PGAA Creative Design

17/05/2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXcZ2hHsZV4&t=11s

In this special episode of BP Conversations, BluPrint's Editor-in-c...

08/09/2024

Good Sunday morning. Here's another unsolicited proposal for improving the UP Diliman campus. The Alumni Center (designed by my dean Ar. Ronnie Manahan) could use a forecourt. This would make it more pedestrian-friendly and people-centered. Cars can still access it from the side. (Just too many driveways and roads in the campus!!!) The top image is the proposed forecourt/piazza (any suggestions as to who's statue that could be?). The sketch on the lower right is what it looks like today with the driveway. The lower left image is the proposed site development plan. Native Anahaws frame the forecourt. What do you think?

31/05/2024

Villa Escudero, Tiaong, Quezon, dusk before a summer weekend.

05/05/2024

The Iloilo Esplanade covers nine kilometers on both sides of a 4.5 kilometer stretch of the 10-kilometer Iloilo River. This stretch has nine bridges bridges (eight crossing it and one over the mouth of an estero emptying into the river). Two of these bridges are pedestrian/bike bridges, while the rest either have bike lanes, but all can easily be crossed by pedestrians. All this connectivity is what makes the Iloilo Esplanade successful. All current nine segments can easily be reached by everyone, via a short walk or bike ride from the surrounding districts of the city. This is the challenge of the Pasig River redevelopment project. So far, the Pasig has only one pedestrian bridge and even if an esplanade could be developed on both sides of the 26km river access to the various sections are currently difficult in many areas.

17/03/2024

The Pasig River is inherently beautiful, but we need to maximize what planners call its affordances. These are its functions as recreational amenity for the public, as well as its environmental role in the natural processes that impact our metropolis. This can be achieved by conserving heritage sites and structures like this, the Isla de Convalencia in the middle of the Pasig (much like the Ile de la Cité on the Siene River in Paris), by ensuring its banks are accessible to the public as mandated by law, as well as to by making sure we do not pollute the river. What do you think? (The images are of the island in 1936 and last week).

14/02/2024

Planning for the completion of the first section of the Pasig River Esplanade (PARES) between Del Pan Bridge and Ayala Bridge. The goal is to ensure that users (pedestrians and bikers) can loop each of the planned nine sections of the 26km PARES -about 4-5 kilometers per loop (with sub loops of 1.5-3 kilometers depending on bridge locations). Connections to transport and access to communities are also being planned. Here we hope to link the esplanade with the LRT 1 City Hall Station via the Arroceros Forest Park and also Quiapo on the left. What do you think?

07/02/2024

Twenty years ago I was part of the team that managed the urban design and functional enhancements for the Singapore River and Orchard Road. This was one of the new River Cruise stations we set up along the 3-kilometer Singapore River. The river boats here are mostly used by tourists, since the island nation has supremely efficient and convenient MRT and bus systems. Both banks of the river are connected by 15 bridges, half of which are dedicated pedestrian bridges, and all with easy pedestrian sidewalks. The Singapore River has five bridges per kilometer on the average, compared to the one bridge per kilometer for the Pasig. We have a long way to go to catch up with this standard of connectivity. But as they say "The journey of a thousand rivers starts with the first bridge."

04/02/2024

I was in Boracay the other day for work and checked up on the streetscape we designed for the island's main spine. Pedestrians have a better time now and e-trikes have made streets quieter and less filled with pollution. Unfortunately other island and coastal destinations in the country have not learned the lessons of Boracay. They still do not provide sidewalks, are filled with blight, noise, and a general lack of amenity. Don't you think tourists (local and foreign) would appreciate improvements like these for the rest of our seven thousand islands?

12/01/2024

Lunch time 20-minute esquisse. There are tons of opportunities to create convivial spaces along the Pasig River like this space I found yesterday under the Sta. Monica-Lawton bridge. These could provide needed amenities for communities, spaces for barangay functions as well as clean and green frames for enjoyment of the river and a vibrant social life for all. What do you think?

07/01/2024

Sunday evening esquisse (quick design exercise): National Artist Jose Zaragoza's landmark Commercial Bank and Trust building (now BPI) at the corner of Yuchengco St and Escolta was completed in 1969. Its strong modernist geometry had always dominated that section of historic Escolta and also could be seen from the Muelle de la Banco Nacional on the Pasig. Today Zaragoza's masterpiece has been obscured by neglect, blighted by cables and posts and its facade ruined by the building of a Barangay Hall. A Pasig River Ferry terminal completes the injustice by marring the view from the Pasig. The law states all works of Nacional Artists should be conserved. With the ferry terminals undergoing a renovation (by the MMDA), Manila could share in the renovation to incorporate the barangay hall atop the terminal thus freeing the space on Yuchengco St for conversion into pedestrian-friendly plazoleta (small plaza). This would allow the Zaragoza building to be seen and appreciated again and also help connect the Escolta to the existing Yuchengco Plaza (actually an esplanade built recently). The whole length of the Muelle de la Banco Nacional (the old name of the 'plaza') could be expanded in width by a means of a small cantilever over the river and by restricting vehicular traffic. What do you think?