HCS 2008 Calendar: Heritage Recycled

The HCS will be featuring fine examples of built heritage structures transformed into commercially-sustainable business projects. You will find elegant family residences that have been recycled into boutique hotels and banks; a century-old train terminal (Tutuban) became a shopping mall and the first international airport of Manila (Nielson Tower) was restored and recycled into a library and bookstore.

All these are compiled into the 2008 Heritage Calendar/Postcard Collection called HERITAGE RECYCLED. These unique calendars are excellent Christmas gifts to your friends and business associates. You can also have your company and/or personal logo printed on the standee.

As you know, the HCS is a non-profit group. One of our main objectives is to show how the restoration of heritage structures can enhance the value of real estate development projects, urban planning, and tourism.

By ordering, you will be contributing to this worthwhile advocacy. (P200/copy; 10% discount for members and bulk orders of 100pcs++)

Thank you for your valued support. E-mail us at info@heritage.org.ph

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HERITAGE RECYCLED
Adaptive re-use is a creative mode of conservation that gives heritage structures new and alternative functions other than the original ones that may no longer be required.

Adaptive re-use is applicable to most heritage structures. These need not be as grandiose as the vintage Department of Finance, now the National Museum. HCS did not include it to show that ancestral homes of modest proportions, obscure town halls, colonial watchtowers and bridges, warehouses and train stations can also be recycled into sustainable projects.

Most often than not, built heritage resources are found on premium real estate property so developers are in a hurry to demolish rather than restore and recycle. Today, there is a growing awareness that adaptive re-use can enhance property value.

In many countries, like Australia for example, demolition of heritage structures is considered wasteful. Heritage resources are given adaptive re-use because it is good for the environment. Recycling a valued heritage place makes adaptive re-use of historic buildings an essential component of sustainable development. The United States of America abounds with examples of creative (and remunerative) re-use of heritage. Old warehouses in Manhattan's meat-packing areas have been transformed into fashionable and expensive lofts. Elegant mansions in "Gone with the Wind" country were transformed into boutique hotels.

In London, a power plant along the River Thames became the elegant Tate Gallery of Modern Art. In Mexico City, the Cemento Azteca plant is now an environment-friendly children's museum-- El Papalote. Singapore has salvaged a cluster of decrepit shop houses, turning Boat Quay and Clarke Quay into an eclectic mix of high-end restaurants, al fresco dining, dazzling bars and pubs.

We are not too far behind in the Philippines that is why the HCS has chosen "Heritage Recycled" as its theme for 2008. Until now, you may not have noticed these twelve amazing projects of sustainable, adaptive re-use. Take a good look around you and find more incredible examples of how Filipinos have so creatively recycled heritage.

However, in the Philippine scene, recycling heritage and adaptive re-use are still polemical issues. Should heritage conservation be done strictly "in situ"? Should heritage structures be transferred to different sites and settings, when that is the only way to save them? Is adaptive re-use intrusive? Or, should heritage conservation be a priority at all? Let the debate begin. After which we, conservation advocates, can make policies suitable to our own needs and vision.

Register now for the Philippine Towns and Cities Seminar (9 November 2007)

The main objective of this seminar series is to enhance civic engagement with local governments units so the Heritage Conservation Society (HCS) can inform and guide them on the proper care and utilization of a valuable asset — built heritage resources. The first seminar was held last 8 November 2006, at the Development Academy of the Philippines, Pasig City.

In our towns and cities, wanton real estate speculation and over-construction are often mistaken for modernization when in fact these exert devastating pressure on the historic and cultural core of many of our human settlements. As a result, a valuable economic resource – built heritage — is left to deteriorate or is thoughtlessly demolished in the name of progress. Concerted effort is imperative to protect heritage resources because these are revenue and job-generating assets that can spark economic revitalization, as the case of Vigan clearly shows.

However, there is a general lack of awareness at the local government level, which is precisely where policies should be formulated and ordinances passed to declare heritage districts and protect these as the town's or city's prime assets. Built heritage resources should be the core of any master plan for urban development and inner town/city revitalization. Livelihood opportunities are generated by adaptive re-use, the revival of traditional crafts for restoration work and an increase in tourism receipts.

Significantly, communities begin to feel a "pride of place".

The "Philippine Towns and Cities" seminar series is a communications campaign to influence policy makers at the local government level. Through the "Mayors' Forum", best practices are shared. Other stakeholders in the Executive branch, the private sector and the academe are invited to participate because heritage conservation is a multi-disciplinary concern.

In a second seminar, the Heritage Conservation Society will take this awareness and education campaign to the local governments of the Vizayas, where built heritage resources abound in the cities of Cebu, Bacolod, Iloilo, Dumaguete, Tagbilaran, and many others.


