A true, new global city

After 18 months of intense planning, Bonifacio Global City will soon unveil a new master plan that will transform the emerging business district along C-5 into a city that never sleeps.

One could call the master plan a reaction to traffic and long commutes to work, to commercial centers, and to recreational and entertainment venues, according to Joel Luna, Ayala Land assistant vice president in charge of Technical Planning. He explains that many of the business districts around us today are focused primarily on a single use, meaning they are dedicated only to office spaces and some commercial uses as support. According to Luna, this was the predominant mode of planning in the 1950s and 60s when these districts were conceptualized.

While the concept was novel at that time, the effects of focusing on having a predominance of office space is evident now that the district is fully built up. These include peak-hour traffic cues to get into and out of the area at the morning and evening rush hour, skewed power demand at daytime and lack of nighttime activities. Moreover, after the office workers and visitors have left for home, the districts become ghost towns.

"Thriving global cities have a concentration of activities with a diversity of uses taking place round the clock," explains Luna. The vision for the new Bonifacio Global City is to allow those who live and work there a balance of activities. "Wouldn’t it be great if you could live, work and play in the same area? Can you imagine the kind of freedom that would mean?" he adds.

Still another characteristic of thriving global cities is its connectivity and centrality, observes Luna. While it is at the heart of all activities, it is still connected to other central business districts and in relation to the larger region. Through transport and communication links and even through other transport modes, Bonifacio Global City will be connected to Makati, Ortigas and other central business districts, even in cities in Asia and the Pacific, Luna says.

Luna reveals that a multi-disciplinary team comprised of Ayala Land experts in planning, office development, commercial centers, and property management sat down to map out development in the area together with officers from the Fort Bonifacio Development Corp. (FBDC) and Ayala Land’s partners in FBDC, Unilab and the Bases Conversion Development Authority. The team also benefited from the inputs of the best consultants in the fields of urban design, landscaping, transportation, utilities and infrastructure.

J. Antonio Caniza, project architect and urban planner of Ayala Land, discloses: "We needed to come up with a plan that would be more responsive to the present and prospective market conditions." The revised master plan will not be a snapshot of Bonifacio Global City 10, 20 or 50 years from now. Rather, it will be a general road map of sorts to a city planned to meet future needs.