Capital intent
March 19, 2005 | 12:00am
Intentions of MMDA honcho Bayani Fernando to turn EDSA into an expressway are ambitious. EDSA is one of the world’s most chaotic beltway thoroughfares in the world. Good luck to him considering the numerous problems of broken concrete, broken driving laws, and broken cooperation from some Metro Manila mayors.
Such urban problems bring back to mind older intentions of government authorities and city planners 65 years ago. President Manuel Quezon and city planner Harry Frost (aided by Filipino architect Juan Arellano, landscape architect Louis P. Croft, and engineer AD Williams) prepared a plan for Quezon City. It was approved for construction in 1940 as part of the foundation of a soon-to-be independent country.
Frost, who took over the job from William Parsons (who died the year before, 1940, after starting the plans for the new capital of Quezon City), wrote the following article in a magazine to explain the promise of a new city. The italicized article below is interspersed with my usual asides relating where we are today compared to where we should have been.
Just after the turn of the century – almost before the Philippine Insurrection had ended – an ambitious city plan was drafted for Manila. As broad new streets were laid out through the suburbs, fine buildings were designed to take advantage of the improved vistas. A great civic renaissance was predicted. The forecast was justified; in 40 years the population of Manila and its suburbs grew from 350,000 to well over a million, and the Philippine capital developed into the most beautiful city in the Orient.
But the result was not what had been anticipated. The truth was that Manila quickly outgrew itself. A new and farther-reaching plan was necessary. We believe that the answer is in Quezon City.
The Old Manila that Admiral Dewey found in 1898 was situated on a narrow tongue of flat delta land between the muddy Pasig River and land-locked Manila Bay. The capital of today extends for five miles along the eastern shore of the bay and inland for another five miles. Behind Manila, a mile or two back from the bay, the uplands of Central Luzon begin. The slope is gradual, ascending to a comparatively cool and dry plateau with an altitude of about 200 feet. The terrain is rugged in spots. Several streams have cut their way through the fertile soil to the underlying volcanic rock, adding variety and interest to the countryside. This is the site of Quezon City, which in a few years is to take the place of Manila as the capital of the Philippines.
Yes, Quezon City was considered "uplands" with a cooler climate than central Manila, no floods, and an expansive idyllic landscape. The new city was considered an answer to Manila’s overflowing population. Little could planners then have imagined that humongous leap from one million to the present 10 million choking Metro Manilans.
Quezon City is no capricious monument to the first president of the Commonwealth. It is the result of a steady and insistent demand for space. The area could just as easily have continued as a batch of unrelated suburbs, but the natural beauty of the irregular plateau, high above Manila, suggested a new, better-planned, more beautiful capital city. Strongly supporting these artistic considerations was the thought of the practical deficiencies of Manila – overcrowding, narrow streets, under-sized building lots, and serious lack of open space. Quezon City is a new urban area planned in advance to make living more pleasant.
The actual genesis of the idea was on a small scale. The uplands were part of a series of feudal landholdings which, even in late 1935 were entirely undeveloped. One vast estate – its 4,000 acres only a mile from the edge of Manila – was bought by the government. Bridges were built and a low-cost housing development started. The idea of a haven for the underprivileged expanded into a dream of a city and the city with great natural advantages blossomed into a new capital of the Commonwealth, with ample room for the rich and poor. The boundaries were made to encompass many suburbs off the eastern edge of Manila. Quezon City was born.
Quezon City’s area of 280 square miles is more than twice that of Manila’s, and the government owns a third of the land. Substantial areas have been set aside for public buildings, schools, parks, and a new 1,200-acre campus for the University of the Philippines, a permanent National Exposition and a large arboretum and nursery to supply the trees and plants for the entire city. With such a large area under government control, there is a fine opportunity for proper city development. Fortunately, also, much of the private property is in large holdings. Thus, city layout is facilitated.
Unfortunately, the war intervened and speculators scrambled for the rest of Quezon City and land prices rose so much that the government was unable to consolidate enough to carry out its ambitious plans. The large arboretum was also not laid out; the Manila Seedling Bank only became a reality over 30 years later. The government also brought in American architect Welton Becket (more famous for the design of the Jai Alai building) to design low-cost housing for laborers. A Barrio Obrero was established as early as 1940.
School sites are being established about a mile and a half apart. School grounds will be from eight to 16 acres in extent. Provision is also being made for a golf course, a vocational school, cemeteries and an aviation field. There will be drives beside the many waterways. The subdivision of private property will follow a plan providing major and minor streets and school and park sites. Areas for public markets have been set aside. Sections intended as business districts are being designed for that purpose, with ample streets and parking.
Quezon City built few of its planned parks. It is only now under Mayor Sonny Belmonte that the parks plan is being revived. Several have already been opened to the public. (More are on the way, according to his Parks department.) Ample streets are not so ample anymore and parking is a perennial problem in the whole metropolis. Major and minor streets were planned but private subdivisions with closed gates were not anticipated. With no proper connectors, the whole transport system has been jammed without proper planning.
