The Heritage Conservation Society

http://news.inq7.net/lifestyle/index.php?index=2&story_id=57953

   
Nov 28, 2005
By Augusto Villalon
Inquirer News Service

CEBU’S premier heritage town pulsated with tradition during Sunday’s Kabkaban Festival in Carcar.

The history of Kabkaban parallels the rise of heritage awareness in Carcar.

The
local affiliate of the Heritage Conservation Society, the Carcar
Heritage Conservation Society (CHCS), has been working for years to
revive interest in the special heritage of the town.

They
believed a special event could refocus attention on the town’s
vanishing heritage, so they solicited funds and organized the first
Kabkaban Festival in 2000.

Succeeding festivals since were
modest, parallel with CHCS’s slow progress in raising local-heritage
awareness. It took a long time for locals to believe their town’s
heritage was unique not only to Cebu but to the Philippines as well.
The residents and local government had other development ideas for the
town. Preservation was not on their agenda.

Since 2000, CHCS and
the local government struggled with conflicting heritage visions. The
conflict ended this year when Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia guided both sides
toward unifying their vision to recognize and preserve their heritage.

The first step taken was to declare Carcar a heritage town.
 
The provincial and local governments, together with CHCS, sealed their
support and committed to preserve the town heritage by passing an
ordinance, the first such in Cebu. It was signed just a few weeks
before this year’s Kabkaban.

With the passing of the ordinance,
private-public agreement, essential to the success of heritage
projects, was finally attained.

The provincial and local
governments provided generous subsidies to underwrite this year’s
festival and asked CHCS members to plan and organize the 2005 festival.

Kabkaban
Festival this year signaled the start of cooperation of all sectors to
preserve heritage in Carcar. There was much to celebrate.

The day kicked off with a sale of artworks by Carcaranon and Cebuano artists, who donated their proceeds to fund CHCS projects.

Romulo
Galicano, a nationally acclaimed award-winning artist born in Carcar,
donated a major oil painting for auction which raised over P260,000 for
the CHCS.

But it was Carcar itself that was on display that day.

Manny
Castro, Jerry Alfafara and Zarah Castro, Carcar’s leading heritage
advocates, threw open the doors to their magnificent Spanish colonial
homes, inviting everyone to see for themselves why the Carcar Heritage
Conservation Society is determined to save the treasures of the town.

Their houses never looked as good as they did that day, each coming through with a proud sheen I had never seen before.

Carcar’s treasures go beyond the town’s colonial homes, church and convento.

Its
calado architecture from the 1920s is unsurpassed in the country. The
wooden faćades of the Carcar Dispensary and Saint Catherine’s Academy
have carved fretwork so delicate it seems like they could flutter with
the breeze like fragile heirloom lace.

Wooden houses from the
unappreciated post-war era still stand in Carcar streets, a type of
architecture so descriptive of life during that forgotten period of our
national history which is sadly dismissed by many as not of heritage
quality.

A wonderful round kiosk from the American period, one of
the best surviving examples of its genre in the country, valiantly
stands at the center of the Carcar Rotunda, whose pride of place is now
totally stolen by offending super large-scale billboards.

The
Kabkaban parade, choreographed by the award-winning CHCS member and
2005 festival organizer, Val Sandiego, wound its way from the hilltop
church to the town below.

Carcar youth danced tirelessly through
the streets to the rhythm of drums and loud brass bands, followed by
barangay members who walked behind colorful floats, waving and calling
out to their friends who either lined the sidewalks or watched from
windows.

It was a festival for the townspeople. It was a family
event without the tourist polish the major festivals somehow put on in
their later years. Everyone was simply having a grand time that day.

The
festival organizers vowed to keep the spirit of the festival alive as
an event expressing Carcar culture, rather than degenerating into a
dance competition like today’s commercialized Sinulog Festival of Cebu
City.

And the festival was superb. All of the participants danced
in the streets with such gusto, joined by spectators whenever they
could. It was in no way a well-rehearsed polished performance seen in
most of the institutionalized fiestas in the country.

Kabkaban
came through with authentic Carcar flavor, reinforcing local identity
so well you could see the Carcaranons glow with pride.

It was so much fun that I am definitely going back next year.

Heritage watch

Take a look at the street lamps that have recently sprouted on the Pasay side of Roxas Boulevard.

Feedback is welcome at afvillalon@hotmail.com

By Paulo Alcazaren
The Philippine STAR
11/26/2005

I
start my classes in Philippine architectural history at the University
of the Philippines College of Architecture each year by asking the
students to list down 10 important Filipino architects or landscape
architects. Most can name only two or three architects and few can come
up with only one landscape architect of note. Leandro Locsin and Bobby
Mañosa are the most common answers for architects while IP Santos is
the name that crops up for landscape architecture.

Almost no one can name any pre-war architect and so the
authorship of over a hundred years of modern Philippine design is
anonymous to most design students. Even fewer can name the three
architects awarded the National Artist Award for Architecture – Juan
Nakpil, Pablo Antonio Sr., and Leandro Locsin, of course. There are far
more unrecognized architects than a country that prides itself in
creativity should have. Three generations of designers have come and
gone and the prime example of these lost heroes is Juan Marcos de
Guzman Arellano.

The Post Office, Metropolitan Theater, Legislative building,
and dozens of civic buildings are part of his immense body of work. Yet
he merits no award and little printed space in history books.

