Dr. Gerard Lico, UP – Diliman’s celebrated architect as described during the IMPERIAL MANILA: American Colonial Architecture and Urbanism, 1898-1942 photo exhibit talks about rare digitized images as the narrative way of how our country was transformed through colonialism. These photos are compiled into a book entitled “Art Deco in the Philippines” which shows the techno-cosmopolitan transformation of our country from an urban squala to present time modernity.
The Art Deco in the Philippines book is a lavishly illustrated publication tracing the heady Commonwealth years (1935-46) through the forgotten and vanishing architecture produced when the Philippines was at last looking outward, away from its island shell. At the same time, “the country was falling in step with the world, having moved out of the Spanish sphere and into the American orbit. The American-established educational system produced its first graduates. Filipinos no longer wobbled when speaking English.” (Source Philippine Daily Inquirer, Art Deco in the Philippines, Jan. 17, 2011)
One of the most important contributions of the American colonization aside from medical science and hygienic knowledge is producing the first Filipino architects and their works which are also included in the book. Art Deco in the Philippines is edited by Lourdes Reyes Montinola, and with contributing authors Gerard Rey Lico, Manuel Maximo Lopez del Castillo-Noche, John Silva and Augusto Villalón.
The Book
Dr. Gerard Lico
Photos of Old Public Architectural Works
Photo source: IMPERIAL MANILA: American Colonial Architecture and Urbanism, 1898-1942 photo exhibit Feb. 15th, 2011 at UP College of Architecture, UP Diliman QC City
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