ARCHITECTURAL MAGAZINE PORTFOLIO

Andres

Luna

de

San Pedro

1887—1952

Andres Luna de San Pedro was

born on september 9, 1887 in the French

capital Paris. His parents were Paz Pardo

de Tavera and painter Juan Luna. Andres

grew up in Paris until he was six years

old and his father on 22 september 1892

shot dead his mother and mother-in-

law. He was acquitted by a French court

in early February, because it concerned

a crime of passion and left with Andres

the following week to Spain. After spend-

ing six months in Barcelona and Paris

they travelled by boat along with Andres '

uncle Antonio Luna to the Philippines,

where they arrived in Manila on May 24,

1894.

He was taught painting in Manila’s School of Arts. He studied Arts in Paris where he

got his diploma in 1911 and went on to

study Architecture and finished in 1918.

Upon his return to Manila, the city govern-

ment appointed him the chief Architect, a po-

sition he held from 1920 to 1924. He first

got attention as a painter in Hanoi where he

won special mention. He won a silver medal

in the St. Louis Exposition and another in a

contest held by the Exposition of the Society

of Artist in Manila (1908).

He was one of the GOLD MEDAL OF MERIT AWARDEES, awarded by PIA(Philippine

Institute of Architects) among side Juan Nakpil, Juan Arellano and Tomas Mapua.

Andres was a talented architect who seemed destined to equal his father’s artistic achievements. In the 1920s, he became obsessed with the design and construction of a

glass palace to be called the Crystal Arcade, inaugurated on June 1, 1932.

Life and Works

ANDRES WITH HIS FATHER JUAN LUNA (R), UNCLE ANTONIO LUNA (L)

CRYSTAL ARCHADE( 1932, ESCOLTA)

The Crystal Arcade was literally a crystal

building in graceful art deco lines, very

fancy for Manila of the 1930s. It housed

the Manila Stock Exchange as well as of-

fices and upscale shops where Manila’s elite would go as much for the prestige of

being seen as for the air-conditioning,

which was uncommon then.

As the name might suggest, the Crystal

Arcade appeared as both a magnificent

monument to and spectacular site for con-

sumption. Andres envisioned it as a

grand commercial center. It emerged as

Manila’s first shopping mall that featured a walkway lead-in to the glass-walled

shops on the first floor.

The Arcade had a mezzanine on both sides

of a central gallery that ran through the

length of the building and expanded at the

center to form a spacious lobby containing

curved stairways. Stairs, balconies, col-

umns and skylight combined to create

vertical and horizontal movement, as well

as a play of light and shadow in the inte-

rior. Art deco bays pierced by a vertical window marked each end of the façade and

complemented the tower over the central lobby. Wrought-iron grilles and stucco orna-

ments were in the art deco style featuring geometric forms, stylized foliage, and diago-

nal lines and motifs.

Crystal Arcade did not survive the brutali-

ty and destruction of the Battle of Manila

ON 1945. It was almost completely de-

stroyed with only a shell of its former glo-

ry standing.

PERES—SAMANILLO BULDING (1928, ESCOLTA)

The Pérez Samanillo Building, originally

called the Edificio Luis Pérez Samanillo,

sits along the Escolta and Calle David. The

building, together with the Regina Building

across the street, serves as entry to the Escol-

ta from Plaza Goiti in Sta. Cruz. Built in

1928, the Pérez Samanillo was designed in

the art-deco/art-nouveau style through the

partnership of the great architects Andrés

Luna de San Pedro and Juan F. Nakpil

de Jesús.

The building stands at the former property then-owned by Don Manuel de Azcárraga

Palmero-Versosa de Lizárraga, brother of Gral. Marcelo de Azcárraga Palmero-Versosa

de Lizárraga, the only Spanish Prime Min-

ister of Filipino descent.

