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Mixed Use Development Case Study
Mixed Use Development Case Study
(LOCAL)
CENTURY CITY
landmark, a fully-master planned vertical village where several of the Philippines’ tallest
buildings, namely the Gramercy Residences, Knightsbridge Residences, and Trump Tower as
well as the 17,000-square-metre (180,000 sq ft) Century City Mall are located. This also houses
the Milano Residences (interior design by Versace Home), and Trump Tower. In addition to
luxury high-rises, it will also feature corporate office towers, a state-of-the-art medical facility
(Centuria Medical Makati), and a world-class retail complex (Century City Mall). The
development sits on the former site of International School Manila. It was purchased in 2006 by
a consortium composed of Century Properties Inc. and Picar Holdings. Construction of the
for such a promising development. First, the traffic jam along the
hard to ride a jeepney going out of the area. Most jeepneys are full
true that it has already become a landmark in the locality, one can
only appreciate it afar. It is more beautiful at night because each Figure 2 View of the buildings
from inside the City
beautiful lines and shapes in the design. The buildings are so tall,
green/open space at the center of the city could have made the
does not feel too intimidating. Third, there are very limited
Figure 3 View from a nearby place
activities to do in Century City. (Photo by: Wahico de Leon)
Unlike other similar developments that offer a wide range of activities to visitors,
Century City has very limited public space. Century City Mall and the commercial complex near
the entrance are the only places with public access. Lastly, the visitors may not feel the “sense of
belongingness” in the area. It is a place where you go and not want to stay for long if you have
no clear agenda in mind. The place does not feel welcoming and does not have much to offer
of 2017, it is the 17th-tallest building in the Philippines. It is the first of several buildings built at
the new Century City complex along Kalayaan Avenue by the Century City Development
Malyan, The Milano Residences rises a towering 52 storeys. Dramatic lighting further
accentuates the Milano’s design as every floor becomes your very own veritable observation
in Makati, Philippines. It is the second of several building projects built in Century City. It is one
of the Philippines' tallest buildings. The Knightsbridge Residences at Century City takes its name
after the most expensive neighborhood in London, Knightsbridge. The building introduces the
Lantern concept, unique architectural featuring stacked special residential units with dramatic
floor-to-ceiling windows that create iconic, sparkling glass boxes. This will be a distinguishing
feature which can easily be seen around the city, especially at night. The building will have a
maximum of 20 units per floor, each with a floor to ceiling clearance of 2.7 meters, and will have
Centuria Medical Makati is a one‐stop, outpatient medical-IT facility located at the heart
of Century City, Makati, Philippines, which will house more than 700 clinics.
clinic environment for doctors and equally, hassle‐free patient‐centered services to all guests. All
these, plus a modern carefully designed interior space, contribute to the unique and holistic
The Century Spire is a 60-story tall mixed-used skyscraper under construction designed
by Daniel Libeskind. The interior design was done by Armani/Casa Interior Design Studio
of Giorgio Armani. The glass-clad tower is divided into three branches with varying heights.
Between the two highest tower shafts is a diagonal glass structure was placed by Libeskind
which includes penthouses. The lower third floors of the tower are for office use and the upper
floors are residential. Underground parking will also be present and two floors of the building are
a reflecting pool, and a cantilevering walkway — a pathway suspended in mid-air with infinity
pools on one side and a glass handrail on the outside. The Skypark traverses the entire width of
the building.
CENTURY CITY MALL
Century City Mall is the five level retail anchor for the Century City complex. It is a
boutique mall and lifestyle center which has 17,000 square meters of leasable space for around
Heat is minimized by the architectural design of the mall. The exterior of the Century
City Mall was painted white to minimize the heat absorbed by the walls and roof and
the Exterior Insulation Finishing System is used as the facade material to minimize absorption of
heat by the mall's units, which in turn reduces energy needed by the air conditioning. For the
glass works, tinted horizontal glass sheets were installed to reflect sunlight and minimize the heat
entering the building as part of the designer's efforts to improve comfort to people inside the
mall. On the mall's roof garden situated on the fourth floor, natural ventilation and vegetation
were installed to reduce temperature and filter the air inside the building. Through a series of sky
lights, Natural light that passes inside the mall are filtered through all levels. In order to
minimize water consumption, waterless urinals are installed inside the mall's restrooms.
