ARCHITECTURAL MAGAZINE PORTFOLIO

Andres
Luna
de
San Pedro
1887—1952
 Life and Works Andres Luna de San Pedro was
born on september 9, 1887 in the French
capital Paris. His parents were Paz Pardo
de Tavera and painter Juan Luna. Andres
grew up in Paris until he was six years
old and his father on 22 september 1892
shot dead his mother and mother-in-
law. He was acquitted by a French court
in early February, because it concerned
a crime of passion and left with Andres
the following week to Spain. After spend-
ing six months in Barcelona and Paris
they travelled by boat along with Andres '
uncle Antonio Luna to the Philippines,
where they arrived in Manila on May 24,
1894.

He was taught painting in Manila’s School

of Arts. He studied Arts in Paris where he
got his diploma in 1911 and went on to
study Architecture and finished in 1918.
Upon his return to Manila, the city govern-
ment appointed him the chief Architect, a po-
sition he held from 1920 to 1924. He first
got attention as a painter in Hanoi where he
won special mention. He won a silver medal
in the St. Louis Exposition and another in a
contest held by the Exposition of the Society
of Artist in Manila (1908). ANDRES WITH HIS FATHER JUAN LUNA (R), UNCLE ANTONIO LUNA (L)

He was one of the GOLD MEDAL OF MERIT AWARDEES, awarded by PIA(Philippine

Institute of Architects) among side Juan Nakpil, Juan Arellano and Tomas Mapua.
Andres was a talented architect who seemed destined to equal his father’s artistic
achievements. In the 1920s, he became obsessed with the design and construction of a
glass palace to be called the Crystal Arcade, inaugurated on June 1, 1932.
 CRYSTAL ARCHADE( 1932, ESCOLTA)
The Crystal Arcade was literally a crystal
building in graceful art deco lines, very
fancy for Manila of the 1930s. It housed
the Manila Stock Exchange as well as of-
fices and upscale shops where Manila’s
elite would go as much for the prestige of
being seen as for the air-conditioning,
which was uncommon then.
As the name might suggest, the Crystal
Arcade appeared as both a magnificent
monument to and spectacular site for con-
sumption. Andres envisioned it as a
grand commercial center. It emerged as
Manila’s first shopping mall that featured
a walkway lead-in to the glass-walled
shops on the first floor.