Juan was born in April 25, 1888 to a family in the arts, music, and architecture. His father Luis was a maestro de obras. His elder brother was also a maestro de obras
and the first architect to be retained by the new American colonial
government to survey the city. Juan’s cousin Alejandro joined him at
the Bureau of Public Works in 1927 and later ran Juan’s architectural
office (he was in charge of drawings for the Metropolitan Theater).
Alejandro also succeeded Juan as dean of the FEATI School of
Architecture and Fine Arts in 1955. Otillio Arellano was Juan’s nephew
(the son of Arcadio).

Juan attended the Ateneo Municipal and graduated in 1908. His
first interest was reportedly painting and he trained under Lorenzo
Guerrero, the "Ermita Master," Toribio Antillon, and Fabian de la Rosa.
He, however, decided to pursue architecture instead; probably because
it would earn him a living.

Arellano was one of the first pensionados in
architecture (after Carlos Barreto – Drexel 1908, Antonio Toledo – Ohio
State University, and Tomas Mapua – Cornell University).

Juan attended the Philidelphia Academy of Fine Arts in 1911
and moved on to Drexel Institute for his bachelor’s degree in
Architecture. He was trained in the Beaux Arts system. He worked for
George Post and Sons in New York and is said to have worked for
Frederick Olmsted Jr., the landscape architect and planner (and son of
Frederick Law Olmsted who designed Central Park) in 1912 or 1913. That
year, he also traveled to Europe and did the traditional grand tour –
sketching and painting architectural monuments and landscapes.

Arellano returned home to start a private practice with his
brother Arcadio Arellano between 1913 and 1916. He later on decided to
join the Bureau of Public Works at an auspicious time – the end of the
transition period when the last American consulting architects George
Fenhagen and Ralph Harrington Doanne (after Edgar Bourne and William
Parsons) were leaving. Here, Arellano started what was to be his
longest string of projects and ones that have defined the American
colonial and Philippine commonwealth periods.

He was made supervising architect with Tomas Mapua at the BPW
until 1927 when he took a study leave for the United States. This trip
to the US was key to his transition in styles to the Art Deco –
previously, he had taken the Neoclassic style, which was the signature
style of government then. While in the States, he exhibited his
"colorful paintings" in Washington DC’s famous Arts Club in 1927 (he
had not forgotten his art).

Arellano returned to Manila in 1930 and designed the
Metropolitan Theater. It was controversially "moderne," but became the
de facto cultural center of Manila and the Philippines. He continued to
act as consulting architect for the BPW (Tomas Mapua had retired
earlier to head his new school The Mapua Institute of Technology)
overseeing the production of the first zoning plan for Manila and
eventually teaming up with American Harry Frost to design the new
capital of Quezon City in 1940.

He also designed a scheme for the High Commission of the
United States (eventually the American Embassy). His design for a
demesne on the bay’s edge was an elegant revival-style mansion, which
took great advantage of the city’s best seaside view. The design was
nixed by the Americans in favor of a bland federal-style structure that
was overpriced and hot inside (the architects did not understand
tropical design).

Arellano retired after the war. His devastated buildings (the
legislature, post office and Jones Bridge) were reconstructed, but he
lamented that the original designs were not followed and were poor
replications of the grand edifices they once were.

Arellano was still active in the profession until the
mid-’50s. He had helped start the first professional association in the
early ’30s and designed the logo of the Philippine Institute of
Architects. He retired in 1956 at age 68 and went back to his first
love – painting. In 1960, he exhibited over 300 paintings at the Manila
YMCA, giving the public a rare (and last and only) glimpse at his
exemplary talent.

Juan Arellano was a renaissance man. He had been taught under
the Beaux Artes method, which trained designers in painting, sculpture,
classical art, and architectural history with heavy doses of music and
culture. His (along with his generation of architects) was a holistic
approach to teaching architecture and design. Arellano sought to
practice that way and eventually designed the syllabi of the country’s
early schools under the same model.

The war and the subsequent devolution of the profession have
diminished the role and function of modern architects. Today, we
produce mere draftsmen hoping to land OFW jobs instead of leaders who
can help (literally) build a stronger and more elegant republic.

We need to recover the works of Arellano (like the
Metropolitan Theater) and others of his generation to be able to
benefit from a treasure trove of heritage in architecture.

The future of the design professions lies in making sure that
architectural history and heritage exist for students to learn from and
for the public to benefit by using. Otherwise, it is back to square one
and our young students will only look overseas for both their heroes
and ultimately their identities.

View
Juan Arellano’s architectural sketches and lyrical paintings at the
Lopez Museum, ground floor, Benpres Building, Exchange Road in Ortigas
Center, Pasig City until April of 2006.

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

http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=57478

   
Nov 23, 2005

By Jerome Aning
Inquirer News Service   

(Second of two parts)

WHEN IT RAINS, it pours inside the Metropolitan Theater.

Neglected
for almost 10 years, the Met’s roof is riddled with holes that let in
sunlight, rain, air pollution and insects — all of which have
contributed to the theater’s deterioration.

The stage is littered
with debris. The orchestra pit is a murky pool. The seats are moldy.
Venturing inside the Met has become a dangerous exercise, one has to
sign a waiver: Enter at your own risk.

