PLAY DAY FRIDAYS

(From "A Weekend Note," the editor's letter in Style Weekened Play Day Fridays edition, published 14 Sept 14, 2007 in Manila Bulletin)

A ROOM AT THE GRAMERCY

Over lunch with Century Properties, Inc.’s Ambassador Joey Antonio, his wife Hilda, and their sons Jigger and Marco, as well as their interior designer, Chat Fores, and creative director, GP Reyes, at the Gramercy Residences showroom at the Pacific Star Building on Gil Puyat Avenue, I felt literally transported to New York City. The showroom alone was an eye-popper, despite its artistic restraint and effortlessness as apparent in the use of neutrals like beige and black. On the far side of the showroom, there was even a mock-up swimming pool that looked inviting enough for a dip or even a dive, though I suspected it was all of two feet at its deepest.

BLURB
When you look at a city, it’s like reading the hopes, aspirations, and hopes of everyone who built it. —Hugh Newell Jacobsen

Inspired by the Gramercy Park in Manhattan, this new P5-billion residential development promises to be the centerpiece of the Antonios’ vision for Century City, a P40-billion real estate revolution to rise over 4.8 hectares right at the heart of Makati. I know that the phrase “the heart of Makati” has been overused and often not precisely, but the Antonios are truly building Century City not in the outskirts or the previously undeveloped peripheries of the finance district, but in the very hub of it, right on Kalayaan Street, where the old International School campus used to be. Already creative director GP Reyes has coined a term to describe this part of Makati once Century City is up and running (skyward and into the future): MoMa or Modern Makati. Very New York, indeed!
But more than achieving another real estate coup, the vision of Century Properties, whose 21-year track record of excellence, as proven through landmark buildings like Essensa East Forbes, is to bring city living to the next level, bringing Manila up to par with cities like New York by creating something worthy of Filipino pride.
It is for this reason that Joey Antonio’s firm always collaborates with world-renowned talents like I.M. Pei, whose expertise they tapped for the design of Essensa. For Century City, the design partner is no less than Jon Adams Jerde, whose portfolio includes Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, the Universal Citywalk in Los Angeles, the Roppongi Hills in Tokyo, and the Zlote Tarasy in Warsaw.
We have every reason, indeed, to be excited about Gramercy Residences at Century City, due for completion in 2011, which is the only way we can truly live in this city of vision. The inspiration, Gramercy Park, one of the last remaining private fenced-in parks in the United States, is enough indication that more than glass and steel and space, Gramercy Residences at Century City will incorporate poetry into the development in a bid to redefine city living. The Oasis, for instance, a preview of which is present at the showroom, where the mock pool is, is another innovation, a sprawling 6,000-square-meter sky park, replete with cascading waterfalls, infinity pools, cafés and restaurants, health clubs, and even a library, a THX theater, and a wine bar, all set 36 stories above ground and traversing Century City’s trilogy cluster of buildings.
To have a piece of Gramercy, whether a flat or a loft with one bedroom or two or three, is to be at home with Manila’s only fully fitted, fully serviced, and fully furnished, hyper-amenitized luxury condominium concept that the Antonios have pioneered in Philippine real estate.
In the meantime, may this Play Day Friday edition of Style Weekend inspire you to take a very good look at what you are doing with the money you are working so hard to earn. Based on a computation we accessed at www.oprah.com, at least 35 percent of every peso you earn must go to housing. I am hoping that my lunch with the Antonios is the universe’s way of opening my eyes to this fact.
Work hard for the money, but, better yet, make your money work hard for you!


A
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