UNIVERSITY OF SANTO TOMAS

COLLEGE OF ARCHITECTURE

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE 4

REACTION PAPER FOR THE POST OFFICE BUILDING

AND THE NATIONAL MUSEUM

SUBMITTED BY:

JAVIER, GABRIELLE MARIE S.

3 AR – 7

SUBMITTED TO:

ARCH. RIZALITO MERCADO

The Manila Central Post Office and the

National Museum of the Philippines are

two distinct and valuable landmarks of

our country. Not only do they serve as

visual sculptures of our rich cultural

identity, they stand on the historical land

of Manila to serve their purposes as the

country's center for mail sorting and

distribution and the home of the natural

history and ethnography museum, the

National Art Gallery, respectively.

The first structure that we visited is the

Post Office Building at Liwasang

Bonifacio, Manila. Even at a distance, the

majestic elegance and triumphant stature

of this building still captivates me as we

walk closer towards it. The grand scale

and proportion of the building to man is

immense and even more tailored by its

elevation on a flight of steps that seems

to be its architectural platform.

The Neo-classical aesthetic features of the structure is finely detailed and designed from the entasis of

the Ionic columns, the gargoyle heads lining the architrave, the square geometry of the coffered ceiling

and the greek mouldings that line almost every corner of this magnificent building. The color

appearance is also enthralling with the cool contrast of powder pink and light cream/beige on its

massing. It is even enhanced by the noon sun that we came upon to and splashed on enigmatic

shadows on its surfaces.

My favourite part of this structure is

the long colonnade with its high

ceiling because not only does it

encourage maximum natural light and

ventilation, it also gives that air

reminiscent of the ancient Greek

buildings. The shadows that it casts

upon the marble floor with every

angle that cuts through the sturdy and

proud Ionic columns play a certain dramatic feel of ancient

Greece. In my opinion, maybe the reason why the architect, Juan Arellano, chose the Neo-classical

architectural style is to simply impose a formal, authoritative and monumental characteristic

throughout the site vicinity.

We weren’t able to take pictures inside the post office building itself due to security rules and

regulations so that ends our Manila Central Post Office tour. Our next destination is the National

Museum of the Philippines and we decided to travel by foot and battled with the piercing hot rays of

the near-afternoon sun.

We passed by the Metropolitan Museum,

the Park ‘n Ride, and the open plazas that

seem to be severely polluted by man which

affected my environmental concern for our

metropolitan areas. Going on with these

thoughts running in my head, we came closer

to the museum and saw it from afar, rising

above the few deciduous trees dotted in that

area and finally set foot on the flight of steps

towards the grand and majestic facade.

Something about Juan Arellano’s design of the facade of these important structures seem to be

magnificently proud and shining with vast grandeur and still keeps that element of inviting us towards

the discovery of the interior beauty of the structure itself. He took advantage of the length of the

facade and introduced the stark contrast of horizontal and vertical line definitions onto the surfaces,

just like in the design of the Post Office Building. Unlike

the earlier building, this structure features proud

Corinthian columns and rectangular windows that depicts

its Neo-American Colonial style which is also evident in its

simpler and cleaner surfaces and minutely refined details.

The lobby is also grand, with the appropriate scale and

proportion, enhanced by the gold-finished Greek

columns, the shiny marble floor, the carved figures on the

walls, and the antique chandeliers topping the room and

finishes its historical and museum-like feel. The gallery

halls are the grandest I’ve ever seen here in the Philippines, with the

various dramatic architectural lighting strategically situated inside the

parts of the exhibit room that unites the whole cinematic scene.

The main hall where Juan Luna’s masterpiece, the Spoliarium, is

displayed depicts finery and splendour reminiscent of that era. The clean,

patterned wooden flooring evident in almost all exhibit rooms is a

unifying design that I also observed. Grand interior museum doors have a

neatly carved NM initials as its door handle that I also find interesting.

Clean white walls that serve as backdrop to the paintings and displays

seem to make the room look larger than it really is and also drives the focus away from the interior

design and towards more to the artworks/illustrations displayed on the gallery walls.

We zigzagged and gazed upon the artworks and displays housed inside the gallery halls, all of them

intriguing us to think deeply and dig deeper on our creative imagination in order to understand the

messages that the artists wishes to convey from the canvas displayed towards our ever curious artistic

minds. Perhaps, we may never fully grasp the whole ideology that inspired them to produce such

creative and unique works of art but seeing all of those masterpiece in one room makes me want to

think twice and appreciate more than what is seen by the naked eye.

I can compare this whole experience with the basic concept of life. Art is obviously rooted from life,

both its negative and positive aspects. In life, at the end of the dark tunnel full of vague mosaics of

black and gray, we see the clean white, the real truth and the final end of this journey—enlightenment.

Art is enlightenment. That kind of art not seen on the surface of a canvas but the art deep in our souls,

evident in the clean white at the end of that same tunnel. And the greatest form of art is architecture,

“the mother of all arts”.