The red, white and blue. and green
I was invited to a flag ceremony recently. I’m one of those who love these displays of nationalism and love of country. But this one was different because it was going to be held in a garden — the less-than-a-year-old Ayala Triangle Gardens — located right in the heart of the country’s premier CBD (central business district).
When I got to the venue, I went looking for a grand flagpole. I was told that the event was to mark the coming Independence Day weekend. I could not find the flagpole but walking about in the plaza (since I was early) I noticed a floral display. I stepped back, and realized that this was the centerpiece of the ceremony — the Philippine flag in living floral color!
The fantastic composition is the size of a small basketball court and was — as I was informed later by Meean Dy, head of Ayala Land’s Strategic Landbank Management Group — composed of close to 4,000 flowering plants. Dy explained that the “floral flag” ceremony was also to launch the “I he(art) Makati. I heart the Philippines. I heart being free” series of events that hopes to showcase the gardens and “celebrate the Filipino spirit.”
The Ayala Triangle Gardens was opened to the public in 2009. It is a wonderful large green, open space, which makes the whole Ayala CBD unique among the slew of other business districts in the metropolis. The gardens are also part of the urban memory of many, like myself, who started working in the district in the ’70s. Then it was the site of Ugarte Field, a soccer pitch. I used to look down from the offices of IP Santos, where I worked and watch the matches. (When will we make it to the World Cup? Sorry, but this game suits us vertically-challenged Filipinos better than basketball.)
The gardens today are much more lush, tree-filled, and flower-accented compared to those days. The new gardens provide much-appreciated green relief for the skyscraper-filled district. Nothing can compare to the contrast of tall steel and glass buildings set in an emerald base of spreading rain trees and tropical flora.
The Ayala Triangle Gardens are part of a larger district-wide package of improvements that aim to shore up the Makati CBD’s premier status. At the event, I spoke to Ayala Land Inc. president Antonio Aquino who pointed out that they had followed up the Triangle Gardens project with another improvement scheme nearby — that of the renovation of the main commercial center and its urban perimeter.
Joining us is a post-event merienda at the plaza were Makati Commercial Establishments Association (MACEA) president Dave Balangue (who just took over from Adolfo Duarte) and the indefatigable MACEA general manager Jaime Matias. The two chimed in with Tony Aquino’s optimistic forecast of a new, improved Makati CBD district. Soon, the duo said, they would start on the first phase of upgrades for the streetscape of Ayala Avenue — new granite paving, healthy new street trees for shade, and improved lighting to create an avenue befitting the district’s status as world-class business, commercial and residential nexus of the metropolis.
The Ayala Land and MACEA collaboration extends to more than just the physical and the practical. The three executives, along with Dy, who joined us the group, also pointed out that art and culture was to play a great part in these new programs. The first projects, were in fact, just steps away in installations of Arturo Luz’s iconic metal sculptures in the gardens and in the transformation of MACEA’s pedestrian tunnels into art galleries. I ventured down one of them nearby and found on display artworks from exhibits first displayed in conventional galleries — “Looking for Juan” and “Everyday Filipino Heroes.”
The flag ceremony and a whole great helping of art in the open and underground made for a really pleasant relaxing afternoon. I forgot that I was in the center of the country’s most frenetic business district. The gardens at the Ayala Triangle and the initiatives of its partners in MACEA ensure that there is room for colorful and vibrant life in the city and ready refuge for the spirit.
The red, white and blue of our flag and its symbolisms are made more meaningful amidst the garden’s verdant green. This proves that civic mindedness can exist and, in fact, goes hand in hand with the practical needs of commerce, as well as the intangible but necessary yearning for culture and a better life.
Landscapes and cities are not too large to change for the better. The dream of creating better environments can never be too big to fulfill. Ayala Land and MACEA are proving that if proper landscape and urban design is applied, then new cityscapes can enrich our modern lives as well as give us the freedom to chose our own urban destinies.
