Relaunching Lawton

Last week we looked at the "Liberation of Manila." This week we feature a more current "liberation," that of the re-launching of Plaza Lawton. The plaza has just been given a much-needed makeover in a process that involved City Hall, stakeholders such as the Post Office, educational institutions nearby, as well as civil society – represented by the Heritage Conservation Society. Not all of Manila, it seems, is going the way of the Jai Alai and the Mehan Gardens. There may be some hope yet for our heritage-rich capital.

Plaza Lawton was the pre-martial law name of this large space fronting the Post Office. But before the 1920s the place was known as Plaza Arroceros. Why Arroceros? Well, because of the rice that was unloaded on the Muelle Magallanes nearby and sold there.

Three historic bridges radiated from this central space – the old Puente de España, The Sta. Ana Bridge and an elegant suspension bridge called the Colgante. The "Bridge of Spain" was replaced by the Jones Bridge in 1921, while the Colgante was replaced by the Quezon Bridge in the late ’30s. (More on the Pasig River’s bridges in a future article!)

Lawton, Geronimo And Bonifacio

The Plaza was named after Major General Henry W. Lawton. Lawton’s claim to fame was that he captured the famous American Indian Chief Geronimo. He was sent to the Philippines in 1899 to fight the "insurgent" Filipinos. Killed before the year was out (ironically by General Licerio Geronimo), Lawton was hailed as a war hero (by the Americans), and the plaza was named in his honor.

Lawton’s visage was also printed on the pre-war fifty-peso bill, while our valiant General Geronimo had to wait till much later ...to get a high school named after him. Some have suggested that the plaza would have been more appropriately renamed Plaza Geronimo. In any case, Mayor Villegas took the opportunity of the 400th anniversary of Manila in 1971 to rename the plaza in honor of Andres Bonifacio. A handsome bronze statue, by Guillermo Tolentino, was commissioned for the occasion.

Before that renaming, however, Plaza Lawton had already become a landmark for Manileños. The plaza was important to the lives of city dwellers because of the presence of the Post Office (by Juan Arellano), the Metropolitan Theater (also by Arellano) and the fact that it was a major tranvia station. The area was also well-shaded and led to other open spaces – the playfields of Intramuros (tennis and golf) and the lush Mehan Gardens.

Terminal Blight

After the war, the tranvias disappeared. The Post Office and the three bridges were heavily damaged in the war but immediately rebuilt. The Metropolitan Theater, though, had to wait another 20 years before it was resurrected. The Mehan Gardens was also re-greened and much used until the Rizal Park later took over. (Today, both the Mehan and the Met are as threatened by extinction as they were after the war.) One thing came back with a vengeance though – and that was traffic.

With no tranvias (that carried close to 10 million riders a year before the war) the city streets choked up – and so too the Plaza Lawton area. By the 1960s the congestion was unbearable and the city government decided to solve the problem with infrastructure. A complex of vehicular flyovers and underground pedestrian passageways were constructed in time for the city’s 400th year celebrations.

Bonifacio’s statue has stood guard since 1971. Unfortunately the statue is dwarfed by the infrastructure. The flyovers, which were well-maintained at first, deteriorated and its underbelly has brought blight to the area. It also did not help that the plaza was used as a makeshift bus and jeepney terminal. By the end of the century Liwasang Bonifacio (or Lawton – as the bus signs still say) bore little resemblance to the elegant open space it was before the war.

Knocking On Doors Of Cooperation

Segue to late 2001 and the current Mayor’s efforts to "improve" Manila. His projects have so far been less than popular with many segments of civil society. The memories of the Jai Alai and ongoing controversies at the Mehan Gardens have been the steps backward to any progress made in heritage conservation by groups such as the Heritage Conservation Society, Clean and Green, and the Winner Foundation.

The society and other NGOs have been trying to find a win-win process to help Manila find better options than to compromise urban heritage. They acknowledge the realization that what was needed was a transparent and participatory design process, with civil society and government in meaningful communication with each other. Recently they reported that they found a way to get this process going, at least for this first project of recovering Liwasang Bonifacio.

