The first Filipino City Beautiful plans

ABSTRACT

Narratives of the City Beautiful in the Philippines have a tendency to adhere to a particular historiographical form: they commence with the early years of American colonial rule and Daniel Burnham’s grand schemes of 1905 for Manila and Baguio, then they provide reference to William E. Parsons’ city plans for Cebu and Zamboanga before fleetingly noting Juan Arellano’s Capitol complexes or his 1930 Iloilo Plan. To bring such historical accounts to a conclusion characteristically discussion of the Commonwealth Era (1935–1942, 1945–1946), and the development of Quezon City, are presented. Yet these histories of city planning in the Philippines during the American colonial period (1898–1946) essentially offer no detailed insight into the projects composed by Filipinos. Questions that include ‘How many plans did Filipinos compose?’, ‘Who designed them?’, and ‘What was their form?’ are consequently left unanswered.

KEYWORDS:

• The Philippines
• historiography
• City Beautiful
• Arcadio Arellano
• Juan Arellano
• Tayabas
• Iloilo

Notes on contributor

Ian Morley is based in the Department of History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has published on the history of urban planning in the Philippines during the American colonial era. He has a forthcoming monograph Cities and Nationhood: American Imperialism and Urban Design in the Philippines, 1898–1916 with the University of Hawaii Press.

Notes

1 Klassen, Architecture in the Philippines, 155.

2 Burnham, “Report on Proposed Improvements at Manila,” 627–35; Burnham and Anderson, “Preliminary Plan of Baguio, Province of Benguet, P.I,” 405–6.

3 Morley, “Modern Urban Designing in the Philippines,”11–21.

4 Cameron, “Provincial Centers in the Philippines,”3.

5 Anastacio, Foundations of the Modern Philippine State, 176.

6 Manuel L. Quezon Papers Series 7 Box 347, Rare Books Collection, National Library of the Philippines, Manila, the Philippines.

7 Census of the Philippine Islands, 109.

8 Arellano, “Division of Architecture,” 48.

9 Cody, Exporting American Architecture, 1870–2000, 22–3.

10 Such roadways added stateliness and beauty to built environments noted Robinson, City Planning With Special Reference, 203.

11 Moody, Wacker’s Manual of the Plan of Chicago, 136.

12 Nolen, Replanning Small Cities, 2.

13 Robinson, City Planning with Special Reference, 302.

14 Klassen, Architecture in the Philippines, 170.

15 “Ten Thousand Dollars Awarded Art Students,” 79–80; Student Records, RG.03.03.02, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Dorothy and Kenneth Woodcock Archives, Philadelphia, PA.

16 White, Paul Philippe Cret, 25.

17 McMichael, Paul Cret at Texas, 42–3.

18 Grossmann, The Civic Architecture of Paul Cret, 53.

19 Funtecha and Padilla, Historical Landmarks, 5.

20 Madrid, “Urban Landscape, Structural Transformation,” 91.

21 “Buildings,” 27–35.

22 Madrid, “Urban Landscape, Structural Transformation,” 92.

23 Public Laws Enacted by the Philippine Legislature.

24 See, http://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/1931/10/28/act-no-3827/ (Accessed October 6, 2017).

25 Alcazaren et al., Quezon City, 58–9.

Additional information

Funding

The author wishes to express his gratitude to the financial support provided by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council’s General Research Fund [project number 2110248].