Asiatikistic : Manila's Emerging Super-CBD

In less than a decade, the three biggest of Manila's many CBD's are expected to finally link up into one contiguous super-CBD, the older Makati & Ortigas linked together with the newer and more ultra-modern Fort Bonifacio. Manila, the multi-centric metropolis with no dominant center, may finally have a real downtown. From the picture above, you'd see the northern finger of Makati (lower one) reaching out for the finger of Fort Bonifacio (right upper, the bulk of the CBD not seen) & the tip of the finger of Ortigas (left upper, the bulk of Ortigas not seen) across the river. This is an old picture, there are already skyscrapers under construction along the riverside across from Makati (the Phillipe Starke-designed Acqua for one & the Trump Tower on the opposite bank, among others). When the three finally meet up, they will create a 10 km. X 5 km. X 5 km. oasis of skyscrapers in the middle of a megalopolis of 20 million souls, framed in here & there by smaller but compact skyscraper clusters from the other CBD's scattered all around them as accents.

Has anybody prepared a master-plan when the three finally link up & effectively function as one enclave? The proposed airport monorail will link up with the existing elevated metro at Guadalupe station (beside the bridge) after slicing through Fort Bonifacio, so it will be entering into the center of the future super-CBD, so to speak. That will be the future nerve center, the Shinjuku, of Metro Manila. It doesn't come as a surprise why it was the Japanese businessmen (Hitachi & Sumitomo) who first noted the value of the monorail route.

They should not stop at Guadalupe, the monorail should sail down riverside J. P. Rizal to connect Rockwell, Makati Avenue, Buendia Avenue to Taft, providing linkage of the Fort CBD & Makati CBD to the LRT line at Taft. The monorail is appropriate because there will be no platform walls to obstruct the view: that turns out to be the most scenic part of Metro Manila as well.

Guadalupe, the future Shinjuku of Metro Manila, with the creeping edge of Rockwell (Makati) at the right, and the creeping tip of Fort Bonifacio at the left

Now, if only developers are encouraged to develop the zones between the other CBD's as well. Incentives should be given to developers who build projects along the boulevards that join the various CBD's. The rundown Pasay-portion of Buendia Avenue is just a couple of kilometers. Tax-breaks should be offered for well-designed buildings in order that that blight should be built over once and for all. Imagine a First World ride from the world class casinos in the reclamation area all the way to Makati, Ortigas & beyond. That will take out 90% of the criticisms from tourists that outside Manila's CBD's are slums.