Architectural History of the Bordner Building

"The building housing the Manila Science High School is one of the "very important buildings in the history of modern architecture." This distinction it shares with the Philippine General Hospital, Manila Hotel and Philippine Normal College buildings. This was learned from Prof. Thomas Hines of the Department of History of the University of California in Los Angeles, who was here Aug. 5 in the course of a study of American architecture in the Philippines."

Prof. Hines is writing a book on American architecture in the Philippines, especially the work of Daniel Burnham and William Parsons. The Manila Science High Building (Bordner Building) as well as the Philippine General Hospital, Philippine Normal College and Manila Hotel are by Parsons and were built in 1910, he further revealed.

William E. Parsons
(Image from Ref. 1)

Nucleus (MSHS Newspaper), July-August 1971


William Edwards Parsons was born in in Akron Ohio 1872. He obtained a BA degree from Yale and later an MS degree in Architecture in 1898 from Columbia University. He was awarded the McKim Fellowship scholarship that enabled him to study in Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He returned in 1901 and got a job as head draftsman for Architect John Galen Howard of New York.

In 1904, Gov General William Forbes invited architect David Burnham  (of whom Baguio's Burnham park is named after) to the Philippines to make recommendations on how to improve the physical living conditions. since there was an "influx of Americans, specially in the big cities where most of them would need to work and to live"

Burnham sailed to Philippines in Oct 1904 and stayed for 6 weeks. When he arrived back in US, he interviewed prospective architects with "sufficient talent, training and experience to enable him to implement the building projects in the proposed plans for Manila and Baguio." During the interviews, Parsons was selected and in Nov 1905, he arrived in Philippines to implement Burnham's "City Beautiful" vision for Manila and Bagiuo, and later as a template for his own city plans for Zamboanga and Cebu

A list of key architectural guidelines used by Parsons:
  - diagonal paths/roads radiating from central hubs
  - dominant design forms - broad, deep archways, shaded porches or "pergolas" that 
    connected cool interiors of his building thus allowing for uninterrupted ventilation
  - use of translucent concha or "capiz" shells that gave soft pearly light - reduced glare 
    instead of glass
  - use of reinforced concrete instead of hardwoods - to combat termites and "anay"

The Philippine General Hospital in 1910 would embody most of Parsons guidelines.

We can still actually see these guidelines when we compare the current Bordner building and archival pictures of PGH buildings.  

(Image from Ref. 4)

Note the arches and the overhang roof over the main entrances held by steel cables.

Parsons would later on design the "standard" schoolhouses called the Gabaldon school buildings.  His design was so successful that other countries requested for the Gabaldon architectural plans.

But the Bordner Building itself was designed for a special purpose. After the building was finished in 1914, it was called the "Central School" and served as the "first and only public school in the Philippines established for the children of American Citizens." (Ref 6)

References:

1. http://historyofarchitecture.weebly.com/william-e-parsons.html

2. American Modernism in the Philippines: The forgotten Architecture of William E. Parsons
   by Thomas S. Hines, University of California, Los Angeles, CA USA
   The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. Vol 32, No.4 (DEC 1973) pp 316-326
    http://www.jstor.org/stable/988922

3. Dakudao, Michaelangelo E. "The Imperial Consulting Architect: William E. Parsons (1872-1939)" Bulletin of the American Historical Collection Vol. XXII No. 1(86) January - March 1994

4. Snodgrass, John E. (John Elmer), History and description of the Philippine General Hospital. 
    Manila,   Philippine Islands, 1900 to 1911 (1912)
    Bureau of Health, Philippines, 1912
    http://archive.org/details/cu31924063266534

5. Lico, Gerard  Arkitekturang Filipino : A History of Architecture and Urbanism in the Philippines
    Quezon City : The University of the Philippines Press, 2008

6. Armstrong, Charles W. Jr., Thomasites and the war generation of Central-Bordner School in the Philippines. Irvine, CA (18905 Antioch, Irvine 92715), 1991


References 2,3 and 6 are available at the American Historical Collection at Ateneo University 
http://rizal.lib.admu.edu.ph/ahc/

Reference 5 has the oldest picture of the Central School building.