Krag and concrete
Manila Bulletin, Tuesday, 8 August 2006
by Gemma Cruz Araneta
If Spain conquered these islands with the "Cross and sword", the United States of America crushed the First Republica de Filipinas with "Krag and concrete". During three hundred and fifty years of Spanish colonial rule, fortifications, bridges and aqueducts, lighthouses, public buildings and roads were constructed by military and civilian authorities. Not to be outdone, the religious orders who came brandishing the Cross built their own centers of power at vantage points all over the countryside. Ingeniously, they fashioned imposing Baroque churches, massive bell towers and conventos with endemic materials and indigenous labor.
After the Treaty of Paris and during the Philippine-American War (1899-1911) that ensued, the battle cry of infamous General Jacob Smith resounded through the islands– “Civilize them with the Krag!” Samar was left a “howling wilderness”, after all natives above nine years old were slaughtered with the Krag. As America’s “pacification “strategy gained ground, concrete, the latest material in modern construction, was generously poured all over this country. Our war of resistance was still raging, but already, the new masters were flaunting their technological supremacy and imperial architecture. After a Philippine Assembly was elected in 1907, construction became a frenzy and continued unabated until the eve of the Second World War. Soon, the native populace was mesmerized by splendid government edifices that strongly projected the strength of American colonial policies. In provinces were anti-American resistance was particularly fierce, democratic slogans about power and the people were carved, for posterity, on the commanding façades of municipal palaces. Everything built during the American colonial period— town halls, public schools, hospitals, fire stations, bridges, highways, prisons, courthouses, and the Executive House of Malacanan — magnificently imparted the new political ideology. Democracy, though ushered in by the cruel Krag, was immortalized in architectural monuments of concrete.
As early as 1904, the American Secretary of War advised Commissioner W. Cameron Forbes, to hire the foremost city planner, Daniel Burnham., of “White City” fame (the 1893 Chicago World Fair) to do Manila. He had successfully transformed Chicago, San Francisco and Washington D.C. into cities beautiful. Burnham came to the Philippines, stayed for six weeks during which he drafted blueprints for the east and southern margins of Intramuros, including the Manila Bay area. In addition, he was to convert Baguio into a superb hill station for American officials who could not bear the hot summer months of the lowlands. Surprisingly, Burnham was more respectful than his Krag-bearing compatriots. He preserved significant Spanish colonial structures that survived America’s “dirty little war”, impressed by their elegance and convinced of their practical sustainability in tropical conditions. Burnham’s decision to restore and improve, instead of demolish and rebuild was indeed rare in Western urban planners of that epoch.
Like many of his peers, Daniel Burnham favored the Neo-Classical style, monumental buildings reminiscent of Greece and Roman; palatial structures with imposing vaults and domes, though non-sectarian in function. Lush gardens and parks, dramatic tree-lined avenues, reflecting pools and landscaped lagoons were trademarks of “City Beautiful”. Burnham believed that was the way he could create “enduring witnesses to the efficient services of America to the Philippine Islands…”
Famous as Burnham was, it was the almost obscure Arch. William E. Parsons of the Bureau of Public Works (BPW) who gave substance to his colleague’s “imperial space”. There were other Americans like Ralph Harrington Doane who eventually handed the reins over to the first generation of Filipino architects–Antonio Toledo, Andres Luna de San Pedro, Tomas Mapua and the Arellano brothers, Juan and Arcadio. The elegant architectural designs of these pensionados dominated the landscape during the Philippine Commission, the Commonwealth and pre-World War II periods. From the classical revivalist style that came with Burnham , Parsons and Doane, our Filipino architects brought in new forms from Europe, like the Arts Nouveau and Deco, which they transformed with native elements and with such eclectic refinement.(more on Thursday…)
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