Thank you JEFF YAP for the initial action. Now can anyone else call them nicely? Even if only to ask for permission to take detailed photos so that it's possible to reconstruct it some other day. It is after all, cement. I actually called already too but nobody in office yet. I will also be out all day touring.
From Jeff:
Okay. So I called Mr. Esteban Titong of E.V.J. Integrated Services – he’s the one in charge of the demolition of Avenue Theater and I was informed that the site would be turned into a parking lot in the meantime since the owner doesn’t have any plans of putting up another structure.
I was able to get the name as well as the contact number of the owner of the building:
Mr. Eduardo Linton Jua
2584092
(Ms. Alice – Secretary)
He’s the chairperson/ CEO of a Shipping Line. I called the number a few minutes ago and I think it was his wife who answered the phone (it was their residence phone - so folks, hinay hinay lang). I gave out info re: Avenue theater being a prewar structure and all. I was extremely courteous so as not to create too much tension. However, she informed me that they had already made a final decision, which was to demolish the building. She said they don’t have enough money to maintain it.
“I’m sorry hijo, there’s nothing you can do. Nakakkahiya na sa mga contractors if we stop the demolition,” she said.
So could somebody help me out on this? I believe we could still save this heritage structure. Perhaps if the owners will have an incentive or something to help them maintain the building, then it will not be demolished.
NCCA, NHI, HCS? What can we do about this?
By the way, below is the contact information of the demolition team for reference:
Mr. Esteban Titong
E.V.J. Integrated Services
4930087
7835532
I'm thinking instead of calling and bombarding them, perhaps we could send a letter or set up a meeting?
33 Comments:
o, ayan! so to whoever offered a thousand ways to save this building in the earlier thread, now is the right time to put the money where your mouth is. go go go!
The Littonjua's are very wealthy. They definitely do not need extra income from parking fees. Moreover, they can very well afford to restore and maintain the theater building.
THAT'S IT?! that's the way to save the building? to say- ah, mayaman na ang pamilyang yan- di na nila kelangan ng pera. people don't rich by throwing their money away- even for old buildings. thats adam smith for you. maintaining an old building is no joke- you could spend very much millions a year for that. real estate tax lang for a building that size will run to six figures na.
come on- you could do better than that.
btw, it's litonjua.
I won't hold my breath for too long carlos. Wa-class is wa-class no matter how you look at it. And why should they care? It's not their history. Their loyalties still lie elsewhere. And look at the damage the three gorgeous dam is doing in China destroying hundreds of historic towns. Saving heritage architecture has never been a chinese thing. They destroy there. They destroy here. Don't expect any different. No wonder nobody wants to live in Binondo except them.
Actually, right now, I really want to document what's left of the building more than anything else.
Just walked by it today. It's too late to save it. I just hope the litonjuas eventually replace it with a building that is suited to their needs but also - fingers crossed - tasteful. Is that too much to ask?
The destroying is lamentable, but from what I am gathering, there are apparently no choices when dealing with real estate in Binondo. But replacing it with something uglier, I wonder what the excuses for that might be. Sometimes the simplest designs are the most beautiful.
Furthermore, why they are tearing it down for a parking lot when it probably costs more to demolish it than from what they can earn from the fees? Why couldn't they just turn it into a tiangge like their neighbors? I'm sorry but I just don't see the reasoning here.
I've already stopped mourning. Let them do what they want with the building. It's their loss.
And if I remember correctly. The litonjuas are just as chinese as the tuasons. I think they are more makati-fied than anything else. It could be the lazy spanish mestizo attitude we could be dealing with here.
And acidboy, ignore anonymous na. I think he is really enjoying getting your goat.
you're right carlos. bigots like them get their orgasms from doing that. no hope na yan. ignoramuses hiding under the cloak of anonymity certainly doesnt mean diddly squat in this world. i dont want this to be an 'ethnic war', and i find it amusing because we filipino citizens, including me, who hold philippine passports seems to get more than enough bigotry outside this country. this will be my last say on this subject.
the litonjuas are one of the oldest chinese clans nga. i believe johnny litton can trace his roots to them. they were one of the first few families who made it big here during the early 20th century- they are the "ka-level" of the tuasons, cojuangcos, sycips, cu-unjiengs, syquias and all those 3 syllable chinese last names. if some people here know their history, these families have contributed a lot to our history. but then, wa-class naman mga katulad namin so what do i know?
btw, i tried to look for the 3 GORGEOUS DAMS in my INTSIK history books- can't find it. tried google-earthing 3 GORGEOUS DAMS, too- wala. found some sites in yahoo if you search for 3 GORGEOUS DAMS- but adult sites lumalabas. hehehehe. ignoramii talaga mga bigots.
-eric ong
Omidog. You revealed your identity. You didn't have to do that you know.
btw, carlos if there's anyone to blame about gaudy architecture, i think it should be the archi schools here. and i am not in any way defending the owners of these structures- pinoy man o intsik.
look, these people go to architects if they want to have something built. the architects draw plans for them that will suit their needs. if these architects, and u.p. and u.s.t. churns them out by the hundreds a year, have little imagination in their designs then the schools are definitely amiss. don't you think that is the reason why these new buildings sprouting up in the fort and makati, as well as the new malls- at least those considered having good designs- get foreign designers/architects? perhaps we are barking up the wrong tree here.
