We had dinner at The Atrium in Megamall last night and had the chance to see the Manila, City Beautiful photo exhibit. It basically showcased Burnham’s master plan of the urban development of Manila as a city – evoking mixed emotions of both marvel and grief at the what was and what could have been.
As Daniel Burnham once put it “Possessing the bay of Naples, the winding river of Paris, and the canals of Venice, Manila has before it an opportunity to create a unified city equal to the greatest of the Western World with the unparalleled and priceless addition of a tropical setting.” I dearly hope it’s not too late to still make this happen!
This exhibit reminded me of the recent e-mail I got from a friend romanticizing the Old Manila :
Pasig was very clean. The photographer must have taken this photo (below) October to December timeframe. But Pasig, during summer would have beautiful water lilies, tiny Quiapo’s floating amidst white, yellow and purple water lilies that I remember. Water from our rich and abundant rivers were emerald green and blue. Napakalinis and walang amoy.
Manila was just a beautiful place.
If you’d take an L5 plane or a Piper Cab and take pictures of Dewey Boulevard (now Roxas Boulevard) from above, you’d be so proud to say, that the place is much better than Cote’ d Azure. Environment was just so very clean, air was refreshing, and take a look at the sea….wasn’t that a gift given to us during those days?!
Manila, City Beautiful will be on display at the SM Megamall Atrium until June 9 and The Block at SM City North EDSA from June 10 to June 30.
More information at:
http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/257990/city-beautiful-exhibit-sm-supermalls
May 27th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
My cousin recommended this blog and she was totally right keep up the fantastic work!
May 31st, 2010 at 11:51 am
who took a nasty spill? who? *laughs* i enjoyed riding La Mesa at night enormously (despite the fall), what a great idea, why didn’t we do that sooner? it’s so cool and fragrant and yeah, the darkness is deceiving, it makes you brave! hope we could set another ride like that soon
August 24th, 2010 at 6:33 am
Hey sis! I’m a blogging w@wie too! Thanks for the generosity!
I love looking at old Manila pictures! Super interesting to see it as the ideal place then. Is it still that way now? Hehe. Cheers and keep up the good work in your blog!
August 24th, 2010 at 8:34 am
“Environment was just so very clean, air was refreshing, and take a look at the sea….wasn’t that a gift given to us during those days?!” – I would definitely give anything, pray to my knees and do evrything just to get back those God-given give to us Filipinos… let’s make the Philippines the best place on earth!
August 26th, 2010 at 5:40 am
if only we’d love our country more and get rid of the greed in people’s heart. The Philippines is indeed a beautiful place, we just abuse and take it forgranted!
August 26th, 2010 at 10:46 am
@ann: so true… we have a lot to thank for abt our country… we need to appreciate it so we can see then let us help nurture the beauty… we can start in our own backyards…