Galaxy of treasures, avenues of loss

Manila suffered another heritage loss last month. The Avenue Theater was a grand Art Deco structure that provided entertainment for generations of Manilans. Designed in the 1930s by National Artist for Architecture Juan Nakpil, the structure was a landmark building that helped define Manila’s downtown – Avenida Rizal. The success of the current pedestrianization and revitalization of that street has led ironically to a tragedy of greed over heritage. This may eventually negate the very logic of urban revivification – that of recovering Manila’s sense and pride of place.

Avenida was the main street of pre and postwar Manila. Movie houses, restaurants, department stores, bookshops and small hotels lined the street from its start near the banks of the Pasig northward, past the drugstores and the San Lazaro Hospital. It was the place to go to for movies, shopping and a night out with family and friends. Busy with traffic by day and vibrant with neon lights till the wee hours of the morning, the avenue was the entertainment capital of Manila and the Philippines.

Named after the street it was on, the Avenue Theater was one of the premier movie houses of Manila. Nakpil had designed it as a cutting-edge cinema before the war and he renovated it after the war to cater to new technologies of air-conditioning, Technicolor and wide screens. I remember watching movies with my mom there in the 1960s and I still remember passing its distinctive neon sign in the 1970s. The flight to the suburbs, however, spelled the downfall of downtown and the cinemas there eventually succumbed to DVDs and the cineplexes of malls.

The renaissance of the Avenida came in the wake of a citywide revitalization led by Mayor Lito Atienza. I had featured bits of these well-received initiatives like the Baywalk, and some parks and riverbank promenades. I also featured the Avenida redo but things must have become so successful that more and more people and more and more business came back.

This meant that the owners of these buildings, who were wont to just maintain them for low rentals before, now scrounged around for the best way to take advantage of the situation. This also meant that a disused cinema made more money if it were just turned into a parking lot or parking building. This is the fate that befell the Avenue Theatre and it is just the start.

Many of the pre and postwar buildings by well-known architects like Nakpil, Antonio, Araneta, and a host of others are now threatened with demolition. The next one to face destruction is reportedly the Galaxy Theater by another National Artist for Architecture: Pablo Antonio Sr.

We hope city authorities realize that Manila will be further devalued if it keeps losing its gems of irreplaceable architectural heritage. But it is not only Manila that is affected by the wrecking-ball attitude to development and "progress." Makati is also threatened by the possible loss or marring of one of its postwar landmarks – the Manila Polo Club.

The Manila Polo Club moved to Makati when it gave up its bayside location to join the exodus to a new suburb touted as the fresh alternative to war-torn central Manila. The Ayalas first developed Forbes Park in their huge estate to attract the business and social elite to more residences and eventually their business offices to the newly planned satellite city. One of the key attractions was the Polo Club.

The ploy worked and to ensure that the new Manila Polo Club was the best that money could build, the board enlisted the talents of Pablo Antonio Sr. as architect. Antonio designed a horizontal complex with large assembly hall-cum-lobby and commodious spaces for dining, lounging and viewing the polo games. The design evoked an elegant lifestyle that set the trend for the homes that eventually rose around it. Antonio used the best Philippine wood and stone and also set the buildings tastefully in a landscape setting designed by planner and landscape architect Louis P. Croft, who was an adviser to President Manuel Quezon before the war. The long sinuous and dramatic drive from McKinley to the steps of the clubhouse is part of his contribution.

The Polo Club has since become an institution as well as a social and architectural landmark. The club, however, has in the last few decades grown in size and required expansion. The new masterplan released recently has several members and heritage advocates up in arms.

The plans show additional structures that reportedly compromise the original scale and elegance of the Antonio design. The lobby is being enlarged to several times its original size, prodding a critic to call the design a "prime example of architectural gigantism – big for the sake of bigness." The budget has also reportedly ballooned to four times the original allocation of funds and that these large spaces will inflate the already high cost of air-conditioning and power.

All is not lost. With construction not yet started there is still time to reconsider the design. The architect may have been given conflicting goals in the design brief. The interpretation may not have been as appreciative of the original architectural flavor and heritage value as it should. The Polo Club could be saved from the fate has befallen hundreds of other architectural landmarks in our beloved metropolis.

The road to urban dystopia is lined with the rubble of lost architectural heritage. Let’s all cross our fingers and hope we can conserve rather that destroy, appreciate rather than just appraise, take pride rather than just profit from all that we do.

* * * PECO Feedback

I also received lots of feedback from last week’s PECO piece. From RBG: "Thanks for sharing your PECO souvenir. I also had that souvenir when I was still in high school at Quiapo Parochial School. My grandparents lived just beside PECO and it was in this establishment where I learned to appreciate books and foreign magazines. Erehwon won all my weekly allowance when I was in college at St. Paul College. It’s nice to revive those years.

From my good friend Professor Butch Zialcita: "Excuse me, Paulo. Arlegui and Castillejos are not off the Escolta, which is located in Sta. Cruz. They are in Quiapo! I used to walk to PECO from our ancestral house in Quiapo. Escolta is separated from Castillejos by Sta. Cruz church, Avenida Rizal, Carriedo, Plaza Miranda, Quiapo Church and Arlegui!"

Thanks Butch …I had a senior moment of disorientation while writing the piece last week.

Finally form LLH: "This, and your other articles, bring good memories of what used to be. Keep it up and thanks for sharing! If you have articles on the web or a site where you regularly post them, kindly send me a link."

Well LLH, the Philippine STAR has a great website, www.philstar.com. I hope to come out with more sites and structures of our gentler past in the near future.

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Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com