This is the Met today,
abandoned for various reasons ranging from lack of funds to disunity
among the agencies responsible for its upkeep namely, the National
Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Government Service
Insurance System (GSIS) and the City of Manila.

The three
agencies, however, have set aside their differences and signed a work
and action plan (WAP) in June. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has
ordered the release of P50 million to partially fund the restoration of
the theater located at the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila.

Lawyer
Rose Beatrix "Trixie" Angeles, NCCA commissioner in charge of national
heritage sites, could not say how long the restoration would take. She
noted, however, that the tripartite agreement signed by the NCCA, GSIS
and City Hall shall be in effect for 25 years, renewable upon the
mutual agreement of the parties.

Angeles said the plan was to
restore the Met, as much as possible to the 1978 version ordered by
former first lady Imelda Marcos.

The commissioner said one just
could not ignore the "layers of history" in a structure such as the Met
– from 1931, the year it was constructed to 1996, the year it shut
down.

"Everything that passes in between is still history and is
recorded in the structure. That’s the modern concept of restoration –
you take into consideration all the interventions that have been made,"
she told the Inquirer.

Blueprints destroyed
Angeles
said the 1978 restorers led by Otillo Arellano, nephew of the Met’s
original architect Juan Arellano, "did not do such a bad job" although
she faulted them for not leaving enough documentation. Aside from the
structure itself, the NCCA restorers only have a "working plan" of the
original 1931 building as well as several descriptive articles from old
newspapers.

Richard Tuason-Sanchez Bautista, NCCA architect in
charge of the Met’s restoration, said the 1931 blueprint was destroyed
in the war. The plans and other files on the 1978 Met as well as Otillo
Arellano himself, perished in separate fires in the 1980s.

"It’s
very unlikely that we can restore the Met to the 1930s version because
of lack of information," Bautista said. "But more or less, what’s in
the 1930s drawing and the existing structure renovated in 1978, are
still the same."

Art Deco
The Met was
built in the Art Deco style, which was popular in North America and
Europe in the 1930s. Juan Arellano designed a rectangular shaped
auditorium, flanked on each side by pavilions and open courtyards.

The
theater’s cornerstone was laid in 1930, rising from public land leased
in 1929 through the efforts of Manila Mayor Tomas Earnshaw to the
Metropolitan Theater Company (MTC).

The MTC, composed of eminent
Manila residents such as Horace Pon, Antonio Milliam, Leopoldo Khan,
Manuel Camus, Enrique Zobel and Rafael Palma, raised P1 million for the
project.

Arellano’s brother Arcadio added the Philippine-style
ornamentation to the structure, giving rise to a hybridized Art Deco
style unique in the country.

Amorsolo paintings
The
theater’s façade had rectangular stained glass windows depicting
sunbursts. The stepped façade had "tapestries" of colored tiles –
zigzag motifs evoking the batik or the traditional Malay dyed fabric –
and bas-reliefs of stylized Philippine flora.

The segmental
arched parapet had small Muslim minarets with fountain designs while
the colonnade had low-relief medallions. The principal grilled
entrances portrayed art deco birds of paradise.

Inside the
theater, the lobby or foyer displayed two mural paintings titled "The
Dance" and "History of Music" by Fernando Amorsolo. There were modern
sculptures of Franceso R. Monti, an Italian sculptor residing in the
Philippines.

The Met was inaugurated on Dec. 10, 1931. In its
heyday, the theater seated 1,670 people: 846 in the orchestra, 116 in
the lodge and 708 in the balcony.

If the restoration succeeds, this new Met will be the sixth reincarnation of the 74-year-old edifice.

The
first Met catered to the cultural proclivities of the country’s elite
in the ’30s while the second showcased the wartime flowering of
Filipino culture.

Ruined by the Allied Liberation, the third Met
went through several transformations — boxing arena, cheap motel, gay
bar, basketball court, garage and warehouse and finally home to 50
squatter families.

The fourth Met purported to pave the way for
the renaissance of the performing arts in the 1970s under the "New
Society" of the Marcos regime. The collapse of the dictatorship gave
way to the fifth Met, a dying symbol of its lost glory.

The Met finally closed down, with the final performance in its auditorium in 1996.

New life
People
of the 1980s and early 1990s best remember the Met as the setting for
the finale of the Sharon Cuneta blockbuster, "Bituing Walang Ningning."
The theater was also where actress now Lipa City Mayor Vilma Santos
aired her weekly variety show.

Whether the Met’s latest restoration would be its last, remains to be seen.

As Angeles put it: "We can’t bring back the Met’s old glory but we can usher in a new one."

http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=57353

   
Nov 22, 2005

By Jerome Aning
Inquirer News Service

(First of two parts)

AFTER
almost a decade of neglect and disuse, the Metropolitan Theater –
fondly called the Met — will be restored to its former glory.

Three
government agencies finally got their act together and will be working
to restore the “grand dame” of Manila’s theaters, which is located at
the Liwasang Bonifacio in Manila.

The National Commission for
Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Government Service Insurance System
(GSIS) and the City of Manila had set aside their differences and
signed a work and action plan last June.

In response, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo ordered the release of P50 million to partially fund the restoration of the Met.

A
private consultancy firm was commissioned to conduct a detailed
engineering study (DES) of the theater, which began last week. In five
months, the firm will submit its report detailing the condition of the
Met’s structure and how it could be restored.

