More than a year ago, I blogged about the very detailed 3D buildings in U.P. Diliman that can be explored in Google Earth. And a year before that, Mike Gonzalez shared his top 10 3D Philippine sights in Google Earth. Well, I recently installed Google Earth 6 and decided to check out the current state of the 3D buildings and models in Metro Manila. The verdict? I’m quite impressed!

In the past couple of years, several Google Earth modelers have managed to add tons of 3D building models in Metro Manila, especially in the Makati Central Business District, Bonifacio Global City, and Ortigas Center. While the coverage is far from complete, what’s there is already quite adequate. Going into the details, a lot of the buildings need a lot more improvement, but in terms of showing a bird’s eye view, it’s sufficient enough.

Caveat: some modelers are so enthusiastic, they even provided models of buildings that are still under construction or even under planning! So don’t take these models at face value.

Shown above is a screenshot of the Makati CBD with Mount Makiling on the horizon. PBCom Tower, currently the country’s tallest building, is quite visible.

Next up is Bonifacio Global City. Here you can see a complete model of the Trion Towers of which currently only 1 tower is under construction. Visible along the left edge of the screenshot, is a portion of the Buendia-Kalayaan Flyover model that someone helpfully provided.

Ortigas Center is looking quite impressive with nice detailed models of SM Megamall and Shangri-La Plaza Mall to complement the skyscrapers. I actually like the detailed model of the transmission tower on top of Strata 2000.

And for fun, I tried to recreate a photo of the Makati CBD from the Ayala Avenue–Makati Avenue intersection to see how good the models are. Shown below is the original photo taken by Bernardo Agulo. And below that is the same scene as seen in Google Earth, matched to the best of my abilities. It’s not a perfect match, but it’s quite impressive, don’t you think?