Filipinos have always preferred to live low on the land. Except for the proximity of neighbors, the nipa hut in the field is no different from the suburban bungalow in today’s cookie-cutter and claustrophobic subdivision. A “house and lot” has been the aspiration of the common tao. Not anymore. Things are looking up — literally — as the only way to own property in the future will be to live like our neighbors in Hong Kong and Singapore — in high-rise condominiums.
The pressure to go up only happens when land values soar beyond the ability to keep construction close to the ground. Manila first experienced this only in the 1920s as central Manila extended into the “suburbs” of Malate, Ermita, Sta. Ana and Sta. Cruz. Six- to eight-story buildings were designed and built to function as offices. Next came hotels like Bayview, by architect Pablo Antonio Sr., and the Great Eastern.
Finally, high-rise apartments in the modern style of Art Deco rose to redefine the skyline of Manila. The Syquia Apartments and a slew of others from Ermita all the way to Pasay at the end of Taft Avenue were built to house the boom of the 1930s.
The post-war era saw a lull in building high-rise apartments with the possible exception of the Carmen Apartments (beside the Silahis Hotel) designed by Carlos Arguelles in the mid-1950s. Greater Manila had sprawled beyond its pre-war limits. This expansion meant a proliferation of low-rise subdivisions with invariably single-detached units on expansive lots. Makati proved a breeding ground for these with Forbes Park, Dasmariñas, San Lorenzo and Bel-Air Villages. The rest of the urban conurbation developed in the same mold albeit less controlled and with less infrastructure support.
It was not until the early 1960s that the need to go up again was felt. The Ayala Corporation had planned an “apartment ridge” along Ayala Avenue from EDSA to the corner of Makati Avenue as a zone for these lofty demesnes. The Monterey Apartments was designed by a young architect named Leandro Locsin. It was all of eight stories in the newfangled international style of architecture. Ribbon windows, elevators and aluminum sun shades were the innovations borrowed from modern office buildings and adapted for residential use. This was followed by the Gilarmi Apartments.
The ‘70s brought new and taller residential towers because of improvements in building construction technology and more efficient elevators and sprinkler systems. Carlos Arguelles’ Urdaneta Apartments set the standard by which these new buildings were built. In succession up till the 1980s, “the apartment ridge was filled with the William Coscolluella-designed Twin Towers, Carlos Arguelles’ Tuscany, and Sindiong’s Ritz Towers. In the 1990s, former Hong Kong stalwarts Bong Recio and Meloy Casas designed the Pacific Plaza Towers.
The Monterey fell victim to the wrecking ball because of this but the Gilarmi still stands today (although news is that a 60- or 70-story condominium will be announced soon).
In this first decade of the new millennium, high-rise residential towers are commonplace. The shopping malls teem with salespeople hawking this or that new modern-designed, eco-friendly, lushly appointed, sky garden-enhanced, vertiginous, value-laden condominium.
The OFW or balikbayan market is a major force driving this boom in high-rise construction but slowly the market is opening up to almost everyone. New schemes to cut out the middle man to make condominiums more affordable seem to be a hit. These BYO (build your own) condos are located in prime districts of Makati and the Fort area.
The trend for high-rise is also spreading along Metro Manila’s main thoroughfare — EDSA. Sixty-story behemoths are sprouting up, with many more planned, to connect to MRT stations (a la Hong Kong). Cubao is turning into a condo haven with lifestyle settings elevated above the district’s (now more behaved) hoi polloi.
What’s in store in the future? I’ll bet it’s exactly that—residential towers by the dozens built atop the existing shopping malls on EDSA. Imagine living above Megamall in your spacious condo. You’ll have it all within one elevator ride. You may not need a car anymore. And it’s not just for mid-market condominiums anymore on EDSA. High-end and high-rise is spreading beyond the exclusive districts of Makati and Bonifacio Global City.
High-rise has even hit the higher-education district as towers near schools like La Salle and St. Scholastica in Manila and Ateneo and Miriam in Quezon City are being built like there’s no tomorrow.
So, tomorrow will definitely see us living in the clouds. Hopefully those clouds will not be the pollution that is still building up in the metropolis. In any case, there is now almost no option if one wishes to live near the central business districts (Metro Manila now has several). A house and lot will be too prohibitive in cost to anyone but the extremely wealthy.
High-rise and high-density will be the mantra for the future. What is lacking, though, are urban design standards to make these buildings and complexes merge with the metropolis’ transport and utility infrastructure. Wide, barrier-free sidewalks, intermodal transport terminals, elevated walkways, safe pedestrian crossings and bridges, adequate lighting and rational way-finding signs are what Metro Manila and other urban centers in the Philippines sorely lack. Without this framework coupled with good landscape architecture in plazas and pocket parks, the benefits of high-rise living will fall flat save for those districts that have amenities.
It will be interesting to see how everything will turn out 20 years from now — hopefully from the balcony of my 107th floor unit in Metro Los Baños.
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Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.