It took no less
than Ms Arroyo herself to end the feud among the NCCA, GSIS and City
Hall. On Jan. 7, 2004, she witnessed the signing of a tripartite
agreement among Manila Mayor Lito Atienza, GSIS president Winston
Garcia and Tourism Undersecretary Evelyn Pantig, NCCA chair.

The
agreement was an offshoot of the President’s speech at the 2002
Cultural and Arts Conference, where she spoke of the need to make
culture “folksy,” stressing that one of her administration’s priorities
was to provide an accessible culture and arts venue for the masses.

“We must make culture available … [and] attractive to the masses,” Ms Arroyo said.

“I
don’t think the Cultural Center of the Philippines will serve this
purpose because it is imposing, unapproachable and elitist," she said.
"The one that the poor will find approachable physically and
psychologically is the Met and I feel we should revive it.”

Curiously,
the Arroyo administration’s goal of pro-poor and people-oriented
programs for the soon-to-be restored Met were the same as former first
lady and Metro Manila governor Imelda Marcos’ when she pushed for the
Met’s 1978 renovation.

“This theater is dedicated to a singular
goal: To surface the true, the good and the beautiful in the Filipino
in Metropolitan Manila,” Marcos said in her message for the 1978
reopening.

NCCA supervision
Under the 2004
tripartite agreement, the NCCA, GSIS and City Hall would put together
their resources to spearhead the restoration of the Met to its former
grandeur befitting the country’s center of the arts and culture for the
masses.

The GSIS, as owner of the 7.6-hectare lot where the Met
stands, turned over to City Hall the property, except for the
commercial spaces. Under the agreement, the GSIS recognized the fact
that as a social security institution, it could not operate, maintain
and preserve the Met.

For its part, the City Hall of Manila
committed to spearhead the enhancement and improvement not only of the
Met’s physical structure, but also its cultural and historical
significance. It would also construct or improve the Met’s music halls,
actor’s studio, conference and lecture rooms, library, museum,
multipurpose hall or ballroom, toilets rooms and parking areas.

However,
City Hall was tasked to conduct the restoration of the Met in
accordance with the internationally accepted standards of conservation
that the NCCA shall provide.

Restoring the theater
How the Met’s restoration should proceed and how long it would take depends on the cooperation of the three agencies.

Rose
Beatrix Angeles, NCCA commissioner in charge of national heritage
sites, said the commission’s plan was to restore the Met as much a
possible to the 1978 version. The lead architect then was Otillo
Arellano, nephew of the building’s original architect in 1931, Juan
Arellano.

But before the restoration work could begin, the three
agencies needed to agree on the work and action plan, or WAP. This was
when the delays started.

Angeles said some people in City Hall
thought that the NCCA would simply turn over the P50 million to the
city government, leaving the bidding and the construction work to City
Hall.

The commissioner stressed that the agreement stated that
the rehabilitation was to be a collaborative work of the three agencies.

She
added that the NCCA had a mandate to make sure that its funds were used
properly in the restoration, which should be done in accordance with
the internationally accepted standards set by the International Council
for Monuments and Sites (Icomos).

The Paris-based Icomos is one of Unesco’s two world heritage-monitoring arms.

Objections and revisions
The
Met Conservation Committee, which is chaired by Manila Mayor Atienza,
is composed of another representative from the city, two from the GSIS
and two from the NCCA.

After the 2004 elections, the NCCA
conducted a feasibility study, which included the inspection of the
property and the preparation of pertinent documents.

In September
the same year, the NCCA came up with the WAP. Angeles said that while
the GSIS agreed with the WAP the following month, the City of Manila
kept returning the draft to the NCCA with various objections and asking
for revisions.

It was only in April 2005, “after much persuasion” that the NCCA was able to get City Hall to agree to the WAP, Angeles said.

Personally,
however, the commissioner said she thought the contracts with City Hall
were “strange” because by law, it’s the NCCA — or more particularly,
one of its member agencies, the National Historical Institute (NHI) –
that should conduct the restoration of landmarks.

Atienza’s track record
“The
restoration is being turned over to a non-expert … so we have to ensure
that City Hall complies with the highest standards of conservation,”
she said, recalling that the Manila city government “does not exactly
rank high” among conservationists and heritage-savers.

Angeles
was referring to Atienza’s disagreements with the NCCA, the NHI, the
National Museum and other government agencies and private groups on the
preservation of “culturally significant” sites, such as the Jai-Alai
Building, Mehan Garden, Arroceros Forest Park, the Paco and Tutuban
train stations, and the San Lazaro racetrack.

The commissioner
also said that people should not be suspicious or impatient if they
don’t see any actual construction work at the Met just yet.

“Everything
has to be in order … we want to be as close to the original as
possible. We’ll make sure that much of the original remains there for
the next generations to appreciate,” Angeles said.

Research work
The
commissioner recounted that in the ongoing restoration work for the
Montpelier estate of US President James Madison in Orange, Virginia,
the research alone took two years, during which the building was not
touched. The estate, which changed hands twice, would be restored to
its 1820s version.

The seven-year restoration employed not just researchers but also assorted craftsmen, architects and even archaeologists.

“We
do move slowly, yes, but the rewards will last longer. We want to
restore the Met and make it usable. We want to make it sturdy so it
will remain a symbol for a long, long time,” Angeles explained.

