Philippine Travel Blog - The Travelers Guide to Philippine Destinations

In every corner you look, there are squares, triangles, straight lines, curves, and all sorts of geometric pattern that you can think of. No, I didn’t enroll myself in Geometry 101 again. Last week I found myself inside the Philippines’ largest Art Deco complex: the Far Eastern University along Morayta Street in Manila.

The Far Eastern University, which was founded in 1928, is like a one whole museum placed in an open park where one can get to see and touch the exhibits. What immediately greeted me are the large cubes of pillars inside the Administration Building. The contrasting dark blue and ivory tint gives a feeling of coolness inside the building.

Right in the middle of the campus, one can easily spot several bronze sculptures. These metallic masterpieces were formed by the hands of National Artist Vicente Manansala. FEU Administrators must have been so proud to have these sculptures done by Manansala for them.

A few more walk and we got into the nitty-gritty of the tour. More lines, more squares and some more geometric patterns before our eyes. From doorknobs, to windowpanes, staircases, and its pillars. Whew! What a sight to behold. This university’s certainly a gem! With all its art deco structures, I just simply love it.

We then briefly went outside the campus to check out its facade. The font style that the university is using is so beautiful. I once read from a book that the FEU’s font style is based on an ancient Filipino script known as baybayin. And its columns look very futuristic. Remember that it was built in the 1920’s but it still has the futuristic look until today. And its corridors: very, very lovely.

And because of its efforts in preserving and maintaing its grandeur as a prime Art Deco complex, the UNESCO ASIA Pacific has recognized the Far Eastern University as an honorable mention in the 2005 Asia-Pacific Heritage Awards for Culture Heritage Conservation.

Some more photos here

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This entry was posted on Saturday, July 14th, 2007 at 3:28 am and is filed under Road Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.