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By Chino Leyco
CURRENT urban landscape has
regressed from promising to predictable.
In this kingdom we call the city,
one thing seems to be missing amid the rapid modernization, which is
the utmost regard for people for whom these structures have been
designed and built.
Life would be all the better if
there is a place built for the urban dweller to move about and walk
around as envisioned by two world-renowned architects I.M. Pei and
Jon Adams Jerde.
Reliance on the abstract form and
fascination for stone and glass for which Pei is known is very in
evidence in his geometric structures seen in the pyramidal Grand
Louvre in Paris, the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong and the
Everson Museum of Art in New York.
On the other hand, Jerde has
redefined the urban landscape with “experience architecture” as
magnified in the structures he designed and built for the 1984 Los
Angeles Olympics, the mega complex of Roppongi Hills in Tokyo and
Steve Wynn’s Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas.
But majestic works aside, these
two artists share a passion to create true works of art that
incorporates careful regard for the environment where the structure
will be built and their commercial impact to the immediate
community.
Pei and Jerde have been
commissioned by the visionaries behind Century Properties, the
largest privately owned property company here, to design two of the
country’s evolutionary real estate developments.
In 2001, Pei through the firm Pei
Cobb Freed & Partners designed the architecture for Century’s
flagship development: the ultra-luxurious, two-tower residential
high-rise Essensa East Forbes in Fort Bonifacio Global City.
And soon, the country will bear
witness again to a landmark from Jerde, as Century Properties
partnered with him in creating another first in the urban landscape
around the globe: Century City .
Formerly occupied by the
International School Manila on Kalayaan Avenue, Makati , and
acquired by Century Properties last year, Jerde is set to transform
the 4.8-hectare property into an integrated city of vertical
residences, an information technology park, a luxury hotel,
lifestyle and entertainment center, and other never-before-seen
attractions.
Century City shall rise on the
last prime piece of undeveloped real estate in the nation’s
Central Business District.
The development retail component
will be an organic glassed-in complex that will connect to the
living and working components of the urban ecosystem. The
architecture will be inspired by nature’s blueprint, with canyons,
waterworks, cliffs and high-rises like redwoods reaching for the
sky.
An emphasis on natural light will
flood the shopping, dining and entertainment areas that are spread
out across the city, with movie theaters, a central plaza, pockets
of green spaces and dramatic water features. It will project a
strong sense of place and character, where people will revel in new
experiences as they meet, live, shop and work.
“The quality of life in this
development will be exciting; it will buzz with activity. It will be
such a unique feature not just architecturally as everything shall
speak to the end user through experience. It will be spectacular,”
Jerde assured.
Jerde is considered as one of the
most cutting-edge and ingenious urban planners of our time, Jerde
reinvents the “authentic urban experience that is often lost in
the process of modern planning.”
“Most architects design things.
What I’m more interested in is designing the experience, the way
it happens to people,” says the master builder himself. “I grew
up as a lonely kid. That’s why I learned to love crowds of people,
to be part of engaged, communal experiences. I learned to seek these
things out, and therefore as an architect I learned to design
them.”
Trying to undo the negative
effects of rapid modernization where “car-culture” towns
alienate passers-by, Jerde goes back to the basics by drawing
inspiration from the true essence of a great city—nature and
man.
Jerde’s experiential design
philosophy is centered on creating places that revolve around people
and the connection they feel to the environment. It focuses on what
happens to the human being when in a particular place and the
memories he creates in them.
Century City is a
P40-billion mixed-use development that will comprise first-class
residential towers, Grade A office buildings in Makati’s first and
only IT park, a luxury hotel, leisure and entertainment facilities,
and other never-before-seen attractions. Masterplanned by the Jerde
Partnership International, it is the latest evolutionary project of
compay, positioned to rise as a visual icon in the Makati skyline
and a landmark of a truly global Philippines.
Clarification: Century City is a 3.4 hectare development within the former International School of Manila ("Property") consisting of 4.8 hectares. Picar Holdings Inc. owns 1.3 hectares of the property and has the exclusive right to build a hotel.
For more information, please click on http://www.centurycity.com.ph/update.pdf.
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