"PHILIPPINE TOWNS & CITIES:
Reflections of the Past, Lessons for the Future"
9 November 2007, Sarabia Manor Hotel and Convention Center, 101 General Luna Street, Iloilo City

REGISTRATION DETAILS:
Seminar Fee
Private Sector: P2,500
Government Sector: P1,500
Student (with valid ID): P500

Check payable to: Heritage Conservation Society
PAYMENT AND REGISTRATION DEADLINE: 31 October 2007, Wednesday
Deposit to: Heritage Conservation Society
BPI C/A # 8105-8153-61, M.H. Del Pilar Branch, Ermita

Contact Persons
Ms. Dorie Soriano (HCS)
Tel.: 521-2239
Fax: 522-2497
Email: info@heritage.org.ph

Ms. Len Diño (UPF)
Tel.: 895-1812 / 896-1902
Fax: 890-2480
Email: annalynn.upf@gmail.com

Ms. Vivian (Iloilo City)
Tel.: (033) 3372172
Email: benitojimena@yahoo.com

Seminar Organizers:
HERITAGE CONSERVATION SOCIETY (HCS)
THE ILOILO CITY GOVERNMENT
THE URBAN PARTNERSHIPS FOUNDATION (UPF)
PHILIPPINE INSTITUTE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNERS (PIEP)

2007 HCS Calendar

The 2007 HCS Calendar featuring heritage provincial capitols, city halls and municipios, is now on sale. For more information, contact:

Heritage Conservation Society
G/F Museo Pambata Building
Roxas Boulevard, Ermita
Manila, Philippines
Tel. +632 521 2239
Fax. +632 522 2497

For a closer look, you can download a pdf file here.

A Petition to the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines: Please Stop the Further Defacing of Philippine Heritage Churches

Most Reverend Eminences and Excellencies:

Almost every town in the Philippines has at least one church built during the Spanish colonial period, all of which are inherent parts of the architectural heritage of Filipinos and stand as testaments to the excellence and creativity of Filipino artisans and craftsmen of yesteryears who labored to create these works of art.

These properties of the Filipino people are under the custodianship of the Roman Catholic Church and their representatives in the Republic of the Philippines.

It must have come to your knowledge that several parish priests have taken it upon themselves to modernize and renovate heritage churches under their care without proper consultation with conservationists or representatives of agencies mandated to protect cultural and historical heritage. In their desire to "leave their mark" on the churches, parish priests have caused irreversible damage to our old churches during their short stints in their parishes.

Sadly, there have been instances where parish priests sold off priceless antiques and other church property to unscrupulous antique dealers and collectors to fund these renovations, with the treasures of the Church ending up in homes and other private collections.

In many occasions, the renovations are costly and unnecessary, and at times ostentatious. Priests and parish pastoral councils have undertaken and continue to undertake large-scale fundraising campaigns for these renovations when such funds could be put to better use, especially in a Third-world country such as the Philippines.

The funds could instead be directed toward the three-fold pastoral program of action of the CBCP, to build character, capability and community. Instead of spending on renovations, the various parishes could use the funds “to empower those who are needy to construct a better future” by supporting “social action programs, training programs and institutions, research centers, schools, charitable agencies and organizations, religious orders and congregations, lay organizations and movements, Basic Ecclesial Communities,” that would “help people grow in capacities, such as the capacity to govern themselves, the capacity to develop their abilities, the capacity to find meaningful and fruitful employment and work, the capacity to care for our environment, the capacity to make leadership accountable.”

We, the undersigned petitioners, thus urge the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) to protect the cultural heritage of the Philippine Catholic Church from further damage by ordering the immediate stop to all ongoing and proposed renovations to heritage churches that have not been approved by the CBCP Committee for the Cultural Heritage of the Church or reviewed by representatives of agencies mandated to protect cultural and historical heritage.

We also urge the CBCP to declare all Catholic churches in the Philippines fifty years or older as part of the cultural heritage of the Church and create a comprehensive list of all these churches for the information of the Filipino people and to aid the CBCP Committee for the Cultural Heritage of the Church in monitoring the said churches.

It should also empower the CBCP Committee for the Cultural Heritage of the Church by giving it the sole authority to approve any restoration, construction or further improvements of heritage churches, with the aid of representatives of agencies mandated to protect cultural and historical heritage, and the power to order the halt any restoration, construction or further improvement that it deems damaging to a heritage church.

Finally, we urge the CBCP to adopt a policy of frugality with the renovation of churches. It would be best to channel the funds for unnecessary renovations to the pastoral program of action of the CBCP.

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To sign the petition, visit http://www.petitiononline.com/cbcp/