Work is proceeding rapidly on the construction of Quezon City. An avenue 200 feet wide has been built from the center of Manila to the capitol site, a distance of five miles. President Quezon laid the cornerstone of the capitol building last Commonwealth Day, November 15. Other public buildings soon to follow are the city hospital and several public markets in widely separated neighborhoods. Plans are being prepared for the Supreme Court Building and the Executive Mansion.
Yes, Malacañang Palace and the Supreme Court were intended to be moved to Quezon City. Even the Philippine Military Academy was supposed to be transferred.
Many city planning opportunities present themselves in Quezon City, not the least of which is the projection of new streets into old Manila. Quezon City is indeed a huge suburb, separated from Manila only by such open park spaces as can be acquired today. The new capital will inject new life into the bigger city.
In a recent message to the Philippine National Assembly, President Quezon summed up the program for the new capital. "The rapidly increasing population of the city of Manila," he declared. "And the highly unsatisfactory conditions in the districts where the laborers live have constituted a problem, which for a long time needed attention. To solve this problem, as well as give impetus to scientific city planning, Quezon City has been created adjoining Manila, and is now being developed into a model community."
Manila is fortunate in that any discussion of the advantages or disadvantages of urban decentralization is still academic. By comparison with an American city, it has few automobiles and no radiating six-lane parkways. Consequently, the urge to move ever farther into the suburbs is almost entirely lacking. Manila is spared the daily five o’clock rush of thousands of cars along jammed thoroughfares. There are no sprawling subdivisions, no no-man’s-land of barbecue huts, road houses and billboards. Manila, instead of looking forward to all old age marked by miles of abandoned slums and, as is the case in many American cities, declining property values, continues its vigorous growth as a center of commerce and industry. It is this condition that Quezon City is designed to promote.
Today, Metro Manila is networked with miles and miles of slums and squatters. There are sprawling subdivisions, thousands of billboards and banners, "road houses" (fast foods along the highways and streets) and barbecue huts (Frost anticipated Andok’s ). Rush hour is measured in millions of cars instead of only thousands and the urge to move farther and farther away from the city is a reality that spells the ravaging of the countryside in a radius that now extends a hundred kilometers from Manila.
The primary problems of overpopulation and declining quality of life have never been addressed. Solutions are few and far between. A consolidated effort that emulates what the government attempted before the war must be considered with urgency. Coordination among LGUs, comprehensive metropolitan-wide planning, and a stronger mandate for a metropolitan development authority are requisite components for any measure of success.
The intent for a model city and a beautiful national capital has dissipated in the face of too many people, politics and not enough planning and persistence. It’s not too late but we have to start today for any chance of us solving not just the traffic on EDSA but the greater problem of bringing the whole metropolis back into the pink of health.
Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.
Such urban problems bring back to mind older intentions of government authorities and city planners 65 years ago. President Manuel Quezon and city planner Harry Frost (aided by Filipino architect Juan Arellano, landscape architect Louis P. Croft, and engineer AD Williams) prepared a plan for Quezon City. It was approved for construction in 1940 as part of the foundation of a soon-to-be independent country.
Frost, who took over the job from William Parsons (who died the year before, 1940, after starting the plans for the new capital of Quezon City), wrote the following article in a magazine to explain the promise of a new city. The italicized article below is interspersed with my usual asides relating where we are today compared to where we should have been.
Just after the turn of the century – almost before the Philippine Insurrection had ended – an ambitious city plan was drafted for Manila. As broad new streets were laid out through the suburbs, fine buildings were designed to take advantage of the improved vistas. A great civic renaissance was predicted. The forecast was justified; in 40 years the population of Manila and its suburbs grew from 350,000 to well over a million, and the Philippine capital developed into the most beautiful city in the Orient.
But the result was not what had been anticipated. The truth was that Manila quickly outgrew itself. A new and farther-reaching plan was necessary. We believe that the answer is in Quezon City.
The Old Manila that Admiral Dewey found in 1898 was situated on a narrow tongue of flat delta land between the muddy Pasig River and land-locked Manila Bay. The capital of today extends for five miles along the eastern shore of the bay and inland for another five miles. Behind Manila, a mile or two back from the bay, the uplands of Central Luzon begin. The slope is gradual, ascending to a comparatively cool and dry plateau with an altitude of about 200 feet. The terrain is rugged in spots. Several streams have cut their way through the fertile soil to the underlying volcanic rock, adding variety and interest to the countryside. This is the site of Quezon City, which in a few years is to take the place of Manila as the capital of the Philippines.
Yes, Quezon City was considered "uplands" with a cooler climate than central Manila, no floods, and an expansive idyllic landscape. The new city was considered an answer to Manila’s overflowing population. Little could planners then have imagined that humongous leap from one million to the present 10 million choking Metro Manilans.
Quezon City is no capricious monument to the first president of the Commonwealth. It is the result of a steady and insistent demand for space. The area could just as easily have continued as a batch of unrelated suburbs, but the natural beauty of the irregular plateau, high above Manila, suggested a new, better-planned, more beautiful capital city. Strongly supporting these artistic considerations was the thought of the practical deficiencies of Manila – overcrowding, narrow streets, under-sized building lots, and serious lack of open space. Quezon City is a new urban area planned in advance to make living more pleasant.
