Makati: Evolving into a Walkable City, From Skyscrapers to Human-Centric Spaces

A great city is not only defined by the skyline we see from afar, but by the life we experience when we walk through it When we think of Makati, it is often its skyline that first comes to mind. The gleaming towers of glass and steel, rising above the metro’s urban landscape, have become the defining image of the city. Makati was the first truly modern central business district (CBD) in the metropolis—a gallery of skyscrapers designed by some of the country’s and world’s leading architects. But while we have been fascinated by what is happening above ground, something equally important has been quietly taking place below. Beyond the skyscrapers, a second layer of the city has been evolving over the past few decades. Driven by necessity, planning and perhaps simply the way people have chosen to use the city, a network of pedestrian paths, connections, parks and public spaces has gradually woven itself into the concrete urban grid. It is what I would call “urban groundscaping”—the deliberate shaping of the ground plane to make the city more accessible, comfortable and enjoyable for people. Interestingly, Makati’s journey toward walkability is not entirely new. As early as the 1990s, Ayala Land and the Makati Central Estate Association (MACEA) began developing pedestrian connections, covered walkways, crossings and other infrastructure in response to the growing congestion in the CBD. What began as a practical response to CBD traffic has gradually evolved into something much more significant: a city where people, not just vehicles and buildings, increasingly define the urban experience. In fact, Makati rewards developments that provide more parks and pedestrian connections with floor area ratio (FAR) bonuses, or additional buildable floor area, allowing developers to build at higher densities. Today, walking through Makati can mean moving from a corporate tower to a café, from a shopping district into a park, or from a busy transit station into a neighborhood street. Commercial establishments spill onto sidewalks. Restaurants and cafés give people reasons to linger, bringing more activity to the streets and making them feel safer. Streets have also become more than conduits for vehicles—they are becoming social third spaces. The parks of Ayala Triangle, Salcedo and Legazpi Village have become urban lungs for their communities. They are spaces where people jog, walk their dogs, meet friends socially, attend weekend markets or art exhibitions, or simply sit and enjoy the city. These spaces may appear modest compared with Makati’s towering architecture, but they are where much of the city’s human character is actually created. The intermodal transit hub and mixed-use development represents another important step in Makati’s evolution. It is more than a place to catch a train or bus. It is an urban gateway, connecting transportation with retail, offices, pedestrian networks and surrounding neighborhoods. Threading these developments together is an emerging pedestrian spine, forming an almost continuous urban connection stretching from One Ayala toward Buendia and linking transit, commercial districts, parks and neighborhoods. These are the hallmarks of a walkable city. And there are reflections of another great metropolis here: New York. New York’s remarkable urban sustainability and reinvention are not simply a product of its skyscrapers. Its strength comes from density, compactness, mixed uses, public transportation and the extraordinary life that happens at street level. From Central Park and the High Line to Little Island and Domino Park, New York has demonstrated how dense cities can create generous public spaces where people can gather, interact and reconnect with nature. Makati is developing its own, distinct brand of this idea. This matters because the environmental future of our cities will require us to use land more intelligently. If we want to protect forests and open landscapes from endless outward expansion and sprawl, cities will inevitably have to become denser and more vertical. But density alone does not create a sustainable city. Cities must also be engaging and vibrant to be socially sustainable and relevant. They need parks, sidewalks, public spaces, transit, mixed-use developments and places where people can meet. They need diversity—not only of buildings, but of people, activities and experiences. Perhaps this is what makes Makati’s evolution particularly interesting. It is not a perfectly planned transformation. It is a gradual, sometimes organic process shaped by developers, planners, businesses and, most importantly, the people who use the city every day. The future city is not about building more towers. It will be about making the spaces between those towers better. And perhaps, as Makati slowly rediscovers its streets, its parks and its community, it is also discovering something fundamental about urban life: A great city is not only defined by the skyline we see from afar, but by the life we experience when we walk through it. The author is a senior partner and vice president at Visionarch