01/06/2025
: Pioneering construction firm DM Consunji, Inc. (DMCI) built the first four buildings in the Makati Business District for Ayala Corporation, beginning with the Monterey Apartments in the late 1950s.
This early involvement marked DMCI’s contribution to the realization of visionary Joseph McMicking’s grand plan to transform Makati into a premier business district. DMCI is grateful and proud to have been part of its foundation.
Designed by Arch. Leandro Locsin, and with Engr. Alfredo Juinio as structural engineer, Monterey Apartments was the first high-rise building constructed in the Makati Business District and the first building to rise along the newly opened Ayala Avenue.
The seven-storey residential building was intended to house the early investors and pioneers of what would become the Ayala Center, the country’s premier business hub.
Three decades later, in 1988, DMCI was awarded the contract to construct Pacific Plaza, a 43-storey residential condominium to be built on the very site where Monterey Apartments once stood.
In his memoir A Passion to Build, DMCI Group Founder Engr. David M. Consunji recalled being present during the demolition of the Monterey Apartments.
“The building of the Pacific Plaza was significant for us in DMCI for many reasons. For one, it was located on the very same spot where, in 1959, we built the Monterey Apartments, the very first high rise on Ayala Avenue. It was also the building where Filipinos first used the leading-edge concreting technology of that time. Moreover, it was the tallest building in the metropolis when we built it. So there were a lot of memories and much personal significance in this project. I made sure to be there when the old seven-storey Monterey Apartments we had built almost 30 years ago was being demolished. It was not an easy task-proof that we had indeed built a sturdy structure three decades earlier.”
Happy Araw ng Makati! Here’s to the builders and visionaries who helped shape the city we know today!
Source: A Passion to Build: A Memoir of David M. Consunji
(Photos lifted from Engr. David M. Consunji’s memoir, “A Passion to Build.”)
