LIVING ON THE EDGE An Exploratory Study on Edge Cities in the Philippine Context Redefining Ortigas Center, Central Business District

Abstract

This study is about contending the position of redefining Ortigas Center as a central business district to Ortigas Center as an edge city. It intended to explore the concept of edge cities introduced by Joel Garreau and its applicability in our local context with Ortigas Center as the unit of study. With this, it sought to identify the principles of an edge city; to ascertain if edge cities apply in the Philippine setting, particularly in the case of Ortigas Center; and to determine what attributes of Ortigas Center qualifies it or does not qualify it as an edge city. The researcher hypothesized that Ortigas Center will be proven that edge cities are applicable in the Philippine context, and that it qualifies in the set of definitions of an edge city as set down by Garreau, thus, redefining Ortigas Center as edge city and not a central business district. To go about answering the posed problem, the researcher used three kinds of data gathering: gathering archival information, surveying and interviewing key informants, and ocular surveying of the locale of the study. As presented and analyzed, it was concluded that Ortigas Center can be considered, and is, an edge city. That all definitions set by Garreau were positively certified: a) has 11,656,142.8 square feet of leasable office space, which is approximately 6.6 million square feet over the minimum requirement; b) has 600,000 square feet or more of leasable retail space; c) has more jobs than bedrooms; d) perceived by the population as one place; and e) was nothing like a city as recently as thirty years ago. As the study is exploratory in nature, the concept still needs to be studied further. The researcher recommends that other business districts in the Philippines also be subject to studying with its grounds rested on the principles of edge cities.