The metamorphosis of Ayala Center

The only constant is change.” The Greek Heraclitus pointed this truism out ages ago. Those Greeks were wise, creative people; they built rational and beautiful cities, which they called polis. Our modern metropolises owe much of their morphology, or form, to the Greek polis.

The epitome of Philippine cities today is modern Makati, the business heart of metropolitan Manila. Any urban center has a center itself. The Greeks had their temple mount but the real focal point of public life however was the agora, the market place. The agora has survived in modern cities as commercial and retail centers. Makati has had its commercial center since the late 50s, roughly a decade after the Ayala company began its audacious quarter-century plan to transform a swampy former hacienda and airfield into the most progressive district in the metropolis.

It was in 1948 that Ayala planted the seeds of modern Makati with the opening of Forbes Park.

The building of Ayala Avenue soon after, led to the transfer of offices and bank headquarters from old Manila. The posh villages of Urdaneta, San Lorenzo, Bel Air and Dasmarinas—quickly sprung up and by the mid-50s, enough buildings and residences had been built to warrant the planning of a commercial and shopping center.

The Ayalas adapted the post-war American model of cutting-edge shopping center design. These initial American shopping centers were open air ‘malls.’ They were clusters or rows of shops and department stores, connected by landscaped pedestrian promenades and surrounded by large parking areas. They were also built right next to highways or freeways for quick access.

The Ayalas earmarked the corner of Highway 54 (or EDSA as we know it today) and Ayala Avenue as the site of a large complex for shopping. The site was divided into four quadrants with parking available at the corners of each. Two main pedestrian promenades, crossing at the center were to link the quadrants.

Shopping In The Swinging Sixties

The early 1960s saw the rise of the first shopping buildings in the first two quadrants. These were the arcades, like the Maranaw Mart with its slew of small specialty shops inside. Also built were the first restaurants, like the iconic Sulu by the Manosa Brothers, which was the site of weekly Rotary Club meetings until they shifted to the Manila Penn. 

In 1968 the Makati Supermarket, the largest in the country at the time, was completed. The next year a huge screen was built in front of it to show Neil Armstrong landing on the moon. For entertainment, the Ayalas built a cinema and theater—the elegant Rizal theater by architect Juan Nakpil. Village kids grew up in the 60s watching Disney films there; graduating to Star Wars in 1977.

The late 60s and early 70s saw the expansion of the complex to include the first SM department store outside of Manila, the Rustan’s store, with its distinctive gift-box architecture, more arcades like the Lising, Angela and Postal arcades. My favorite bookstores then—Erehwon and PECO were housed there. To complete the third quadrant, a hotel—the Intercontinental Manila—was built to cater to increasing business and tourism visitors. Its Jeepney Café became the watering hole for famous writers, social and political personalities.

 To connect these clusters, the Ayala company hired a young landscape architect—IP Santos—who had just come back from a decade studying and practicing in California. Santos created the landscaped promenades fitted generously with fountains and embellished with sculptures and mosaics by Filipino artists like Arturo Luz, Sanso, Saprid, Mendoza, Elizabeth Chan and many younger ones who became famous because of these installations.

IP Santos, in fact, worked in tandem with Architect Lindy Locsin on the shopping malls integrating both architecture and landscape into a seamless designed experience. The legacy of today’s center is built on the creative genius of these two national artists, bragging rights no other center in country has.

The Quad Completes The Quadrants

In the 70s to the early 80s, the Makati Commercial Center (as it was called then) expanded even more with additional arcades like Tesoro’s that housed the first food court.. Another hotel—the Manila Garden—was added to the fourth quadrant along with the first multi-storey parking buildings. More free standing department stores went up like Anson’s and Landmark, while SM moved into a large multi-level structure next to the highway.

This era of the center’s evolution saw the introduction of the first cineplexes—the Quad—to augment Rizal theater. The filling up of the four quadrants also defined the intersection of the two pedestrian promenades. In this open space was built the glorietta, an outdoor performance venue that became a favorite focal point for events and concerts.

The center had by this time already built a brand for itself and a strong identity inexorably linked to the larger central business district and exclusive villages. It was now a place to be and be seen in as an indication of status and a reflection of the development of a hybrid suburban-urbanism that melded the best of the city with the conveniences of the suburbs.