The building was one of the most modern in

its time, owing to the building's

glass façade. As a family-owned property,

the building housed the offices of the Pérez

Samanillo business operations in the Philip-

pines, which was operated by Don Luis Pérez

Samanillo's son Luis Pérez de Olaguer-

Feliú

The liberation of the city in 1945 obliterat-

ed most of downtown Manila's buildings.

Luckily, the twin Luna masterpieces, the

Regina Building and the Pérez Samanillo

Building were spared from further destruc-

tion and only suffered minor damages.

Today, the Pérez Samanillo Building is

now renamed as the First United Building

after it was purchased by the Sylianteng

family, the same family who bought the

Regina Building across the street.

REGINA BUILDING (1934, ESCOLTA)

Before the present Regina Building was

built, another building stood on its loca-

tion. The old Roxas Building was located

opposite the Pérez-Samanillo Building, oc-

cupying a block from Calle David (now

Burke St.) to Calle Banquero. The build-

ing had two wings, with the concrete

building facing Calle David and the

Pasig which was occupied by the offices of

the Roxas y Cía, and Pedro P. Roxas y

Cía. The other wing faces the Estero de la

Reina and Plaza Sta. Cruz which a quaint

coffee shop called Victoria Café occupies. The

owners of the old Roxas Building were the de

Ayala-Roxas family, specifically Doña Car-

men de Ayala Roxas de Roxas. When she

died in 1930, the Roxas family sold the

property to Don José Leoncio de León, a prom-

inent industrialist from Pampanga. The old

structure facing the estero was demolished

and was replaced by a concrete building.

Designed by Fernando H. Ocampo, and the

great Andrés Luna de San Pedro. Ocampo

was credited in designing and renovating

the existing concrete building while Luna

was the one who designed the new building

facing the estero and Plaza Sta. Cruz. One

of the tenants of the building was Pacific

Motors, dealer of General Motors vehicles in

Manila.

In 1934, the new building was completed. Designed in a mixed neo-classical and beaux-

arts styles by Andrés Luna de San Pedro. The new building annexed the old building

facing the Pasig. The building was renamed as the Regina, in honor of José Leoncio de

León's wife, heiress Regina Joven Gutiérrez Hizon de León.

LIZARES MANSION (1937, ILOILO)

Built in 1937 by Don Emiliano Lizares

for his wife Conchita Gamboa and their

two sons and three daughters, the man-

sion has three floors, a basement and an

attic. It has a winding wooden staircase

and big bedrooms with floor and doors

made of hardwood. It has 59 doors which

indicate the intricacy of its layout.

When World War II broke out, the family left for a safe hiding place in Pototan, Iloilo.

The mansion was then used as headquarters of the Japanese army. It was believed that

the basement became a dumping ground for tortured Filipinos.

After the war, the family went back to live in the mansion, but life was never the same.

In 1950, Don Emiliano Lizares died and his widow left for Manila, leasing the mansion

to a businessman who turned it into a casino. The city mayor later ordered that the casi-

no be closed, claiming that it corrupted the Ilonggos.

In 1962 the Lizares Mansion was sold to the Dominicans. In 1963, it was converted into

a House of Formation for young Dominicans in the Philippines.

In 1978, the Lizares Mansion compound became the home of Angelicum School Iloilo.

L E G A R D A E L E M E N T A R Y

SCHOOL (1922, SAMPALOC,MNL)

Built in 1922, the school is notable for its

main school building that has managed to

retain its pre-war architecture, making its

building the oldest surviving school build-

ing in Manila. It became a prominent

landmark in the area with its

unique Victorian style of architecture

which evokes a sense of grandeur.

During the Japanese Occupation in World War II, the Japanese forces used the school as

barracks. Having survived the war, it was subsequently liberated by the Americans dur-

ing the Battle of Manila, after which it became the headquarters of the U.S. 1st Cavalry

Division as well as being the 29th Evacuation Hospital for wounded American soldiers.

The Philippine Army also made the school its headquarters for a brief time.