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Walking around Mehan Garden
Source: Inquirer
Author: Augusto F. Villalon
Date: 2002-04-01
 
TRY a summer discovery walk around the controversial Mehan Garden, feel what it used to be as compared to what it has degenerated today. Check out its unutilized possibilities as another much-needed park for Manila.



Until the 1960s, the Mehan Garden was a functioning park that was open to people until neglect slowly crept in and decay finally killed the place. It has a rich history. It was the former Jardin Botanico (Botanical Garden) during the Spanish era and before that, it was the site of the Parian where Spanish authorities designated living quarters for Manila's Chinese population that was within sight and cannon shot of Intramuros. It is a treasure trove. A sample dig done last year by archaeologists yielded enough artifacts to reinforce an earlier National Museum designation of it as an archaeological preserve.



The Manila city government has chosen the Mehan Garden as the site to build the City College of Manila. This has been opposed by heritage and environmentalist groups. The row remains unsettled. A proposal to use the old site of the Ateneo Municipal de Manila in Intramuros for the College has been met with cold shoulders by the Department of Tourism and the Intramuros Administration.



The best time to discover Mehan Garden is in the early morning or late in the afternoon to avoid the summer heat. There really is not much to see. The site is hot and dusty, completely fenced to keep prying eyes out.



Part of the fence has gone down around the illegally constructed Park 'n' Ride building on the northern part of Mehan Garden, a monster of a structure that serves as a transportation-cum-mini mall. Where most cities build their terminals in the city limits with direct access to rapid transit facilities to efficiently and quickly bring commuters into the city, the Park and Ride defies logic by standing in an inappropriate, crowded city center, adding more congestion to the already impossible traffic.



Take a look at how the Park 'n' Ride blocks the vista of the Metropolitan Theater, one of Manila's architectural crown jewels. Designed by the renowned architect Juan Arellano in 1930, the building is an outstanding showcase of the Philippine interpretation of the Art Deco style.



Architectural historian Winand Klassen ("Architecture in the Philippines," University of San Carlos, Cebu, 1986) observes, "On its facade are 'tapestries' of colored tiles, perhaps a take on traditional textiles. The grill work on the fa‡ade features Art Deco birds of paradise." The fusion of architecture and high art continues throughout the building. In its prime, the building had paintings by Amorsolo. Highly stylized relief carving of Philippine plants executed by the noted artist Isabelo Tampingco decorated the lobby walls and interior surfaces of the building.







Today the building is abandoned.



If Mehan Garden, the Metropolitan Theater and the threatened Arroceros Forest Park on the other side of the Metropolitan are heritage battlefields, Plaza Lawton (Liwasang Bonifacio) and the Manila Post Office are rays of hope in the fight to save Manila.



The Manila Post Office was also done by Juan Arellano (1926) in the Neoclassic style. The Burnham Plan for Manila specified the location of the structure as the visual anchor of Taft Avenue. Designed as an urban landmark, the Manila Post Office succeeds marvelously. Its principal floor is raised above the plaza, adding monumentality to the building's colonnaded fa‡ade.



Plaza Lawton was the open breathing space designed to serve as a visual foil to the two Arellano structures. Another of the many urban spaces left to decay, Plaza Lawton was rehabilitated recently with the design assistance of the Heritage Conservation Society. Inaugurated in February, the refurbished Plaza Lawton boasts of a fountain as its centerpiece that is flanked by a colonnade of fully grown royal palm trees offering a majestic vista of the fa‡ade of the Manila Post Office.



Removing as much of the existing concrete as possible, the plaza was restored as a grassy, green space with benches installed along the walkways. The existing fully grown trees regained their majesty. The park is no longer a no-man's land. Pedestrians and commuters now sit on benches under trees while waiting for their ride instead of rushing through the plaza.



The people-friendly plaza shows the way to improving the quality of life in the city.



Across the Jones Bridge overpass is the Asean Garden that fronts the Puerta del Parian of Intramuros, the gate that used to lead to the Parian. Think of what the Arroceros Forest Park-Mehan Garden-Plaza Lawton-Asean Garden area would be if the City of Manila developed it into a contiguous green belt at the center of the polluted city. It would be a big step in improving the pollution-choked quality of our Manila lives.



 

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