By Vernon Gabrielle Velasco
THERE’S a boutique hotel nestled right exactly where the landmark Blanco Center used to be on Salcedo Village in Makati City, which reminds one of Frank Gehry, the iconic architect who did not just change a building, but an entire city’s economy, and is, perhaps, among the very few things marketer extraordinaire Seth Godin referred to as “a purple cow in a field of monochrome.”
But, to say the least, what is now The Picasso is per se the old Sandra—only dolled up to the nines with high heels and a little bit of dress and rechristened Georgina. Because an ominous drab apartment that looked straight out of a city of yore just simply doesn’t cut it these days. And so the owners came to do something at the fringes with developer Hospitality Innovators Inc. (HII), and saw how they could get its mojo back and give it a fountain of youth.
“When the owners came to us, they said, maybe you can help us with this: The building is very old already, and we’d like to try and see if there’s a way we can increase the earning potential of this building,” HII CEO and Prexy Luis Monserrat recalled. “I realized that what we were trying to do here was transformation, a complete makeover.”
Monserrat was in cahoots with art-geek architect Dom Galicio at the time of reconceptualization. And so the proposal of the complete renovation being art-inspired was made in earnest, and, when it was time to think of a name for the property, HII went back to its core—what it was cut out to be: transformation. “Dom suggested that no other artist embodies transformation than Pablo Picasso,” Monserrat said.
The Picasso Boutique Serviced Residences is the flagship in the HII line of concept spaces, driven by its knack to reinvent the old to experience the new and recreate or tap into the potential of properties personification of what otherwise are the bland and the boring.
“This is what we offer hotel and property developers, who want to get into the lodging space: the impressive combination of a unique concept and great service that can enhance the value of assets and create attractive returns,” Monserrat said—adding that they are going head-on against the “Goliaths,” and the clear-cut brand of creativity and nuances they throw onto the table are what set the properties they conceptualize and manage apart.
The HII epitome, The Picasso, is literally an art box of more than 130 rooms, which, beyond just being decked with portraits on the pictorial walls, are spatial still lifes, where the guest himself can be a part or the subject of the painting.
An ode to Pablo Picasso’s artistic philosophy, The Picasso’s Tina Periquet-designed interiors are a poignant picture of old Europe, replete with Kenneth Cobonpue and Harry Bertoia pieces that are accentuated by oxidized mirrors, hardwood parquet floors and various pastel finishes unique in each of the rooms, which are named after relevant places in the West frequented by the artist (think Barcelona, Montparnasse, Madrid).
On different times of the day, one can find his art snob on his private balcony or sprawled somewhere right on the edge of everything, overlooking the landscape of the city leaning against windows that extend up to the ceiling down to the floor, from a wall to another wall. One might, as well, be finally lured into the view and let himself be sucked into space and plunge freely, realizing that what sets him apart from all the beauty beneath it is just glass.
Not to mention any of the complimentary art-themed facilities (among many others a gym or two, a Wi-Fi lounge and a restaurant called Brasserie Boheme) the in-house art gallery of Filipino contemporary art by Art Cabinet Philippines (which also curated all art articulations in every nook and cranny of The Picasso) is the altar of it all, where one can commune with and be lost in reverie through an assembly of critical expressions on various media.
The Picasso, so to speak, is an art gallery with beds, a lot of pampering and a disposable concierge. But, in The Picasso, you don’t have to be artsy-fartsy to feel right at home.
1 comment
Looks so Beautiful. Very spacious. Nice.