AMERICAN COLONIAL

ARCHITECTURE
1899 - 1945
INTRODUCTION
 INTRODUCTION

SOCIOPOLITICAL SCENARIO

 Social unrest

 Social reforms sought but slow in

coming
 INTRODUCTION

SOCIOPOLITICAL SCENARIO

 Ilustrados for reform

 The Ilustrados (Spanish for
"erudite," "learned," or "enlightened
ones") constituted the Filipino
educated class during the Spanish
colonial period.
 They were the middle class who
were educated in Spanish and
exposed to Spanish liberal and
European nationalist ideals.
 INTRODUCTION

SOCIOPOLITICAL SCENARIO

 Nationalists for revolution

 INTRODUCTION

IN 1898:

 Philippine revolutionary forces

declared independence from Spain.

 The Philippines became the first

democratic republic in Asia.
 INTRODUCTION

IN 1898:

 Colonial powers of the west

coveted territories in the Asia-
Pacific region for trade
opportunities with China, India,
Japan.
 INTRODUCTION

 US had no colonial interest in Asia but because of

Spanish-American war, targeted the Philippines,
known as a Spanish possession.

 Admiral Dewey easily made Spanish forces surrender

in a mock battle of Manila Bay.

 US purchase of the Philippines from Spain considered

treachery by Filipinos, who considered them an ally.
 INTRODUCTION

 Filipinos not willing to give independence up so

easily.

 War vs the Americans launched from 1899-1902

 War expensive for both sides, characterized by

atrocities and guerilla warfare until 1911.
 INTRODUCTION

 In the US, there was no unity on the

American imperialist adventure.

 The Democrats strongly opposed the war

and fully exploited the news of the atrocities.

 The Republicans were the proponent of

imperialist expansion.
 "I left these shores, at Vancouver, a red-hot imperialist. I
wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific.
It seemed tiresome and tame for it to content itself with the
Rockies. Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I
asked myself? And I thought it would be a real good thing to
do. 
  
 I said to myself, here are a people who have suffered for
three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves,
give them a government and country of their own, put a
miniature of the American constitution afloat in the Pacific,
start a brand new republic to take its place among the free
nations of the world. It seemed to me a great task to which
we had addressed ourselves.
  
 But I have thought some more, since then, and I
have read carefully the Treaty of Paris, and I have
seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate
the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to
conquer, not to redeem.
  
 We have also pledged the power of this country to maintain
and protect the abominable system established in the
Philippines by the Friars.
  
 It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make
those people free, and let them deal with their own
domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-
imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons
on any other land."
  
 -- Mark Twain, An Anti-Imperialist, New York Herald
[New York, 10/15/1900] 
 INTRODUCTION

 This had a sobering effect on

American expansionism.

 A POLICY OF ACCOMMODATION was

extended to the Filipino ilustrados.
 INTRODUCTION

 This policy gave the American colonial regime massive

opportunities to embark on projects in the fields of

 EDUCATION
 HEALTH AND SANITATION
 PUBLIC WORKS
 COMMUNICATION
 TRANSPORTATION
 RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
 CONSERVATION
 INTRODUCTION
 In 1900, President William McKinley
appointed members of the Philippine
Commission.

 Headed by William Taft, they were

mandated to continue organizing and
establishing the civil government earlier
started by military authorities.
 INTRODUCTION

 They were instructed to establish

municipal governments.

 The Filipinos were to be given

opportunities for managing their
own local affairs.
 INTRODUCTION

 The strong clamor for

independence ended in 1934,
when the US Congress passed the
Philippine Independence Act
prescribing the preparatory period
(1935 to 1946) under a
Commonwealth government run by
Filipinos.
 INTRODUCTION

EFFECT ON ARCHITECTURE

 The establishment of
PROVINCIAL CAPITOLS
POST OFFICES
CUSTOMS HOUSES
CIVIC BUILDINGS
UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES
RESIDENCES OF THE ILUSTRADOS
ARCHITECTURAL
CHARACTER
AMERICAN COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER:

 Architecture of the American colonial

period was patterned after civic
buildings of the NEOCLASSICAL STYLE.

 The NEW YORK DESIGN influence is

strongly reflective in this style.
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER:

 ART DECO was introduced in the

country when the Filipino pensionado
architects returned to the country
after their studies in America and
Europe.
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER:

 During the first half of the 20th

century, Americans used URBAN
PLANNING as a means of establishing
control in the Philippines.
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER:

 DANIEL BURNHAM, famed architect

and planner who designed
Washington DC, Chicago and San
Francisco, was asked to redesign the
City of Manila in 1905.
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER:

 After Burnham finished the plan,

 WILLIAM PARSONS was hired as Chief
Consulting Architect of the Philippine
Bureau of Public Works to implement
the new urban order.
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER:

 He was tasked to create a new

architectural image for the Manila
cityscape.

 His designs were Spanish in detail but

Neoclassic in form.

 He emphasized tropical design.

ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER:

 The Americans built several summer

cities in keeping with the colonial trend
of establishing summer capitals like
Simla in India and Bandung in Indonesia.

 Baguio City in Benguet was the foremost.

Smaller summer havens were also
established in a number of military
camps in Mindanao.
ARCHITECTURAL
EXAMPLES
AMERICAN COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE
 AMERICAN COLONIAL
STRUCTURES:
1. PROVINCIAL CAPITOLS
2. POST OFFICES
3. CUSTOMS HOUSES
4. CIVIC BUILDINGS
5. UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES
6. RESIDENCES OF THE ILUSTRADOS
1. PROVINCIAL CAPITOLS
 1. PROVINCIAL CAPITOL
CAGAYAN DE ORO PROVINCIAL CAPITOL
 1. PROVINCIAL CAPITOL
NEGROS OCCIDENTAL PROVINCIAL CAPITOL
STYLE: NEOCLASSIC
ARCHITECT: JUAN ARELLANO
 1. PROVINCIAL CAPITOL
COTABATO PROVINCIAL CAPITOL
2. POST OFFICES
 2. POST OFFICES
PHILIPPINE POST OFFICE BUILDING
STYLE: NEOCLASSIC
ARCHITECT: JUAN M. ARELLANO
 2. SECULAR

• CASA REAL
3. CUSTOMS HOUSES
3. CUSTOMS HOUSES
ILOILO CUSTOMS HOUSE
STYLE: NEOCLASSIC
• FAROLAS
 2. SECULAR

• FERROCARIL
2. SECULAR
4. CIVIC BUILDINGS
 GOTA DE LECHE
CLINIC FOR MALNOURISHED INFANTS
 CARCAR PUERICULTURE
CENTER AND DISPENSARY
HEALTH COMPLEX
 5. SCHOOLS AND
UNIVERSITY CAMPUSES
SILLIMAN HALL
SCHOOLHOUSES
 The architecture of the Zamboanga
East and West Central School
(Burleigh School) is patterned after
the one-storey PRAIRIE STYLE of
American schools.

 It is the oldest school building set up

in Zamboanga City during the
American regime.
 GABALDON SCHOOLHOUSES is a
collective term for heritage
schoolhouses built in the Philippines
between 1907 and 1946 that follow
standard plans designed by
Architect WILLIAM E. PARSONS.
 GABALDON SCHOOLHOUSES were
made of wood and reinforced concrete.

 Features include:
• One-storey
• Slightly elevated above the ground
• Classrooms on one side of an open gallery
• Hip roof
• Swing-out window shutters
• Capiz panes
6. HOUSES OF
ILUSTRADOS
ILOILO BOATHOUSE