This week we continue our "top ten" series with another 10 structures and landmarks of greater Manila (the term was coined in the ‘50s to acknowledge how the city had expanded). The source of the pictures in this week’s article is a book on social studies entitled How We and Our Neighbors Live published in 1955.
In the rock-and-roll years of the ‘50s, Manila slowly recovered from the trauma of war. There were not very many new buildings and most of the city’s landmarks were reconstructed edifices from the ‘20s to the ‘40s, monuments to the war dead or institutions. Most of the newer buildings sprouted in Quezon City, the new capital of the Philippines.
Despite the establishment of QC, however, most of the urban population still resided in Manila. The business center was still there and entertainment was found downtown and not in the cogon-filled expanse of Quezon City. We start with the older sites of memory:
1) The Philippine Congress – what we now use as the National Museum was the former legislative building – more commonly known as the Philippine Congress building. It was destroyed almost completely in the liberation of Manila. The Congress was one of the first structures to be re-built, albeit in slightly simplified form (less embellishment). The legislative branch of government would make this their home until 1975 and the transfer to the Batasang Pambansa. It was the site of numerous protests, scandals, political mayhem and such activities that are now spread all over the metropolis. At least then the protest site allowed the public to vent their concerns (sometimes with Molotov cocktails) at the center of power.
2) The Escolta — It was the premier shopping street before and immediately after the war. There was no Makati or Cubao till the late ‘50s and this short stretch of cobbled road was where one could find the latest in fashion, jewelry, shoes and wedding gifts. The supermarket and discount warehouse were nowhere in sight. Too bad Mayor Villegas tore up the granite cobblestones and replaced them with modern concrete in a losing bid to compete with Makati. The wonderful Crystal Arcade was lost in the war and was eventually replaced by the PNB building but many of the old landmarks like the Capitol Theater survived.
3) Modern Banks – Near Escolta was Plaza Cervantes and Juan Luna Street, the site of almost all the banks in the city. Many of the older buildings, however, were demolished to make way for sleeker bank buildings with air-conditioned interiors and countertops without the old grills. Today some of these buildings still exist but most modern Filipinos associate banks with ATMs, those ubiquitous and impersonal dispensers of money.
4) The Philippine General Hospital – Across the Pasig River and along Taft Avenue was another famous ‘50s building, the PGH. To post-war Manilans this was the main medical institution in the metropolis. There were no Medical Cities, Heart or Lung Centers or Belo clinics till 40 years hence. The American architect William Parsons designed the complex in 1908 and great Filipino architects like Arellano, Mapua and Toledo lent their hand to the design of buildings in the compound. Today, it still caters to the medical needs of a mega city and the nation. As a landmark, however, it suffers from the pollution of Taft and the densification of adjoining properties. The architectural heritage of the site is threatened by commercial establishments and by the ever-increasing load of patients that flock to the center every day.
5) The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier — memories of the war were still fresh in people’s minds in the ‘50s. A tomb honoring the war dead (with a representative unidentified remains of a Filipino soldier) was constructed in Fort Santiago. The designer was probably Federico Ilustre (hence the use of three columns which we integrated from the Quezon memorial). The tomb was a popular site for visitation and yearly memorial services. It was moved to the Libingan ng mga Bayani in the 1960s.
6) Tutuban — Another holdover from the pre-war era (and actually the Spanish era) was the Tutuban. The Philippine National Railways was quickly resurrected after the war and was one of the most efficient in Asia in the ‘50s. When highways started to get built in the Sixties the system fell into disrepair (also because of graft and general mismanagement). Today the building is a mall and the railway system has gone to pot.
7) University of Santo Tomas – One of the landmarks that played an important role in the war was UST. The complex served as a prison for civilian Americans trapped in Manila during the war. It was one of the first places "liberated" by the US forces in 1945. Today, the campus is a crowded complex that still stands as a visible public landmark and one of the few remaining places where some green exists in the city.
8) Welcome – The newer landmarks of Greater Manila started with the Welcome Rotunda – named because of the literal manifestation of hospitality on top of the modernist monument. The rotunda was the gateway to the new capital Quezon City. It still functions as an entry landmark today (although QC is no longer the capital). I forget when "Welcome" got turned into "Mabuhay" though and still wish the original English sign was up there as a reminder of when we still spoke the language.
9) Quezon City Hall – The first Quezon City hall was a shack on Highway 54 (now EDSA). In the early ‘50s a more modern building was constructed. The form used by Federico Ilustre was the traditional Parsons-like civic structure with Frank Lloyd Wright-like roof and arched openings. The structure still exists today as the QC Police station. The city hall moved in the ’60s to a spanking-new high rise by the Elliptical "circle."
10) The University of the Philippines – Finally, the most modern landmarks in the new city were the concrete international style buildings of the new University of the Philippines, in Diliman. The main building–Quezon Hall – was an imposing structure designed by Juan Nakpil and patterned after Cranbrook in the United States. The Oblation was transferred in front of this building in 1949 marking the move of the institution out of old Manila. This exodus from the central city was to continue and still continues today.