No one ever hears that rallying cry from the excitement-starved anymore. Malls have replaced our old downtowns and shopping streets, trapping us in rat-mazed frenzy, buying the same things from the same shops wherever we go. But the winds of change are blowing, and Main Street, Philippines, represented by Avenida Rizal, is making a comeback. The newly predestrianized Avenida, anchored by an equally revitalized Plaza Lacson, was inaugurated last Monday.
Ideal, Avenue, Galaxy and about a dozen other cinemas kept the post-war crowd entertained. In the days before DVDs, these movie houses, designed by the likes of Juan Nakpil and Pablo Antonio, wowed viewers with Hollywood and local blockbusters. Bakeries, Chinese restaurants with inch-thick coffee mugs, and pharmacies with made-to-order prescriptions lined the long stretch of the road. (My grandfather and grandmom ran the Gonzalez Laboratories near the corner of Quiricada.)
Access to the Avenida was easy. In the pre-war days, it was serviced by the tranvia. After the war, jeepneys took over. Getting to downtown was a breeze and Christmastime found the whole metropolis gawking at the COD display, Good Earth Emporium’s treasures and shoes at Shoemart and Syvel’s. The only problem was those little diesel-guzzling devils took over with a vengeance. By the late Sixties, Rizal Avenue (as it was referred to by then) was buried under increasingly jammed roads and heavy pollution, and blighted beyond recognition. I only ventured out to that area to get books at National Book Store and architectural supplies at Alemars and Enriquez’s nearby.
Three decades later, almost all major shops had moved (along with most of the populace) to the suburbs. The length of the avenue became the long, dark underbelly of a city abandoned by modernity, shunned by the sun and devoid of any urban sanity. The homeless claimed the street at night while the rest of the day, an inefficient jeepney system still plied the route driven as much by political fumes as by toxic unburnt fuel.
Just when everyone thought that Manila was going to sink into the abyss of metropolitan neglect, the mayor and his constituents pulled up their bootstraps and decided to bring Manila back from the dead. Mayor Lito Atienza embarked on an ambitious urban renewal program that was plagued by ill-advised initiatives at the start (some irrecoverable heritage buildings were lost). The good thing is that he and his team are making an effort to learn from all the past mistakes. The mayor has revived the Manila Historical Commission. He has sent his urban design team on study trips (though the effect of somewhat gaudy light fixture selections and kitschy landscape design is still evident). But he has consolidated enough political will to implement a number of effective and popularly received projects, like the Baywalk and Liwasang Bonifacio (in consultation with the Heritage Consevation Society). Avenida Rizal was next.
The new Avenida starts with a new Plaza Lacson. The original Castrillo-shaped monument to the Rayban-wearing mayor was placed too high and obscured by traffic. The current mayor had it brought down in a new setting to serve as a focal point for the re-paved plaza. The city’s plan was to pedestrianize the whole stretch of Avenida Rizal – from the plaza to Claro M. Recto. It’s about time cities realized that pedestrianization is a key element in the fight against blight. Cities like Singapore and KL are immensely pedestrian-friendly, and urban design and landscape architecture in these cities have been harnessed to the max.
The most amazing thing about the New Avenida project is that the mayor was able to bury all the electrical and communications cables underground! Hallelujah! With all the messy lines and poles gone, all the building facades were once again exposed to the air, which was also suddenly cleared of smog since all jeepneys were shunted to other routes.
Building owners were encouraged to fix and repaint their facades. The city has given them a tax holiday on improvements for five years. It did not take long for the owners themselves to take the initiative. Several buildings have even undertaken complete interior renovations for the anticipated increase in business, an increase already evident in reopened shops and pedestrian flow.
To minimize the impact of the huge pylons and LRT tracks, the designers used a new ceiling to hide the cavernous beams and provide a light surface to reflect ambient light. The pylons were used to support lighting and serve as a focal point for benches. Yes, this public space actually provides decent seating!
The pedestrian is king (or queen) in the New Avenida. This does not mean though that vehicles are not allowed. Service vehicles are let in during the early hours of the morning. Emergency vehicles, like firetrucks, can get through. In fact, this arrangement makes it easier for them to quickly access people and buildings in distress. Some may complain about the loss jeepney routes, but it is faster to walk. I was separated from my group (touring with Carlos "walking tour" Celdran), but I got back to the original meeting point about the same time the others got there by taking a vehicle with a fifteen-minute start to boot. I’ll bet that if you thinned the jeepneys by 50 percent, you would still get around faster in central Manila on foot. (Of course, this argument does not mean to say I am for putting people out of work. But don’t we have too many security guards and jeepney drivers when such labor could be channeled towards more productive things? Oh yes, I forgot, we do not have an industrialized economy, we don’t really produce much of anything anymore. OK, back to the avenue.)
On the architecture side, the whole project has allowed the various layers and styles of building to emerge, ready to be appreciated. Walking down the new avenue is a lesson in pre- and post-war architecture. The neo-classic Arguelles building is lovely, now that it’s been cleaned and repainted. The various cinema neon signs are still there, and there are plans to revive them. Hybrid Art Deco is everywhere and owners show an inclination for a great variance in polychromy (makulay talaga).
The whole urban design treatment has been given a retro-colonial look with Machuca tiles and references to Spanish colonial classic revivalism. I would have been more partial to a cleaner contemporary style, but that’s just me. Most visitors would find the whole renovation agreeable. The locals find it so pleasant that it has replaced going to the mall and has provided families a place to stroll and to enjoy a semblance of outdoor life – with no noise, pollution or visual blight (I hope Smart Addict banners do not pop up here).
This New Avenida project augurs well for the future of good urban design in the Philippines. The recent projects of Mayor Atienza and Mayor Sonny Belmonte in Quezon City (the Morato revival featured in an earlier article) will be monitored for how well they work and how continuously these new streetscapes and public spaces will be maintained. Initial observation seems to point to perceptible success in business revival and public usage. I noticed that everyone I met on Avenida was more civil and behaved. They seemed to exude a certain pride in their newly scrubbed surroundings. No one littered. This physical improvement may lead to social improvement and a recovered community self-esteem. As Winston Churchill said, "We shape our environment and our environment shapes us." Now, if only we could do to our road to economic and political recovery what Manila has done to Avenida Rizal!