The mid-80s to the early 90s saw radical transformations as the center fully enclosed its pedestrian promenades as well as roofing over the old glorietta. A third hotel—the Shangrila Makati—rose over the site of the old Rizal theater. Parking was also expanded; this time it went underground. The center’s access was also improved with the integration of a transit terminal.

The 90s and the turn of the millennium saw the center expand even more in the quadrant next to Arnaiz Avenue as well as with the introduction of the first office tower—6750—and serviced-residential towers atop the Glorietta. The Glorietta’s central Atrium was upgraded and augmented with a new Glorietta wing that now connected to a renovated Rustan’s. Connectivity was also enhanced with elevated pedestrian walkways linking the center to Greenbelt and the rest of the business district. By this period in the district’s development, Glorietta and Greenbelt were integrated as Ayala Center. 

A Center For The 21st Century

The start of the 21st century has brought about much change in the Philippines economic and urban landscape. Makati has been challenged in its primacy early in the first decade but has responded with transformations via new or re-purposed zoning. Call centers and an increasing mix of residential condominiums amidst heretofore single-zone business sub-districts has changed the complexion and texture of the whole district.

Changes in the architectural typology of buildings; with the introduction of a wider range of uses within buildings was followed by changes in block morphology; mainly with the consolidation of commercial and recreational clusters. Both the Glorietta and the Greenbelt clusters were consolidated and integrated even more fully, setting trends that is cutting edge even from a global perspective. Testimony to these innovations were awards from the International Council for Shopping Centers in the past decade.

Not resting on its laurels and reflective of a larger, longer-horizon planning outlook, Ayala Land has embarked on an even more all-encompassing re-visioning of Ayala Center. This is aimed at fulfilling new potentials that is geared, first to 2012, then with an outlook to another dozen years of enhancements—culminating in the polishing of a multi-faceted, mixed-use redeveloped Ayala Center, the gem of modern Makati’s diamond anniversary in 2023.

This new mixed-use, functionally-rich new direction is already seen in the ongoing construction of a world-class all-suite hotel and serviced-residential complex—the Raffles International Hotel and the Fairmont Hotel at the site of the old Anson’s and transport terminal (which is being relocated nearer EDSA). On the drawing boards are residential towers by Ayala Land Premier. These are in addition to improvements to the Glorietta complex such as bringing green open spaces to its rooftop, similar to the elevated gardens in Ayala Land’s TriNoma complex.

The Glorietta complex’ Arnaiz Avenue-facing facade will be reworked from what was perceived as the back of the complex to a new frontage opening into with a new ‘green’ boulevard’ connecting Makati Avenue and EDSA. This boulevard will be closed to traffic seasonally, turning back into a linear promenade much like the original IP Santos design but now more integrated into sustainable building protocols of the planned expansions.

This ‘green-ness’ extends to the building of more open landscaped spaces in the center because of the re-blocking of the perimeter sections. The building of more ‘intersect’ ramps, which lead cars down to basement car parking levels, will also reduce cars on the road and make the center more pedestrian and people-friendly. This pedestrian friendliness is already seen in newly completed improvements to sidewalks and streetscapes in the Rustan’s side with many more enhancements in landscape and urban design to cascade continuously from 2010 onwards.

Almost right before our eyes, the new Ayala Center is morphing into a unique mixed-use city center that ensures an intense and vibrant quality of urban life. This builds on the ‘live-work-play’ functionality of the entire Makati Central Business District. The increasing densities of this premier metropolitan quartier will make it as modern and cutting edge as the Paris arrondisement of La Defence, Roponggi Hills in Tokyo, Songdo City, in Incheon, Korea, the Orchard Road district in Singapore and the KLCC/Golden Triangle in Kuala Lumpur.

The new Ayala Center had the potential to better even these examples of cutting-edge urbanism because it actually pioneered way before all these districts were started. The Ayala Center has the DNA for excellence because it also is evolving within the robust corporate system of Ayala Land, whose experience in real estate is recognized world-wide.

Finally the new Ayala Center aims to be more than the sum of its continually evolving parts. The driving directive is not mainly change for commerce, or change to address competing centers, but change to contribute to community. It is change that gives back rather than depleting social capital. It is transformational change not only from a physically planning view of architecture, landscape and urban design but from the societal aspects of pride of place and the creation of what the Greeks called civitas—a sense of belonging to, and being an essential part of, the city where one lives. Once citizens of a city find that, then they, and their city, have truly found their Center.

* * *

Feedback is welcome. Please email the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.