editorial

Words by Daven Wu >October 26, 2023
Amid the commercial hum of one of Manila’s fastest growing business districts, a human-centric office tower offers an elevated art experience.
<figure id="attachment_135449" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135449" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-135449 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-2.jpg" alt="The 32nd Street facade of Menarco Tower; Living Free 2, a bead-and-textile work by Raffy Napay. (All photos courtesy of Menarco Vertical Museum)" width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-2.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-2-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-2-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135449" class="wp-caption-text">Left to right: The 32nd Street facade of Menarco Tower; Living Free 2, a bead-and-textile work by Raffy Napay. (All photos courtesy of Menarco Vertical Museum)</figcaption></figure>
Give me a blank wall,” says Carmen Jimenez-Ong, “and I’ll put art on it or create art with it. It’s my life.”
One might be forgiven for thinking the dynamo CEO-slash-developer of Metro Manila’s Menarco Tower skyscraper is indulging in a little PR spin. That impression lasts only until you step through the glass doors of the slender, silvery building in the Philippine capital’s swanky Bonifacio Global City business district, and encounter a giant aluminum diptych of orchids on the lobby wall.
Created by local multimedia artist Patricia Eustaquio as a commentary on the fragile relationship between nature and human ambition, the arresting The Hunters Enter the Woods is the opening salvo of some 40-plus works by established and emerging contemporary Filipino artists (including Pam Yan Jimenez-Ong, “and I’ll put art on it or Santos, Eric Zamuco, and Martha Atienza) that are scattered across the tower’s 32 stories.
Collectively styled as the <a href="https://menarco.com.ph/menarco-vertical-museum/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Menarco Vertical Museum</a>, the collection, unveiled earlier this year, is Jimenez-Ong’s ambitious attempt to integrate a public art museum into a private commercial office tower.
It would be a mistake, however, to think of the project as a whimsical folly. Artwork in a quotidian office space is one thing, but to assemble a fully fledged curatorial team as Jimenez- Ong has done to oversee the acquisition and display of serious pieces for an entire skyscraper is quite another.
Jimenez-Ong is an atypical real estate tycoon in that she is fully committed to the cause of ensuring that anyone who spends any amount of time in one of her buildings should have their physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being taken care of. For her, art is the gateway, and judging by the success of the museum so far, it will also be a template for her other developments.
It certainly helps that since it was completed in 2017, Menarco Tower has made waves for being the only LEED and WELL gold-certified building in Southeast Asia. The skyscraper features a raft of human-centric features, including hospital-grade filtered air, healthy cuisine in the communal food hall, and floors designed to capture maximum natural light without a corresponding heat gain.
What was missing, Jimenez-Ong felt, was something to uplift the emotions of not just the tower’s occupants—Sidebar, Meta, and WeWork are in the house—but also the neighborhood.
<figure id="attachment_135450" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135450" style="width: 1200px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-135450 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-3.jpg" alt="The entrance to the building’s eighth-floor food hall, where a card catalogue–inspired installation by Pamela Yan Santos encourages contemplation." width="1200" height="800" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-3.jpg 1200w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-3-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-3-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135450" class="wp-caption-text">The entrance to the building’s eighth-floor food hall, where a card catalogue–inspired installation by Pamela Yan Santos encourages contemplation.</figcaption></figure>
“A constructed wall can be so static,” she says, “and I believe art has the power to uplift, to trans- port, to convey emotions, to stir desires, to make one think. Art has always been an integral part of my life and Menarco Tower, being my baby, could not be without any art. It only made sense.”
Besides, she adds, viewing art has been shown to not just lower blood pressure, but also to stimulate the mind to be more productive—a savvy touch for the developer of an office building. To that end, Jimenez-Ong has tapped the expertise of a number of bold-faced gallerists—including Isa Lorenzo, the photographer and founder of Silverlens Galleries, one of the Philippines’ most important spaces for contemporary art—to curate a first-rate mix of video, sculptures, photographs, paintings, and collages. Their subject matters range from autobiographical to social and political commentary.
The decision to feature only contemporary Filipino artists—and specifically their works from 2012 onward—was deliberate. “It was a conscious choice to promote Filipino art in a way that allows us to explore commentaries on our life, our history, and our culture in the present day,” Jimenez- Ong says. “This way, young people can relate, so it can speak volumes to those who want to hear what that art has to say.”
The developer has bold ambitions for the museum, not least of which is to introduce Filipino contemporary art to a broader public, to support artists through study programs, and to uplift the standing of Filipino art by lending key pieces to cultural institutions abroad. “What good is art if it isn’t shared?”
Lorenzo, meanwhile, has an equally broad out- look. For her, art in the workplace—any workplace—is not just an aesthetic addition; rather, it carries the potential to reshape the tedium inherent in an office into a more positive experience. “I believe in the transformational effects of art,” she explains. “I think people will come to Menarco Tower specifically to see the art and not just see it because they work there. It will be a landmark.”
This is what happens when you give Carmen Jimenez-Ong a blank wall.
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Guided tours are available on Wednesdays and Fridays by appointment, while the public is encouraged to roam freely on Sundays.
<figure id="attachment_135448" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-135448" style="width: 1380px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="wp-image-135448 size-full" src="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-Hero.jpg" alt="Patricia Perez Eustaquio’s oil-on- aluminum orchid diptych The Hunters Enter the Woods." width="1380" height="920" srcset="https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-Hero.jpg 1380w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-Hero-300x200.jpg 300w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-Hero-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://staging.destinasian.com/wp-content/uploads/Menarco-Vertical-Museum-Hero-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1380px) 100vw, 1380px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-135448" class="wp-caption-text">Patricia Perez Eustaquio’s oil-on-aluminum orchid diptych The Hunters Enter the Woods.</figcaption></figure>
This article originally appeared in the <a href="http://www.destinasian.com/magazine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">August/September 2023</a> print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“In High Regard”).

Patricia Perez Eustaquio’s oil-on-aluminum orchid diptych The Hunters Enter the Woods.

Introducing the Menarco Vertical Museum