She
said the P50 million that would be given to City Hall was also subject
to government regulations on spending and auditing. The amount was not
nearly enough for the Met’s complete restoration, which was estimated
to be P200 million.

The NCCA released an initial P15 million, of which P1 million was earmarked for the full documentation of the Met.

Another
P4 million was set for the detailed engineering study (DES), the
contract for which was awarded to Schema Konsult Inc., a Pasig
City-based engineering, planning and project management consultancy
firm.

Old meets new
The remaining P10
million would be released to City Hall for the restoration of the
theater roof, which is a primary concern. Also in the priority list
are: raising the floor from floodwaters and checking the electrical
system.

Angeles said the NCCA also wanted to conduct “a deeper
investigation of the structure, to find out exactly what changes were
made between the 1930s and the 1978 structure.”

“If you go in
without a plan, you could lose architectural details and designs, and
technological innovations that we might not have seen,” she explained.

Architecture
scholar Edson Cabalfin said the culture expressed in the architectural
style of a building constructed in a particular era is often the
product of “intermingling and hybridization of cultures.”

Nationalists
may point out that the Art Deco style of the Met was something foreign
and forced upon by American colonizers. Not so, according to Cabalfin,
author of a critical historiography of the Philippine Art Deco from
1927 to 1941.

He said the Met and the other Art Deco buildings
served as expressions of the Filipino struggle for identity — one that
would blend Filipino, Asian, Spanish and American influences.

Met as symbol
“[A]s
much as Art Deco is seen as the seeming ‘infiltration’ of a foreign
agent in another culture, the style can also be read as the means an
‘infiltrated’ culture adapts and responds to an outside power,”
Cabalfin explained.

Philippine Art Deco then, he added, can be
understood as “the dynamics of the imposition of power by the colonizer
and the demonstration of resistance and empowerment of the colonized.”

Angeles said the NCCA realized that its reputation was at stake with the Met restoration project.

“The
Met is more than a theater. It is a symbol. If we screw up this one,
we’ll never live it down. We’ll become known as the agency that ruined
the Met. The people may forget the City of Manila or GSIS, but they
will not forget the NCCA because this [restoration] is our mandate,”
she said.

By Paulo Alcazaren
The Philippine STAR 11/19/2005

The life and works of Italian sculptor Francesco Monti interested a lot of readers last week. A good number wrote to point out other Montis that have survived the last half century. This is a letter from Dr. T.M. Topacio Jr., Professor Emeritus and former dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of the Philippines: 

"Dear Mr. Alcazaren: 

"I always read your feature articles in City Sense in the Philippine STAR. Although I am a veterinarian by profession, I appreciate beautiful buildings and you always feature them in your articles.

"In the November 5 issue of the STAR where you featured ‘Monumental Monti,’ I saw his creation called ‘Homage to Agriculture,’ which shows the Philippine carabao with a beautiful lady astride the animal. I would like to think that Monti interpreted the carabao as the symbol of Philippine agriculture and the lady represented the Philippines. It is indeed a fitting homage to our country. It was mentioned that this work of Monti was erected in Bacolod. Can you please tell me where it is located there? I would like to see this original work.

"I would like to inform you that there is an exact replica of Monti’s work installed in the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) offices on Visayas Ave., Diliman, Quezon City. The replica was formerly  installed at the original building of the BAI in Nagtahan, Pandacan, Manila, before World War II. The BAI was transferred to its present site. The replica of the Monti homage was likewise transferred. On the 75th anniversary of the BAI, the Monti homage was permanently installed with appropriate ceremonies as its symbol.  Visitors were asking who designed the homage. Nobody knew the answer. I found the answer when I read your article. I will relay this to the director of the BAI so that Monti will be given due recognition even if it’s only a replica. But I hope you can inform me where the original is located.

"Thank you and I wish you continuing success in your work."

Thank you, Dr. Topacio. The Monti sculpture is located in the plaza in front of the old provincial capitol building in Bacolod City. Thank you, too, for the information on the homage. I will relay it to Prof. Boots Herrera. By the way, the Monti exhibit is in Bacolod and it will move on to Iloilo after that.

Another letter I received from Architect E. Garrido is more general but also refers to the homage paid:         

"Greetings from Honolulu:

"Your article ‘Monumental Monti’ appropriately pays homage to a man that has contributed a lot to Manila’s public arts and urban spaces.

"I just came back from a 12-day trip to Washington, D.C. (Oct. 21 to Nov. 1) as part of the program I am currently attending here at the East-West Center in Honolulu, and this trip has given me another opportunity to view the city from a visitor/non-Washingtonian perspective.

"A guided tour by one of our program officers (who is also a certified Washington, D.C. tour conductor) reinforced my previous view of the city as the best-planned city in the world built mostly during the modern era. My claim would lead to endless discussion if I would try to expound on it. But let me just give a few examples: the DuPont Circle, where my hotel is located, is one of the seven circles that appear in the original L’Enfant’s plan for Washington, D.C. Today the neighborhood maintains its historic character, the same most likely with others in D.C., with row houses, mansions, and office buildings from around the 1870s onwards still neatly maintained.