Perhaps we are. I actually would like to sit it out on this red hot topic. I just want more photos of the building now. That's all. I wish to remain the moderator here. Any architecture students out there who want to send in a comment?
3 Gorgeous Dams. Hahahahaha! Sorry but that is just so funny.
By the way, 'intsik' traces its etymological roots to the Malay word 'encik' which roughly translates to 'Sir'. Wear the epithet proud.
is intsik a bad word? i just thought it's what pinoys call chinese filipinos
I think it's THREE GORGES DAM, the largest in the world, completed in 2003.
Ooops, the dam isn't finished yet, my bad. *blush*
Joey,
Its not a bad word per se but it has been tarnished (Well, sort of) by such racial put-offs as 'isntik beho tulo laway tsekwa...' thing. A leftover from our not-too-long-ago past. And that is why to a lot of Tsinoys, the word doesnt sound right.
Carlos,
I just hope your hopes to come true...and so does mine. Thing is, judging by the way things are going around Avenida today, Im not even sure if the Litonjuas would spend a great deal of moolahs to have a cutting-edge building rebuilt, not unless, they have some promising businesss prospect. I have seen it one to many times, heritage buildings going to the way of parking lots: Jai Alai (the worst of the lot, its not even parking space!), the Fernandex building along the Escolta and, as I write, the last of the Pre-War buildings lining Nueva street in Binondo.
carlos,
if my ethnicity is attacked i am bound by my respect for my family and departed ones to defend it. and i will defend it with my name. thats how i feel about that.
ivan,
the problem talaga with why these buildings are torn down is because even if you spruce them up, walang uupa dyan. location, location, location as they say. you dont even have to go to binondo. look at avenida, escolta, sampaloc, san miguel, dimasalang... these old neighborhoods have lost to urban decay. no one would want to work or live there. and the streets- wheh! eau de wiwi!
and the nhi? all they can do is point point and point. they do nothing but meet and go to these old buildings to declare them historical landmarks and then have stamps issued. go to them for help to preserve these and you'll be shown the door.
To quote acidboy,
...di na nila kelangan ng pera. people don't rich by throwing their money away- even for old buildings...the problem talaga with why these buildings are torn down is because even if you spruce them up, walang uupa dyan...
So to you, it's all about making money. Forget the philatrophy of it all?
how generalizing. again. the scenario is if you have a discrepit old building- and you're losing millions a year to it. and the choice is to pour millions again to it to spruce it up hoping that after doing that somebody might be able to use it para AT LEAST to augment the cost of operating that building, but then again it is avenida- the armpit nga as somebody said and in all probability you'll lose your shirt if you spend money fixing up the place. what would you do?
i speak of this as somebody who can truly say that this is being felt by a friend, whom i mentioned in an earlier post, who is going through the same experience. AND HINDI SYA INTSIK, MIND YOU! they have this old building. real old. real historical and such a beauty. the ironworks in itself are works of art. but its located where no business would want to locate in nowadays. they have a few tenants- probably 10% occupancy. real estate tax this year they paid half a million bucks. they have to employ several people to watch the place at night coz thieves keep sawing off the iron works to sell to junk shops. because the pipes are at least 70 years old, they need to be removed and replaced. the stench of the pasig river has seeped in. all common toilets are also in need of replacing. 2 out of the 3 elevators are shut down because the rent they earn can barely pay the electricity bills anyway. and the tenants pay so late if at all, and if you try to evict them they either kneel in front of the building manager sobbing or they get a rto from the court.
you know, it comes to a point, when you realize that you might need money to spend on your kids' schooling, or to pay your life insurance, or to buy your own house, or even donate some of that money to some environmental group out to save the 3 GORGEOUS dams, and you will say, f*ck it all! and philatrophy- i mean philantrophy has to take a back seat to necessity. di na yan adam smith- abraham maslow na yan.
oh, and yes, they approached the proper authorities regarding this. they are all helpless (or useless). pretty soon this property will either be abandoned and eventually be declared condemned or be sold to a developer who will for sure tear it down.
this is a sad fact. and instead of throwing feces all around like monkeys people should just use their brain in finding ways to stop this from happening and ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.
i suggest to mr/ms anonymous for him/her and his/her friends to stop going to the malls and cinema chains to watch their movies. why not try watching in those old cinema houses in recto and avenida, like this avenue theatre used to be, so perhaps they can eventually earn some profit? there's still a lot of these old cinema buildings showing movies in the area. coronet is one i remember going to when i was a kid.
Oi Acidboy. Totally with you there. You want godawful contemporary architecture that will stress your point? Check out the UAP (that's United Architects of the Philippines - how telling!) headquarters on Scout Rallos. It's like WE CAN DO THIS! WE CAN DO THAT! LOOK HOW FANCY THIS LOOKS! WOW! Like monkeys let loose on building material.
