WHAT does one do when one wants to build a luxury hotel but is constrained by building height restrictions?
 
Well, in the case of the SM group, that’s not a problem because they have enough space in their sprawling Mall of Asia complex in Pasay City to build horizontally.
 
We’re talking about their newest hotel—the Conrad Manila Bay—which is set to open early next year.
 
You see, structures built in the MOA area and adjacent environs have government-imposed height limits for safety reasons, thanks to the flight path of aircraft taking off and landing on the Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s Runway 13/31, which calls for the aircraft to fly almost directly over the SM MOA complex.
 
For land-starved developers, that would be a problem, but not for the SM group, which decided to build the Conrad hotel horizontally instead of vertically.
 
According to SM Hotels president Elizabeth “Betty” Sy, the new hotel will have 346 rooms (which is a big number for a hotel building) but spread out over only four storeys to account for the height limit. So SM built the structure sideward and chose to make the building look like a cruise ship when viewed from a  certain angle—which makes sense, given that the building sits on the edge of Manila Bay.
 
Sy said the hotel’s structure (situated right across from the SMX convention center) is all but complete and work is now ongoing to make its insides look like the five-star hotel expected of a Conrad-managed establishment.
 
She said the interiors would feature a lot of local art, both paintings and sculptures, because Conrad insisted on giving its hotel properties a strong local flavor wherever it is in the world. “And the restaurants will be special,” she added.
 
So when will this brand new hotel be unveiled? The Sys declined to give an exact date because the Conrad management insisted on keeping these things under wraps, but it’s safe to assume that the ribbon will still by cut by President Aquino instead of the country’s next chief executive. Daxim L. Lucas