tower of
the Neilson Airport, the Neilson Tower became a police headquarters, the office
of the Integrated Property Management Corporation, Nielson Tower Club and
Restaurant, the Filipinas Heritage Library and now the restaurant Blackbird of
Scottish chef Colin McKay.
Blackbird will be joined by more dining
outlets, as well as shops in the redevelopment, which is concentrated at the
northern tip of the Ayala Triangle. Additionally, by the end of the year, ATG
will be breaking ground for a new office tower as well as the new 275-room Mandarin
Oriental Hotel, actually across the original one which closed on September 9,
2014. The 38-year-old Mandarin Oriental Hotel is another work of Locsin, which
is also being discussed about with heritage conservation groups together with
the InterContinental Manila Hotel.
On the other hand, the office tower
will be an addition to the Tower One and Exchange Plaza, which was built 20
years ago. It will have 80,000 square meters of office space.
Youthful vibe at the City Gate
The area where Ayala Avenue meets Gil
Puyat Avenue is called the City Gate, which will be a mixed-use development
geared toward the younger set with a creative and edgy atmosphere.
The initial phase will have roughly
81,000 square meters of office space and 14,000 square meters of retail
outlets, punctuated by a 312-room Seda hotel. The heart of this development is
a 2,600-square meter civic space that will be built vertically through a series
of terraces. This will be connected to the Makati Commercial Estate Association’s
existing elevated walkway along Dela Rosa Street, which will extend to Makati
Medical Center. This walkway will traverse all three blocks of City Gate all
the way to the other side of Gil Puyat where a pedestrian bridge will cross to
the Makati Post Office side.
Sports and entertainment at Circuit Makati
Once a venue for entertainment, the old
Santa Ana Racetrack is being redeveloped into another entertainment district
although modern and with a myriad choices. With the name Circuit Makati, the
22-hectare and P20-billion project acknowledges the heritage of the area as a
former racing circuit.
Circuit Makati is envisioned to have
world-class performance venues, as well as sports facilities, aside from
residential spaces, retail units, offices and a hotel. The 2,000-square meter
Globe Circuit Events Ground is a canopied outdoor venue for large events such
as concerts and festivals.
Another performance venue is the
Circuit Performing Arts Theater, which can seat 1,500 people and is set to rival
the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Set to open in 2017, the Circuit
Performing Arts Theater will showcase Filipino theatre talents, as well as
Broadway-style shows and musical and dance performances. For intimate affairs,
the 300-seat Blackbox Theater will open by April 2015 at the 10,000-square
meter Circuit Lane, a walk studded with eclectic shops that will run beside the
Pasig River all through the center of the district.
For sporting events, there is a
football turf with a two-hectare ground, which can accommodate up to 20,000
people. Launched in 2013, it has hosted events such as the Gatorade-Chelsea
Blue Pitch, Mountain Dew Skate Park and City Kart Racing.
In 2016, the 60,000-square meter
Circuit Mall will be opened, another venue for shopping, dining and
movie-watching. The landmark residential development here is the high-rise
Solstice by Alveo Land.
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| Circuit Makati meet-and-greet space |
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| The Circuit Performing Arts Theater |
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| The Ayala Triangle Gardens |
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| The Ayala Triangle Gardens' planned development including a new Mandarin Oriental Manila Hotel |
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| The Ayala Triangle Gardens |
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| The Ayala Triangle Gardens |
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| Civic space at the Circuit Makati |
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| The Circuit Black Box Theater |
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| The Circuit Lane |
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| The City Gate |
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| The Holiday Inn and Suites |
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| Christmas lights at the Ayala Triangle Gardens |
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| The Raffles Suites and Fairmont Hotel |
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| The Tower One |
When the redevelopment is finished,
Makati City undoubtedly will be a paragon of urban development in the country,
one that integrates the different facets of today’s lifestyle, as well
as nurtures the passions and persuasions of its visitors and residents. The
revitalized Makati City will be gleaming, attracting more people ever to its
light, and it will always be an exciting urban adventure.
For more information, visit Make It
Makati’s official pages: www.makeitmakati.com,
www.facebook.com/makeitmakati and www.twitter.com/makeitmakati.