Acid,
It need not remain a movie theater or re-open as one for it to be patronized. It could very well open as a museum/cafe and be a catalyst for a "nostalgic attitude" if and when restructuring the surroundings occur.
Your negative/stubborn reaction to all this just mirrors your juvenile temperament.
oh its soooooo easy being an armchair expert, isn't it?
here's the thing. regarding the real estate tax my friend's family's building is paying. its not in six figures. my mistake. the total real estate tax they paid is 2 MILLION PESOS! imagine that. they have approximately 15 office spaces on leae there. around P12,000 rental. thats P2,160,000 a year. 2 million of that goes to city hall. 160,000 left to spend on bldg management and upkeep A YEAR!
and carlos, i finally found the reasons why they have to tear down the building. first- taxes nga. its far cheaper to pay the taxes of a lot than a building, with all the structural and electrical and fire inspections and all that. and i'm pretty sure that building is not structurally or electrically sound anymore. another reason is if they're going to sell the property, they command a higher valuation if the property is an empty lot. the building, sad to say, has no value in the real estate market. actually liability pa yan coz whoever's going to buy it will tear it down eventually. thats real sad, i know, pero thats how it is. (i spent the afternoon asking around)
anonymous and forever shall remain that way,
i'm sorry if you feel that way, but i totally disagree with your statement. and i believe the lot of here does, too. let the people here see who is juvenile and negative. me, with all my faults, angst and run-on sentences or somebody who remains cloaked in anonymity whilst spewing so much hatred and disdain over a whole ethnic group.
sige. try setting up a museum/cafe out of a 5-6 storey tall building with just 3 floors at most in the middle of avenida. just see how foolish and illogical that is. i bet you haven't even walked along avenida yet. laking manila ako- kasi only us INTSIKS can stand the place, right, so i know of where i speak. perhaps its time for you to take a tour. :)
Architects usually just follow the orders of what the owner of the property wants. Very rare that architects are given free rein on their designs. If the chinese request an ugly building they will get it.
Don't try making up excuses. It's not wrong to have bad taste. But now that you know, now you can do someting about it.
Acidboy,
That is why heritage structures have to be taken vis-a-vis with the total environmental context of the street. As you put, location,location, location. I guess this is where the city government comes in, that is,in helping maintain the quality of the street so that the buildings surroundings dont deteriorate. Sigh. So many factors involved...and it doesnt help that developers are concentrating further and further away thus leaving the inner city to rot.
I think that whole Avenida redevelopment was a sham. Something that the powers to be just pluck right out of Nangjing Road in Shanghai without them giving a thought if this was applicable to the Manila scenario.
Annoymous,
Get real my man. Heritage and economics go hand in hand. Why do you think those old cities in Europe surivived without them having to be demolished? Its because they balanced heritage and economics. Alas, man cannot just live on bread alone and historic inner city centers(like in Manila) cannot just survive with nostalgia. Every urban planner/restoration architect knows that. And they dont have be Instik.
Which university did Nakpil get his architecture degree from ???
Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts
http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about_cultarts/comarticles.php?artcl_Id=109
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
anonymous,
i don't know see the any connection between my argument on the economics of maintaining an old building has got to do with "bad taste". perhaps you ARE truly blinded by your bigotry and all you see are groups to point your fault-finding finger to. oh well, this is not the first time i've encountered a pinoy jim crow. an anonymous one at that. typical. why is that kaya? you can have frank gehry to do your house, but if you are walking on this earth with such a hatred and prejudice, i really wonder if its all worth the aesthetics?
btw, have you walked through avenida nga?
Now I know how you put the acid in acidboy.
Dude. Fight on!
But really, despite it's current difficulties, ultimately, we ALL on this thread believe in heritage architecture protection in one way or another, don't we?
We really are on the same team here. Anonymous just made things sordid and unnecessarily cruel and divisive.
Let's not lose focus on the issue at hand. This current bitterness is taking us nowhere.
Let's just learn a lesson or two from the loss of the Avenida Theater and let's leave it at that. It's the least we owe to that building.
Time time to move on. Oh lookie. A new post.
And anonymous, you put one more mean comment and it will be deleted.
Addendum. I don't know. As an artist. For me, ANYTHING and EVERYTHING is worth it for the aesthetics.
It's my basic credo. If not, I wouldn't be an artist at all.
thanks carlos.
well, my argument for/against aesthetics was what purpose is it to live in a great place if you have too much anger and hatred in your heart? parang living in a mansion in dasma pero your parents are always fighting, diba? then again, you ARE right- better suffer in heaven than in hell, right? hahaha
i won't let this argument go further down the gutter na- promise.
Heritage Conservation and Aesthetics. Amen to that!
And may I add World Peace too? ;op
/i/
Nakpil went to Harvard...sosyal !? Who paid for his education ?
hey carlos, i have some photos of avenue theater and other cinema houses for my masters thesis. i'd love to share them with you when i'm done. i'm no architect just someone who believes i should have been born in another time. i hate the fact that i'm not in manila right now to help you guys save the avenue. i hope it's not to late for the other landmarks.
I would love to see them. Sadly, I just learned Galaxy theater is next.
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