Carlos Celdran, development director of the HCS, reported that they discovered, almost accidentally, that the Flagship Projects Office of the City of Manila (FPO), the agency tasked with urban and civic design for the current administration had their offices just next door to the HCS. Celdran took a deep breath and literally knocked on their doors.

Once inside he was received by an open and friendly bunch of young architects. Relieved, he then managed to convince them to listen to what the HCS had to say about heritage conservation and civic design (also roping in HCS member, and progressive young architect, Ed Calma to critique the FPO’s proposed designs for the Plaza).

The revised proposals were cleaned up and presented to a round table discussion in City Hall with the Mayor, the HCS, the National Historical Institute, the DENR, representatives from the universities in the area and local community leaders. The plans were discussed and approved by all concerned. Amazing!

New Plaza, New Hope?

Afew months later, on February 1, the made-over plaza was inaugurated with an open-air concert featuring three Filipino tenors. The three – Cabahug, De Leon and Sena were accompanied by the Manila Symphony Orchestra. A sizeable crowd attended and enjoyed the evening and the "new" plaza – with its new benches, lights, landscaping (stately Royal Palms) and a new sculpture garden. One would be hard pressed to imagine that this had been one of the grimiest spots in the city.

The "new" Lawton is a great project no doubt and a successful experiment in participatory design. The HCS is cautious but encouraged. They have extended their assistance to the FPO on other projects. People do have to remember though, that the issues surrounding the Mehan, the Met, the Waterfront and the Intramuros are still pending. (To be fair to the City of Manila only the Met and Mehan are under their direct control – as I’ve pointed out before.)

On the urban design level – the product is commendable given the limited resources of the stakeholders. I do have my doubts, though, as to how long this area can be well maintained. We have not yet developed a culture of maintenance of civic space or public amenities – just look at the countless public playgrounds and parks gone to pot (and overrun by potheads).

The bigger problem is the context of the site. An open space such as Liwasang Bonifacio needs to be connected to other elements of the district in a meaningful and human-scaled way. This connection must be pedestrian, just like the Plaza Lawton used to be when people walked and took the tranvia.

The greater challenge is the infrastructure. No matter what one does – those flyovers negate any friendliness potential the space has. Like I’ve reported before – other cities have, in fact, torn down their flyovers to reconnect parts of their cities. These flyovers were originally made prominent because they were supposed to symbolize a city’s coming of (modern) age. Those symbols have now been discredited in current urban design thought. Cities are for people, not cars or flyovers.

The even bigger picture, which we all must see to find a sustainable solution – is the fact that all these city elements (that have been in the limelight of public controversy) are in fact all connected. To solve the whole conundrum what is needed is a comprehensive urban redevelopment program for the old central city core. The City Hall area, the Mehan Gardens, the Met, the Arroceros Forest Park, the Pasig, Intramuros, Port Area, and the Luneta are all part of this great damaged urban fabric we have to mend.

Hopeless you say? Well, despite the ongoing friction on other fronts, the HCS, City Hall and DENR have worked together well for this small first step of re-launching Lawton. It is a good start. The HCS is pragmatic about it and realizes that the process has to be refined, more participation is needed and the communication lines must remain open.

Finally, what goes for Manila still goes for the rest of the Philippines. Other cities and towns around the country are looking at what is happening in Manila with regard to urban planning, heritage conservation and governance. If we fail in our stewardship of precious heritage in this city, then all other concerned citizens in cities and towns nationwide, struggling to keep theirs, may loose heart.

What is at stake then, is not one plaza, or one garden, or one building, but the fate of countless other special places and structures in these 7,102 islands of ours. Our multi-layered cultural identities are embedded in these vessels of collective memory. Our collective national identity depends on the integrity of those vessels to hold our past, and enhance our future, public lives. That’s the bottom line.

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Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at citysensephilstar@hotmail.com.