The Arcade had a mezzanine on both sides

of a central gallery that ran through the
length of the building and expanded at the
center to form a spacious lobby containing
curved stairways. Stairs, balconies, col-
umns and skylight combined to create
vertical and horizontal movement, as well
as a play of light and shadow in the inte-
rior. Art deco bays pierced by a vertical window marked each end of the façade and
complemented the tower over the central lobby. Wrought-iron grilles and stucco orna-
ments were in the art deco style featuring geometric forms, stylized foliage, and diago-
nal lines and motifs.
Crystal Arcade did not survive the brutali-
ty and destruction of the Battle of Manila
ON 1945. It was almost completely de-
stroyed with only a shell of its former glo-
ry standing.
 PERES—SAMANILLO BULDING
(1928, ESCOLTA)
The Pérez Samanillo Building, originally
called the Edificio Luis Pérez Samanillo,
sits along the Escolta and Calle David. The
building, together with the Regina Building
across the street, serves as entry to the Escol-
ta from Plaza Goiti in Sta. Cruz. Built in
1928, the Pérez Samanillo was designed in
the art-deco/art-nouveau style through the
partnership of the great architects Andrés
Luna de San Pedro and Juan F. Nakpil
de Jesús.
The building stands at the former property then-owned by Don Manuel de Azcárraga
Palmero-Versosa de Lizárraga, brother of Gral. Marcelo de Azcárraga Palmero-Versosa
de Lizárraga, the only Spanish Prime Min-
ister of Filipino descent.
The building was one of the most modern in
its time, owing to the building's
glass façade. As a family-owned property,
the building housed the offices of the Pérez
Samanillo business operations in the Philip-
pines, which was operated by Don Luis Pérez
Samanillo's son Luis Pérez de Olaguer-
Feliú
The liberation of the city in 1945 obliterat-
ed most of downtown Manila's buildings.
Luckily, the twin Luna masterpieces, the
Regina Building and the Pérez Samanillo
Building were spared from further destruc-
tion and only suffered minor damages.
Today, the Pérez Samanillo Building is
now renamed as the First United Building
after it was purchased by the Sylianteng
family, the same family who bought the
Regina Building across the street.
 REGINA BUILDING (1934, ESCOLTA)
Before the present Regina Building was
built, another building stood on its loca-
tion. The old Roxas Building was located
opposite the Pérez-Samanillo Building, oc-
cupying a block from Calle David (now
Burke St.) to Calle Banquero. The build-
ing had two wings, with the concrete
building facing Calle David and the
Pasig which was occupied by the offices of
the Roxas y Cía, and Pedro P. Roxas y
Cía. The other wing faces the Estero de la
Reina and Plaza Sta. Cruz which a quaint
coffee shop called Victoria Café occupies. The
owners of the old Roxas Building were the de
Ayala-Roxas family, specifically Doña Car-
men de Ayala Roxas de Roxas. When she
died in 1930, the Roxas family sold the
property to Don José Leoncio de León, a prom-
inent industrialist from Pampanga. The old
structure facing the estero was demolished
and was replaced by a concrete building.
Designed by Fernando H. Ocampo, and the
great Andrés Luna de San Pedro. Ocampo
was credited in designing and renovating
the existing concrete building while Luna
was the one who designed the new building
facing the estero and Plaza Sta. Cruz. One
of the tenants of the building was Pacific
Motors, dealer of General Motors vehicles in
Manila.
In 1934, the new building was completed. Designed in a mixed neo-classical and beaux-
arts styles by Andrés Luna de San Pedro. The new building annexed the old building
facing the Pasig. The building was renamed as the Regina, in honor of José Leoncio de
León's wife, heiress Regina Joven Gutiérrez Hizon de León.
 LIZARES MANSION (1937, ILOILO)
Built in 1937 by Don Emiliano Lizares
for his wife Conchita Gamboa and their
two sons and three daughters, the man-
sion has three floors, a basement and an
attic. It has a winding wooden staircase
and big bedrooms with floor and doors
made of hardwood. It has 59 doors which
indicate the intricacy of its layout.
When World War II broke out, the family left for a safe hiding place in Pototan, Iloilo.
The mansion was then used as headquarters of the Japanese army. It was believed that
the basement became a dumping ground for tortured Filipinos.
After the war, the family went back to live in the mansion, but life was never the same.
In 1950, Don Emiliano Lizares died and his widow left for Manila, leasing the mansion
to a businessman who turned it into a casino. The city mayor later ordered that the casi-
no be closed, claiming that it corrupted the Ilonggos.
In 1962 the Lizares Mansion was sold to the Dominicans. In 1963, it was converted into
a House of Formation for young Dominicans in the Philippines.
In 1978, the Lizares Mansion compound became the home of Angelicum School Iloilo.

LEGARDA ELEMENTARY
SCHOOL (1922, SAMPALOC,MNL)
Built in 1922, the school is notable for its
main school building that has managed to
retain its pre-war architecture, making its
building the oldest surviving school build-
ing in Manila. It became a prominent
landmark in the area with its
unique Victorian style of architecture
which evokes a sense of grandeur.
During the Japanese Occupation in World War II, the Japanese forces used the school as
barracks. Having survived the war, it was subsequently liberated by the Americans dur-
ing the Battle of Manila, after which it became the headquarters of the U.S. 1st Cavalry
Division as well as being the 29th Evacuation Hospital for wounded American soldiers.
The Philippine Army also made the school its headquarters for a brief time.