"The DuPont Circle is landmarked by a fountain created by the architect Henry Bacon and the sculptor Daniel Chester French, who also made the beautiful sculpture now prominently located at The Mall near Capitol Hill. These indicate, among many others, that in the planning and development of the city, they paid a lot of attention and consideration to the concepts of its creators, planners, designers, sculptors, architects and other artists. A road crossing the Mall between Washington and Lincoln Memorials, I found out, is named after Henry Bacon, who was the architect of the Lincoln Memorial and was a sculptor also. It is depressing to know where Manila is at now, considering that Daniel H. Burnham is common to both these cities. Also equally depressing is that we tend to forget individuals like Monti, who contributed a lot to our public spaces.

"Thanks for writing about Monti and continuously reminding us of the state of our urban spaces in the Philippines."

Thank you, E.G. Washington is truly magnificent but Manila should have been as majestic if not for the war and the lack of will. Public art and sculpture is making a great comeback in the United States and Europe. Here, although we have had a number of new statues installed, they generally need better settings and larger open spaces (blessed with trees and landscaping) than is usually provided. Many installations have to make do with street islands and leftover space.

Our public sculpture should be conserved. Work by old masters like Tolentino, Monti, Caedo, Mendoza and pre-war artists abound in our cities and towns. Many have been damaged and neglected, or worse, torn down to be replaced by billboards or useless structures.

Our cities could use an Art Commission like those in Washington, D.C. and New York, that review all proposals for public sculpture and make sure that public spaces and civic buildings are blessed, not blighted. Embellishment is part of Pinoy culture. Filipino architects, urban designers and landscape architects should try to rediscover embellishment and articulation in motifs applied even to modern architecture. Enough of this minimalist nonsense! Let our emotions show and share it with everyone. Monti was Italian but we share the Italians’ lust for life and art. To deny this would be to deny our own culture.

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

http://news.inq7.net/lifestyle/index.php?index=2&story_id=56441

   
Nov 14, 2005

By Augusto Villalon

IN
THE EARLY PART of the 20th century, when architectural heritage was
being discovered, each European country saw it as a matter of national
concern. The expertise developed in conservation remained locked within
national borders.

Responding to the need to internationalize and
standardize heritage conservation theories and procedures, the
International Council on Monuments and Sites (Icomos) was established
40 years ago in 1956 as an organization for heritage professionals. It
set up its secretariat in Paris.

In its role as one of the three
advisory bodies of the Unesco World Heritage Committee, Icomos
specialists evaluate cultural (manmade) site nominations to the World
Heritage List, recommend their inscription or suggest variations on
site preservation to enhance their World Heritage value.

Icomos
members also undertake international survey missions to determine
maintenance conditions of World Heritage properties and improve their
conservation status.

The other World Heritage advisory
organizations are the International Conservation Union (IUCN)
headquartered in Gland, Switzerland, responsible for all natural
properties; and the International Centre for the Study of the
Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (Iccrom) in Rome,
which provides educational and training needs.

Icomos regulates
and standardizes the practice of conservation internationally through
charters on various aspects of conservation practice and procedures,
written and passed by professionals who have reached consensus after an
exhaustive period of meetings and debates.

The Venice Charter
(1964) outlines the general principles for conservation and is known
today as the principal reference that sets the standards and procedures
to be followed by conservation professionals. It is the official code
governing the conservation of cultural properties.

The broad
scope of the Charter includes principles on built heritage: the
restoration of monuments and the conservation of ancient historical
centers, landscape, and places of artistic and historical importance.

Icomos
members are invited to join scientific committees on specialized
conservation aspects such as documentation, archaeology, vernacular
architecture, historic towns, legal, cultural routes, cultural tourism,
underwater heritage, site interpretation, 20th-century architecture,
shared (colonial) architecture, and other topics.

Each scientific
committee has written its own charter which functions in the same way
as the Venice Charter does, standardizing and regulating professional
practice within its area of specialization.

To the conservation
professional, the advantage of Icomos membership is the information
exchange offered by an international network of specialists, a great
resource for countries like the Philippines where no university offers
courses on the conservation of built heritage. Consultation with the
foremost international specialists is readily available through the
Icomos network.

The Icomos Philippine Committee is composed of a
small group of professional heritage practitioners (architects,
historians, researchers, writers, archaeologists, academics and
lawyers) who either work on their own or partner with other
conservation organizations such as the National Commission for Culture
and the Arts, National Historical Institute, National Museum and
Heritage Conservation Society.

Icomos Philippine Committee
members continue to be involved in the identification and preparation
of Philippine sites for inscription in the Unesco World Heritage List,
and participate in the site maintenance after inscription.

The
restoration of the Gota de Leche building and of the Far Eastern
University campus in Manila, conservation works by Philippine members,
have been among the winners of the 2003 and 2005 Unesco Asia-Pacific
Cultural Heritage Awards.

Others are actively involved in
heritage-conservation projects for private or government entities in
Manila and provinces. They have completed a variety of projects: the
cleaning and restoration of Santo Niño Basilica in Cebu, the
preparation of a Cultural Heritage Conservation Plan for the City of
Dapitan, and the restoration of the American colonial-era Pangasinan
Provincial Capitol.

The small but growing band of heritage
practitioners is contributing to nation-building by restoring the
places that should make Filipinos proud to have as their heritage.

Heritage watch

"Alvar Aalto, Timeless Expressions" has just finished its run at the Ayala Museum.

Aalto
is among the greatest icons of modern architecture. This exhibit was a
rare opportunity in Manila for a close look at examples of his work.