CASE STUDY
(LOCAL)
ROCKWELL CENTER
Rockwell Center is a high-end mixed-use area known as a “City within a city” and is
located at Poblacion, Makati, Metro Manila. It is a 15.5-hectare lot which was previously
occupied by a Thermal Plant owned by the Manila Electric Railroad and Light Company.
Today’s Rockwell was developed in 1998 two years after the closure of the power plant and is
being expanded since 2012. It is a project under Rockwell Land Corporation owned by the Lopez
Holdings Corporation.
VICINITY
The 15.5-hectare lot is bounded by J.P. Rizal Avenue (North) where it faces the Pasig
river, Estrella Street (East), Rockwell Drive and Amapola Street (South), and R. Palma Street
(West).
ARCHITECT
architectural, urban planning, ang engineering firm formed in Chicago in 1963 was the one
responsible for the design of the place under the direction of Larry Oltmanns, their former design
partner.
DISTRICTS
Districts are relatively large city areas with common characters which observers can
mentally go inside of. The physical characteristics that determine districts are thematic
continuities which may consist of an endless variety of components: texture, space, form, detail,
symbol and so on. These components are imaged and recognized in a characteristic cluster in
Makati City.
The sub-districts include:
Business District
College Campus
Residential District
Exclusive Area
Commercial District
Nodes are points, the strategic spots in a city into which an observer can enter, and which
are the intensive foci to and from which he is travelling. They may be primarily junctions or
concentrations. It also offers the observer multiple perspectives of the other core elements.
There are many junctions and intersections all throughout the Rockwell. It makes every
hotels and condominiums. The Powerplant Mall was strategically placed at the center of the
Waterfront Drive.
(INTERNATIONAL)
Built on the former gardens of the British Embassy and situated on the intersection of
Wireless and Ploen Chit, this has become an architectural landmark in the Bangkok skyline. The
1.5 million sq ft mixed use project merges a seven storey luxury retail podium and a 27 storey
five star Park Hyatt hotel tower into a cohesive, architectural entity. The tower is the first to be
form to give a more intuitive merging between plinth and tower and between the programs. The
continuity of the tower line appears to break down the volume of the mass of the plinth, creating
The openness of the form embraces the city and sets up reciprocal views, with a series of
terraces outside and balconies within to see and be seen. The elevated form that rises from the
podium wraps around two vertical light wells, opening up internal spaces to reveal stepped
terraces, and dividing hotel functions: private guest-related programs face the gardens of Nai
Lert Park, while the hotel bar, reception lounge and sky terrace face the city center.
Uniting traditional craftsmanship with digital design technologies, the design of the
facade builds on Thailand’s tradition of intricate pattern making. The exterior is clad in 300,000
aluminum tiles, each with two surfaces to reflect both the chaos of the city and the sky itself.
Creating a dynamic pattern in response to external conditions, the distribution of tiles creates a
moiré-like effect, articulated by the play of light and reflection along the varying profiles.
CASE STUDY
(INTERNATIONAL)
Marina City, designed by architect Bertrand Goldberg and constructed between 1960 and
1967, is an icon of Chicago architecture and urban planning that breaks all the typical rules of
high-rise architecture. This is the first of its kind to layer residential, commercial, and
entertainment uses into a dense high rise complex in the center city, was the most ambitious and
urban renewal projects. Marina City was the first planned development project in Chicago, and
the first and largest federally-insured downtown housing project in the country. When they were
completed in 1963, the residential towers were the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the
world. Goldberg thoroughly believed that people wanted to live in downtown Chicago. His
approach to Marina City was to design a “city within a city” that could fully accommodate
people’s everyday needs and activities just a short distance from their homes. It was a method of
bringing suburban commodities and ease of access to an urban setting. Each tower incorporates a
spiral parking garage on the first nineteen floors. It is one of the first non-enclosed parking
garages ever incorporated into the design of a residential high-rise. The 20th floor of each tower
serves as unit storage and laundry services for the residents. The remaining forty stories of each
building offer approximately 450 units; offering a total of 900 units categorized by studio, one
ARCHITECTURE
The Marina City complex consists of five interconnected but distinct components—two
commercial building, all of which are set on a four-story base with a marina fronting onto the
river. With the exception of the theater, which was built with a steel truss structure and covered
completely with lead shingles, all of the structures in the complex are cast-in-place reinforced
concrete construction.
