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Juan Marcos Arellano y de Guzmán (April 25, 1888 – December 5, 1960), or Juan M. Arellano, was a Filipino
architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
, best known for
Manila Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populated ...
's Metropolitan Theater (1935), Legislative Building (1926; now houses the National Museum of Fine Arts), the Manila Central Post Office Building (1926), the
Rizal Memorial Sports Complex The Rizal Memorial Sports Complex (RMSC; formerly known as Rizal Memorial Field) is a national sports complex of the Philippines, located on Pablo Ocampo St. (formerly Vito Cruz St.), Malate, Manila. It is named in honor of the country's national ...
(1934), the Central Student Church (today known as the Central United Methodist Church, 1932), the old Jaro Municipal Hall (1934) and the
Old Iloilo City Hall The University of the Philippines Visayas Main Building, also sometimes referred to as the Old Iloilo City Hall, is a historic building in Iloilo City which currently serves as the primary building of the Iloilo City campus of the University of th ...
(1935) in Iloilo, the
Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol The Negros Occidental Provincial Capitol is the seat of the provincial government of Negros Occidental located at Gatuslao St., Bacolod, Philippines. Within its complex is the Capitol Park and Lagoon. History Before its present location, the ...
(1936), the
Cebu Provincial Capitol The Cebu Provincial Capitol is the seat of the provincial government of Cebu in the Philippines. Located at the north end of Osmeña Boulevard in Cebu City, it was designed by Juan M. Arellano, a Filipino architect best known for the Manila Metropo ...
(1937), the Bank of the Philippine Islands Cebu Main Branch (1940),
Misamis Occidental Misamis Occidental ( ceb, Kasadpang Misamis; Subanen: ''Sindepan Mis'samis''; fil, Kanlurang Misamis), officially the Province of Misamis Occidental, is a province located in the region of Northern Mindanao in the Philippines. Its capital is th ...
Provincial Capitol Building (1935), Cotabato Municipal Hall (1940) and the
Jones Bridge The William A. Jones Memorial Bridge, commonly known as the Jones Bridge, is an arched girder bridge that spans the Pasig River in the City of Manila, Philippines. It is named after the United States legislator William Atkinson Jones, who served a ...
during the pre-war era.


Life and works

Juan M. Arellano was born on April 25, 1888 in
Tondo, Manila Tondo is a district located in Manila, Philippines. It is the largest in terms of area and population of Manila's sixteen districts, with a Census-estimated 631,313 people in 2015 and consists of two congressional districts. It is also the seco ...
,
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
to Luis C. Arellano and Bartola de Guzmán. Arellano married Natividad Ocampo on May 15, 1915. He had eight children, Oscar, Juanita, Cesar, Salvador, Juan Marcos, Luis, Gloria and Carlos. He attended the
Ateneo Municipal de Manila , mottoeng = Light in the Lord , type = Private, research, non-profit, coeducational basic and higher education institution , established = December 10, 1859 , religious_affiliation = Roman Catholic (Jesuits) , academic_aff ...
and graduated in 1908. His first passion was
painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and a ...
and he trained under Lorenzo Guerrero, Toribio Antillon, and Fabian de la Rosa. However, he pursued
architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
and was sent to the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
as one of the first ''
pensionados The Pensionado Act is Act Number 854 of the Philippine Commission, which passed on 26 August 1903. Passed by the United States Congress, it established a scholarship program for Filipinos to attend school in the United States. The program has ...
'' in architecture, after Carlos Barreto, who was sent to the
Drexel Institute Drexel University is a private research university with its main campus in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Drexel's undergraduate school was founded in 1891 by Anthony J. Drexel, a financier and philanthropist. Founded as Drexel Institute of Ar ...
in 1908; Antonio Toledo, who went to
Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...
; and
Tomás Mapúa Don Tomás Bautista Mapúa (December 21, 1888 – December 22, 1965) was a Filipino architect, educator and businessman from the Philippines. He was the founder and first president of the Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT) together with ...
, who went to
Cornell Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
. Arellano went to the
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) is a museum and private art school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
in 1911 and subsequently transferred to Drexel to finish his
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to si ...
in Architecture. He was trained in the Beaux Arts and subsequently went to work for George B. Post & Sons in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where he worked for Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. He then returned to the Philippines to begin a practice with his brother, Arcadio. He later joined the Bureau of Public Works just as the last American architects, George Fenhagen and Ralph H. Doane, were leaving. He and
Tomás Mapúa Don Tomás Bautista Mapúa (December 21, 1888 – December 22, 1965) was a Filipino architect, educator and businessman from the Philippines. He was the founder and first president of the Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT) together with ...
were then named as supervising architects. In 1927, he took a study leave and went to the United States where he was greatly influenced by
Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...
architecture. In 1930, he returned to Manila and designed the
Bulacan Provincial Capitol The Bulacan Provincial Capitol is the seat of the provincial government of Bulacan in the Philippines. History The Bulacan Provincial Capitol was built in 1930 during the administration of Bulacan Governor José Padilla Sr. on a parcel of land ...
and notably the
Manila Metropolitan Theater The Metropolitan Theater ( fil, Tanghalang Metropolitan), abbreviated as MET, is a Philippine Art Deco building found near the Mehan Garden located on Padre Burgos Avenue corner Arroceros Street, near the Manila Central Post Office. It was desi ...
, which was then considered controversially moderne. He continued to act as a consulting architect for the Bureau of Public Works where he oversaw the production of the Manila's first zoning plan. In 1940, he and Harry Frost created a design for
Quezon City Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populatio ...
, which was to become the new
capital Capital may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** List of national capital cities * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Economics and social sciences * Capital (economics), the durable produced goods used fo ...
of the Philippines. It was during that time that he designed the building that would house the United States High Commission to the Philippines, later the Embassy of the United States in Manila. He designed a
demesne A demesne ( ) or domain was all the land retained and managed by a lord of the manor under the feudal system for his own use, occupation, or support. This distinguished it from land sub-enfeoffed by him to others as sub-tenants. The concept or ...
along the edge of
Manila Bay Manila Bay ( fil, Look ng Maynila) is a natural harbor that serves the Port of Manila (on Luzon), in the Philippines. Strategically located around the Manila, capital city of the Philippines, Manila Bay facilitated commerce and trade between t ...
, which featured a mission revival style mansion that took advantage of the seaside vista. The Americans instead opted for a
federal-style Federal-style architecture is the name for the classicizing architecture built in the newly founded United States between 1780 and 1830, and particularly from 1785 to 1815, which was heavily based on the works of Andrea Palladio with several inn ...
building that ended up overpriced and uncomfortable. During
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, the Legislative Building and Jones Bridge, were totally destroyed and the Post Office Building was severely damaged. While these structures were all reconstructed, his original designs were not followed and were considered poor replications. Arellano retired in 1956 and went back to painting. In 1960, he exhibited his work at the Manila
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...
.


Death

He died at the age of 72 on December 5, 1960.


See also

*
Culture of the Philippines The culture of the Philippines is characterized by cultural diversity. Although the multiple ethnic groups of the Philippine archipelago have only recently established a shared Filipino national identity, their cultures were all shaped by the ...
# Alcazaren, Paulo (12 Nov 2005), "Juan M de Guzman Arellano : Renaissance Man", ''The Philippine Star''.
National Historical Commission of the Philippines: JUAN MARCOS G. ARELLANO (1888-1960) Outstanding Architect
{{DEFAULTSORT:Arellano, Juan M. 1888 births 1960 deaths People from Tondo, Manila Tagalog people Ateneo de Manila University alumni Drexel University alumni 20th-century Filipino architects Filipino Methodists