Monday, January 18, 2016

APPROACHING PACO STATION: The Revival of Manila’s Grand Central

The facade of Paco PNR Station
A sprawl of heritage news went off as 2016 came to our calendars, from the “Manila’s Grand Dame” the Metropolitan Theater to the tachycardiac news on the stealthy demolition of “Manila’s Jewel” the El Hogar Filpino. These structures have been silent the past year but perhaps it’s time to light up and share the historical spotlight to our next contender, the what was planned to be “Manila’s Grand Central Station” the Paco Train Station.
Designed by William Parsons in Beaux-art in 1915 during the American Colonial Period. It was part of the complex rail system that extends outwards Manila with the vision of spreading the city’s future progress. The building’s facade is similar to New York’s Penn Station in 1905. It was busy station for sure being one of the largest built in the country at the time, but unfortunately this station was expecting a different kind of tracks when tanks paraded the streets. It became a bloody battleground during WWII with 300 Japanese men defending their stronghold in an attempt to repel American liberation of Manila in 1945.
Paco Station Wall Clock
Since then, a new station platform was built nearby and the old station slowly went to disrepair and in a miraculous turn of fate, survived demolition in 1996 when contractor New San Jose Builders discontinued their plans to turn the station into a 7-storey mall. A partially demolished station and the skeleton of the supposed mall now stands.
Restoration Assessment Team from DOTC ( Jicelle Cuevas), SDA architects (Jose Ricky Martinez and David Barcelona) and PIA/ Guild of Philippine Architects in Conservation ( past president Joel Rico), inside the historical but neglected Paco Train Station.
Now that we got the sad part of the story out of the way, its time to bring in the good news! In recent announcements, a post from the facebook page Philippine Institute of Architects; with the combined efforts of DOTC, PNR, NMP, CSB-SDA, PIA and Guild of Philippine Architects in Conservation, the 100 year old train station set to be restored as part of the team’s initiative to restore all of PNR’s heritage stations. Talks are underway with the National Museum to possibly turn it into the country’s first Train Museum or Architectural Museum. Of course these are just proposals for now but who knows what potential it may have in stored for us! Finally our built heritage is slowly standing on its own feet, but only with the help of its citizens be the key to truly appreciating what once a source of pride to us Filipinos. Let us continue to support the project!

Source :
https://www.facebook.com/195052377246724/photos/a.195057760579519.53991.195052377246724/952494914835796/?type=3&theater&__mref=message

2 comments:

  1. Any updates on our beloved Paco Station? We'd love to hear.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bakit po ipinatigil yung construction ng Mall?

    ReplyDelete

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