RESIDENTIAL TOWERS
The residential towers, with their distinctive shape and rhythmic pattern of curved
concrete balconies, are the most iconic elements of the complex. When completed, Marina City’s
apartment towers were the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world and the tallest
apartment buildings in the world. The west tower sits at the southwest corner of the lot, and the
east tower is set slightly back along the eastern edge of the lot near State Street. This staggered
placement maximized views of the river and the lake. The base of each tower consists of a
sweeping helical parking ramp, which occupies the first 19 floors. The twentieth floor, which
separates the parking and apartments (both architecturally and functionally) features floor-to-
ceiling windows that clearly show the building’s central core, and houses laundry and storage
facilities.
OFFICE BUILDING
The north end of the lot is occupied by a ten-story concrete and glass office building
(now used as a hotel), constructed between 1962 and 1964, that rises high above the upper plaza
level on concrete groin vaults supported by slender columns and extends east-west along the
entire width of the complex. Beneath the office tower, a horizontal two-story block with a
recessed glazed first floor and a monolith un-fenestrated second floor connect the office tower to
THEATER BUILDING
The theater building, located between the west residential tower and the office building,
comprises the fourth major component of Marina City and is perhaps the most visually unusual
element of the complex. It was also the last structure to be constructed (completed in 1967The
theater building as constructed is a large saddle-shaped structure with a glazed lobby below. Two
wing-shaped concrete side walls connected by a system of steel trusses support the concrete shell
roof, which rises to 114 feet on the east side and 74 feet on the west side. The entire surface of
the structure is comprised of curved or rounded forms, and the roof and walls (with the exception
of the three glazed walls of the lobby) are covered in lead panels, which were installed to deaden
the sound of rain, hail, and street-traffic. A rounded cast concrete eave line highlights the
Surrounding and connecting the residential towers, office building, and theater is Marina
City’s multi-level commercial platform, which covers the entire site. The one-story rectangular
block houses restaurants and retail and commercial spaces along the main corridor, in addition to
all of the mechanical systems. Above this level is an open plaza. The original open, sunken ice
skating rink at the southeast corner of the plaza was replaced in the 1990s by a one-story
structure housing a restaurant. Below the commercial platform is the boat marina that gave
Marina City its name. Boats dock between the narrow piers that support the platform above. To
take advantage of the river views, the entire south wall of the platform is glazed.
VIEWS
Due to the circular form of the building, each unit has different views of the city. To the
south, the towers overlook the main branch of the Chicago River with a commanding view of the
Chicago Loop beyond it. To the west, the towers offer views of the division of the Chicago River
between its north and south branches, the Merchandise Mart, the Willis Tower, and the vast
westward expanse of the city. To the north, the towers face Chicago's River North, Old Town,
and Gold Coast neighborhoods and the northern neighborhoods of Chicago as they extend
toward Evanston. To the east the Towers afford a view of the eastern terminus of the Chicago
Many of these views will be obstructed due to new construction in the immediate future.
After more than 40 years of unimpeded north and northwest views, in spring 2006 construction
began on vacant lots immediately northwest of the towers at the intersection of North Dearborn
and West Kinzie Streets for separate projects, including a mid-rise hotel and a high-rise office
building, which will partially obscure views from Marina City in these directions. Also in 2006,
site preparation began on a high-rise office building west of Marina City at North LaSalle Street
and the Chicago River which, when completed, will eliminate the unimpeded view of the
western horizon from Marina City's uppermost floors and roof decks.