The actual genesis of the idea was on a small scale. The uplands were part of a series of feudal landholdings which, even in late 1935 were entirely undeveloped. One vast estate – its 4,000 acres only a mile from the edge of Manila – was bought by the government. Bridges were built and a low-cost housing development started. The idea of a haven for the underprivileged expanded into a dream of a city and the city with great natural advantages blossomed into a new capital of the Commonwealth, with ample room for the rich and poor. The boundaries were made to encompass many suburbs off the eastern edge of Manila. Quezon City was born.
Quezon City’s area of 280 square miles is more than twice that of Manila’s, and the government owns a third of the land. Substantial areas have been set aside for public buildings, schools, parks, and a new 1,200-acre campus for the University of the Philippines, a permanent National Exposition and a large arboretum and nursery to supply the trees and plants for the entire city. With such a large area under government control, there is a fine opportunity for proper city development. Fortunately, also, much of the private property is in large holdings. Thus, city layout is facilitated.
Unfortunately, the war intervened and speculators scrambled for the rest of Quezon City and land prices rose so much that the government was unable to consolidate enough to carry out its ambitious plans. The large arboretum was also not laid out; the Manila Seedling Bank only became a reality over 30 years later. The government also brought in American architect Welton Becket (more famous for the design of the Jai Alai building) to design low-cost housing for laborers. A Barrio Obrero was established as early as 1940.
School sites are being established about a mile and a half apart. School grounds will be from eight to 16 acres in extent. Provision is also being made for a golf course, a vocational school, cemeteries and an aviation field. There will be drives beside the many waterways. The subdivision of private property will follow a plan providing major and minor streets and school and park sites. Areas for public markets have been set aside. Sections intended as business districts are being designed for that purpose, with ample streets and parking.
Quezon City built few of its planned parks. It is only now under Mayor Sonny Belmonte that the parks plan is being revived. Several have already been opened to the public. (More are on the way, according to his Parks department.) Ample streets are not so ample anymore and parking is a perennial problem in the whole metropolis. Major and minor streets were planned but private subdivisions with closed gates were not anticipated. With no proper connectors, the whole transport system has been jammed without proper planning.
Work is proceeding rapidly on the construction of Quezon City. An avenue 200 feet wide has been built from the center of Manila to the capitol site, a distance of five miles. President Quezon laid the cornerstone of the capitol building last Commonwealth Day, November 15. Other public buildings soon to follow are the city hospital and several public markets in widely separated neighborhoods. Plans are being prepared for the Supreme Court Building and the Executive Mansion.
Yes, Malacañang Palace and the Supreme Court were intended to be moved to Quezon City. Even the Philippine Military Academy was supposed to be transferred.
Many city planning opportunities present themselves in Quezon City, not the least of which is the projection of new streets into old Manila. Quezon City is indeed a huge suburb, separated from Manila only by such open park spaces as can be acquired today. The new capital will inject new life into the bigger city.
In a recent message to the Philippine National Assembly, President Quezon summed up the program for the new capital. "The rapidly increasing population of the city of Manila," he declared. "And the highly unsatisfactory conditions in the districts where the laborers live have constituted a problem, which for a long time needed attention. To solve this problem, as well as give impetus to scientific city planning, Quezon City has been created adjoining Manila, and is now being developed into a model community."
Manila is fortunate in that any discussion of the advantages or disadvantages of urban decentralization is still academic. By comparison with an American city, it has few automobiles and no radiating six-lane parkways. Consequently, the urge to move ever farther into the suburbs is almost entirely lacking. Manila is spared the daily five o’clock rush of thousands of cars along jammed thoroughfares. There are no sprawling subdivisions, no no-man’s-land of barbecue huts, road houses and billboards. Manila, instead of looking forward to all old age marked by miles of abandoned slums and, as is the case in many American cities, declining property values, continues its vigorous growth as a center of commerce and industry. It is this condition that Quezon City is designed to promote.
Today, Metro Manila is networked with miles and miles of slums and squatters. There are sprawling subdivisions, thousands of billboards and banners, "road houses" (fast foods along the highways and streets) and barbecue huts (Frost anticipated Andok’s ). Rush hour is measured in millions of cars instead of only thousands and the urge to move farther and farther away from the city is a reality that spells the ravaging of the countryside in a radius that now extends a hundred kilometers from Manila.
The primary problems of overpopulation and declining quality of life have never been addressed. Solutions are few and far between. A consolidated effort that emulates what the government attempted before the war must be considered with urgency. Coordination among LGUs, comprehensive metropolitan-wide planning, and a stronger mandate for a metropolitan development authority are requisite components for any measure of success.
The intent for a model city and a beautiful national capital has dissipated in the face of too many people, politics and not enough planning and persistence. It’s not too late but we have to start today for any chance of us solving not just the traffic on EDSA but the greater problem of bringing the whole metropolis back into the pink of health.
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