Building
mostly with natural stone and wood from his native Finland, he used the
most sophisticated and advanced technology available to produce simple,
timeless lines and forms that effortlessly integrate his architecture
into the Nordic landscape.

Architecture, furniture and
furnishings by Aalto flow from organic shapes of nature that have
endured to become today’s design classics.

The exhibition,
organized by the Embassy of Finland and the Aalto Museum at Jyv„skyl„
in Finland, traces the development of the Aalto philosophy through a
look at houses designed during his long career spanning 1923-1970.

The Icomos website is www.international.icomos.org Contact Icomos Philippine Committee at afvillalon@hotmail.com

http://news.inq7.net/regions/index.php?index=1&story_id=56067
Nov 10, 2005

By Gil Francis Arevalo
Inquirer News Service

SEVERAL
HISTORICAL LANDMARKS have been destroyed in some parts of the country
to give way for commercial, residential and infrastructure projects,
but in Albay, people are trying to restore those that are threatened or
abandoned in their communities.

Concerned architects are
collaborating to identify the landmarks in Albay, conduct research on
them, retrieve old photos, and take photos of their present conditions.

The
sites include the Tabaco Cimborio in Tabaco City; centuries-old
churches in Sto. Domingo, Bacacay, Daraga, Camalig, Oas and Ligao
towns; the Colegio de San Buenaventura ruins in Guinobatan; Villa
Encantada in Malinao; Cagsawa Ruins in Daraga; Budiao in Daraga;
Sinimbahan in Tiwi; the Spanish bridges in the third district of the
province; the burial ground of “Sarung Banggi” composer Potenciano
Gregorio; the Mayon resthouse; and the mojones along national and
provincial roads.

Old photos of these landmarks have been
enlarged and displayed in museums, schools and malls to create
awareness and pride among Bicolanos.

The project aims to become a
model and reference for other provinces in the region and elsewhere.
Its productions will serve as a guide for architects and developers in
reconstructing the landmarks and preserving their original structural
designs.

Started early this year and expected to be completed in
May next year, the project is being undertaken in collaboration with
the Manila-based Instituto de Cervantes of Spain, National Commission
for Culture and the Arts, Heritage Conservation Society, Diocese of
Legazpi, the provincial government and other concerned agencies.

The
United Architects of the Philippines chapter in Legazpi and the Aquinas
University College of Architecture and Fine Arts (Cafa) are
spearheading the initiative. More than the retrieval and public display
of old photos and the usual publication of historical writings, they
seek to remind public and private institutions in the region of
historical and cultural values in developing commercial establishments.

Reverse process

Eleven
of the 16 identified heritage sites have already been documented.
Information about them have been updated, while their architectural
plans and sample outputs have been stored as computer-aided designs.

Architect
Rino Fernandez, Cafa dean, said the project is being done in reverse,
beginning with the existing conditions of the buildings—ruined,
neglected, damaged, threatened or remarkably preserved—and ending with
their plans and drawings.

It entails exhaustive field research
and surveys of the sites so that accurate architectural plans that best
represent the structures can be drawn.

The architects and
students have already come up with at least 68 old photos and
descriptions of history and technical constructions. They intend to
measure and determine changes or damages in certain Spanish-era
churches and other edifices.

Avoiding ignorance

National
agencies responsible for preserving and restoring heritage sites in the
country have lauded the project as vital in addressing problems of
ignorance and neglect of the sites among government officials and the
public.

They found the undertaking important for urban
development planners so that they could avoid further damage or
destruction of the historical landmarks and impart meaning to lessons
of history and its continuity.

Anna “Bambi” Harper, an Inquirer
columnist, said in a message during the first provincial conference and
presentation of plans for architectural heritage projects on Aug. 29
that the endeavor focused not only on restoring old churches that are
still being used, ancestral houses, old bridges, garrisons, mojones,
cemeteries and numerous ruins in Albay, but also on the architectural
drawings, which could bring up new pieces of information unearthed
through historical and archival research.

Former tourism
secretary Gemma Cruz-Araneta, now president of the Heritage
Conservation Society, noted that while there are many laws on
preserving and restoring cultural and historical sites, these are
hardly implemented or simply ignored.

“Historical sensitivity
requires more than having so many laws; it must adhere to the very
indispensable truth about our history, that is, continuity through
unity and cooperation, by which we should be blessed for that’s what
we’re doing now,” Araneta said.

Richard Bautista of the NCCA has
pledged more technical support to raise public awareness about the use
of the architectural plans through historical books or writings, in
schools, government and private institutions, hotels, local museums,
tourism offices and churches.

Spanish support

Javier Galvan, Spanish director of the Instituto de Cervantes, said the Spanish government was supporting the project.

“It
is such a breakthrough that the local government of Albay has now shown
more than just an interest in protecting and restoring landmarks here.
They are in fact closely coordinating with the advocate-architects in
making plans for urban development or future constructions,” he said.

The
institute donated P400,000 to the AUL-Cafa for further research and
fellowships. It vowed to continuously support the advocacy program.

The
Spanish government recognizes Legazpi as one of two cities or places in
the country (the other being Legazpi Village in Makati City) named
after the Spanish conquistador Miguel Lopez de Legazpi.

