Mandarin Oriental Manila was a hotel along

Makati Avenue Makati Avenue ( fil, Abenida Makati) is a major commercial thoroughfare in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines. It forms the eastern border of Ayala Triangle and is one of the three main avenues of the Makati Central Business District. The avenue ...

Makati Makati ( ), officially the City of Makati ( fil, Lungsod ng Makati), is a 1st class highly urbanized city in the National Capital Region of the Philippines. Makati is the financial center of the Philippines; it has the highest concentration ...

Metro Manila Metropolitan Manila (often shortened as Metro Manila; fil, Kalakhang Maynila), officially the National Capital Region (NCR; fil, link=no, Pambansang Punong Rehiyon), is the capital region, seat of government and one of three List of metrop ...

Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...

, managed by the

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group International Limited (MOHG) is a Hong Kong hotel investment and management group focusing on luxury hotels, resorts, and residences, with a total of 33 properties worldwide, 20 of which are fully or partially ow ...

and designed by

National Artist National Artist is an honorary title issued by some states as a highest recognition of artists for their significant contributions to the cultural heritage of the nation. An equivalent title, People's Artist, has been known in countries of the f ...

Leandro Locsin Leandro V. Locsin (August 15, 1928 – November 15, 1994) was a Filipino architect, artist, and interior designer known for his use of concrete, floating volume and simplistic design in his various projects. An avid collector, he was fond of mo ...

History

The hotel was designed by

and a British design consultant. The 18-storey building was built on a site which was known as the Diamond Triangle and opened in 1976. It had the first in-house movie system in the Philippines. Since 1996, the hotel was known for its annual

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Sinophone, Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly r ...

celebrations. These celebrations were cited among the celebrations within

outside

Binondo Binondo () is a district in Manila and is referred to as the city's Chinatown. Its influence extends beyond to the places of Quiapo, Santa Cruz, San Nicolas and Tondo. It is the oldest Chinatown in the world, established in 1594 by the ...

. In 2001, the hotel opened The Spa at Mandarin Oriental, a luxury spa within its premises, becoming the first hotel in the country to have done so.

Closure

On June 4, 2014, The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group announced that it would close the hotel by the end of 2014. The management began closing the hotel gradually, area by area, instead of shutting down all the hotel areas at once. The hotel saw its last day of operation on September 9, 2014.

Fate of the hotel building

The Heritage Conservation Society (HCS) expressed concern on its

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

page about the possible demolition of the old Mandarin Oriental Manila building along with

InterContinental Manila InterContinental Manila (colloquially Intercon/ICM) was a five-star InterContinental hotel located on Ayala Avenue in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines. At the time of its closure, it is the longest operating international chain hotel in the Phi ...

. Former HCS Vice President and member of the group's Advisory Council, Domic Garcia, who is also an architect, urged for the buildings not to be demolished and argued that while not all of the works of architect

should be preserved, his best works should. He also suggested that the buildings may be reused for other purposes or integrated into a new design; specifically, he proposed to use the Mandarin Oriental building as the base of a new and taller tower complementing the architecture of the older building. The HCS also cited the

National Cultural Heritage Act The National Cultural Heritage Act, officially designated as Republic Act No. 10066, is a Philippine law that created the Philippine Registry of Cultural Property (PRECUP) and took other steps to preserve historic buildings that are over 50 years ...

of 2009, which stated that works of National Artists such as Locsin were considered as important cultural property. Under the

, a site can only be declared a heritage site if it is at least 50 years old. The Mandarin Hotel building was about 38 years old on its full closure in 2014.

Ayala Land Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) is a real estate firm based in the Philippines. It is a subsidiary of Ayala Corporation. It began as a division of Ayala Corporation until it was spun off and incorporated in 1988. It became publicly listed in the Phi ...

stated in September 2014 that the redevelopment of the site of the Mandarin Oriental Manila was being planned along with architectural consultations with LVLP, the firm of Leandro Locsin. The redevelopment of the site of InterContinental Manila was also being planned.

New Mandarin Oriental Manila

The lease of the management of the Mandarin Oriental Manila with Ayala Land was due to end in 2026 but the board decided to close the hotel instead of waiting for the lease to expire. The new Mandarin Oriental Manila will be built across the street at the

Ayala Triangle Gardens The Ayala Triangle Gardens is a landscaped urban park in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines. It is a triangular public garden and courtyard in the center of the Makati Central Business District. It was named after its owner and developer Ayala ...

and is planned to have 275 rooms. The new hotel to be developed and owned by Ayala Land Hotels & Resorts is planned to be completed by 2020.

References

External links

Mandarin Oriental Manila website
��(archived) {{coord missing, Philippines Hotels in Metro Manila Demolished hotels Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group Buildings and structures in Makati Hotels established in 1976 Hotels disestablished in 2014 Hotel buildings completed in 1976 Buildings and structures demolished in 2016 1976 establishments in the Philippines 2014 disestablishments in the Philippines Leandro Locsin buildings Modernist architecture in the Philippines