Restoration, not demolition, says Luneta Hotel’s new owner
By Allison Lopez
Inquirer
First Posted 00:08:00 12/13/2007
MANILA, Philippines – Beaumont Holdings, the new owner of the Luneta Hotel in Manila, yesterday announced that the 89-year-old structure would be restored to its previous glory in three years’ time.
“We will make it stronger. We will not touch the facade,” Adelina Wong, an engineer of the company, said.
The hotel on T. M. Kalaw Street, one of the few remaining structures that survived World War II, has been undergoing “structural rehabilitation and retrofit” since it was bought by Beaumont last August.
Completed in 1918, the Luneta Hotel was designed by Spanish architect-engineer Salvador Farre, according to a study by Dean John Joseph Fernandez of the University Of Santo Tomas College Of Architecture.
It is being touted as the only structure reminiscent of French Renaissance architecture with Filipino stylized beaux arts in the country, Fernandez said.
The dilapidated building fronting Rizal Park was declared a historical landmark by the National Historical Institute and is protected by Presidential Decree 1505 which makes it unlawful to alter or destroy the original features of an edifice classified by the NHI “without prior written permission from its chair.”
Members of the Heritage Conservation Society were initially alarmed over reports that Beaumont had applied for a demolition permit but company representatives and Manila building official Melvin Balagot assured them that the permit issued only allows structural rehabilitation.
Vigilant
“We are vigilant when it comes to that. Mayor (Alfredo) Lim’s directive is always to abide by the law. The mayor wants to preserve historic buildings especially if there is a law that protects them,” Balagot added.
In May 2006, then Manila Mayor Lito Atienza urged the Department of Public Works and the owners of abandoned private buildings to demolish old and “dangerous” structures, including the Luneta Hotel.
At that time, the hotel was in a state of deterioration due to lack of maintenance, having been uninhabited for a long time. There were also signs of decay, including weakened columns due to old age, falling concrete plaster and a nearly collapsing ground floor frame. The basement was also flooded. The threat to public safety especially during earthquakes, stressed Wong, was the immediate reason for the retrofit using modern technology.
Put simply, retrofit would mean “constructing a new structural steel-framed building inside an existing building” to make it safe and sound.
Architect Dominic Galicia, HCS board member, said he was satisfied with the restrictions for the structural renovation which specified that “the existing exterior building (architectural facade) would be retained, there would be no alterations in the existing major architectural treatment and no additional floor levels shall be allowed.”
Whimsical
In a 1998 article, Inquirer columnist and HCS founding member Bambi Harper described the “whimsical gargoyles in the form of lions, crocodiles, griffins and other mythical creatures that serve as decorative supports of (the hotel’s) balconies.” She also talked about the “delicate filigreed railings (on the balconies) that add a touch of lightness to the solid concrete facade.”
The structural renovation would be completed in a year’s time, said Wong, after which work on the architectural appendages would begin.
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