 By Paulo Alcazaren
The Philippine STAR 11/05/2005                   

Our
modern architectural heritage – our buildings and urbanism of the 20th
century – was mainly in-fluenced by American architects, landscape
architects and planners. A small number of key colonial personalities
shaped architectural production as well as set the stage for Filipino
architects to take over. Not everyone who mattered was from the US of
A. One key figure carved his place in our artistic history – well
known, at least until the 1950s, when building embellishment ruled the
day. He was the Italian sculptor Francesco Monti.

Few remember him today, but his work, despite the grime of
over half-a-century of neglect, still shines through and delights. I
had gone to school (Don Bosco, Mandaluyong) not knowing that the relief
of St. John Bosco on our high school facade was Monti’s handiwork. So
too with the image of Christ on the edifice where my mother taught
medicine – the UERM building on Aurora Boulevard (originally a school
for girls). Monti, in fact specialized in architectural reliefs that
Filipino sculptors would later on create for ’60s buildings like the QC
city hall and the Insular Life building in Makati (relief by Napoleon
Abueva, architecture by Cesar Concio).

Monti’s contributions to Philippine art and architecture
started much earlier. Francesco Riccardo Monti came to Manila via the
Americas to escape fascism in pre-war Italy. Born into an artistic
family of funerary and architectural sculptors, the young Monti quickly
established himself as a sculptor with great potential (after
graduating from the Royal Academy of Breza in Milan) before events took
away his chance to move forward so he sailed to the land of promise. On
the ship to New York, however, he was redirected to an even more
promising land far to the east. Somehow he managed to get a referral
for work in Cebu in the Philippines but Manila was his final stop and
Monti made the Pearl of the Orient his home for the next three decades.

He justified his move to the tropics in a letter to a friend.
(This correspondence is one of the many intriguing artifacts displayed
– among numerous elegant photographs of Monti’s work – recently
exhibited at the University of Santo Tomas Museum. The excerpt below,
along with much of the information in this article, is culled from the
research for that exhibit curated by Professor Boots Herrera of the
University of the Philippines.

Monti wrote home shortly after arriving in the islands. "Many
Europeans believe that the Philippines still needs to be civilized. One
must tell these people that there is much to learn from the
Philippines, especially in terms of honesty and sincerity! The passion
the people have for music and the arts is surprising. Here you find
that the most modest workers are capable of reading the most
complicated construction designs with surprising ease.

"They work with alacrity and buildings are built swiftly and
are more beautiful than they are (in Europe). All government buildings
are modeled after the architecture of the ancient Greece civilization
and are neat, simple and majestic. This further proves that there are
sensible minds that plan, manage and build – most leaders here have a
passion for the arts. It is the undeniable and sacrosanct truth.

"Manila opened her arms to me and has given me my work and fulfillment."

Monti may as well be talking about another country compared to
today’s Philippine reality but that’s another story altogether. Monti
quickly impressed local architects like Juan Arellano who took over the
work of the early American designers. Monti created the sculptural
embellishments for Arellano’s Art Deco Metropolitan Theater. He
followed this up with the intriguing relief of muses for the
ultra-modern Meralco headquarters on San Marcelino (both structures
still stand – just barely). More work followed, mostly embellishment
for a flurry of a civic building the government undertook in the hubris
of the commonwealth. Sadly this golden age of Philippine architecture
was halted by the war.

During the war Monti was, like many expatriates, put in camps.
He was released, close to the war’s end, from Fort Bonifacio through
the intervention of the Papal Nuncio. After the war Monti, like the
rest of the country’s traumatized citizens, slowly picked up the
pieces. He turned his creative energies to schools and churches.

In 1947, Monti created the sculptural relief for the PMA
building in Baguio. A few years later he completed four huge panels in
the lobby of the FEU auditorium (recently awarded a heritage
conservation prize by UNESCO). At the turn of the half century Monti
started work on 15 large cast concrete statues atop the UST building
representing the three virtues and great classical European thinkers,
philosophers and writers. He completed this backbreaking work in 1953.
In that year, too, he was his busiest, completing a slew of sculptures
for the famous (and only modern-era) Philippine International Fair at
the Luneta (which I featured two years ago in this column).

In between all of this work Monti found time to teach (Fine
Arts at the UST), help establish the Art Association of the
Philippines, do commercial designs for architectural pre-cast
embellishments (for the House of Pre-Cast) as well as be involved in
the Italian community.

In 1954, Monti completed the reliefs for the new Santo Domingo
church designed by architect Jose Zaragoza. Many more schools
commissioned him, ending in 1958 with a commission for the Don Bosco
Technical Institute in Mandaluyong. It was to be his last creation.
Monti died from injuries suffered in a car accident on August 11, 1958.
He was to have received the Papal Order of St. Gregory for his service
to the church. He also was, by then, acknowledged as having contributed
as much to the state and its people.

Monti, like many artists, artisans and architects before him –
Italian, American and Filipino – has contributed much to our built
heritage of the last century. Our lives and identities have been shaped
in the structures and settings they created. Today’s creative
professionals and artists should be able to access this heritage to
ground their own development and continue the much-interrupted
evolution of our architecture, art and city-building.

Monti, 70 years ago, said that we were passionate about art
and we had leaders who were possessed of sensible minds that plan,
manage and build. This access to our built heritage is impossible if we
continue to destroy our architectural legacy.

Feedback is welcome. Please email the writer at paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.