Probe Ends On Collapsed Binondo Building

When the collapse happened, some of us in the architectural community found the whole situation highly suspect and we were right to find it so. Particularly, the sudden emergence of a certain "engineer friend" of the building owner right after the collapse.

The self-identified engineer was quick to point his fingers on the surrounding pile driving activities as the culprit in the collapse saying that they could have weakened the soil of the collapsed building.

His statement made a lot of waves as most people, even in the construction industry, has never heard of this being the case before in any building's failure. For one, it would take an extraordinary amount of pressure or vibration to cause the liquefaction of soil. Secondly, the history of the local area's extensive use of pile driving and its success make the claim highly irregular.

Suprisingly a lot of us actually found the explanation more plausible than it could possibly be. The initial probe done was even focused on finding out the effects of pile driving on existing foundations as opposed to reviewing the design of the collapsed building first.

As the probe eventually went into looking into the design of the collapsed building and its construction, the gig was up. The claims of the eager "engineer friend" was seen for what it really was: "smoke and mirrors". An attempt to deflect the blame off of the usual suspects.

A probe was condcuted and as it has just concluded, the smoke has been cleared and the mirrors have been taken down. The usual suspects are back in the spotlight.

The following is the article filed by By Tarra Quismundo for the Inquirer News Service about the conclusion of this prove:

The fact-finding committee tasked to look into the collapse of the Sai Building in Binondo last July 23 is ready to release its findings this week, Manila Mayor Joselito Atienza said Monday as he directed the filing of administrative and criminal charges against the owner and those involved in the construction of the structure.

Those who would be charged for negligence are owner Rajude Mansukhani; architect Albert Chua; building contractor, architect Edward Sy, who was named Mansukhani's official representative according to records.

Also to be charged for negligence are Engineer Teofilo Go, who was responsible for the building's design; and AGVID Construction Company, the private contractor which undertook pile driving operations for Sai's foundation.

City officials who are likely to face administrative and criminal charges, Atienza said include Engineers Lirma Fajardo, who evaluated the building plans and passed it for compliance with construction requirements; Rolito Samson, field inspector during the pile driving and the first stage of construction; and Wilson Habana, who monitored the construction.

Edgardo Soriano, head of the Manila Building Office Enforcement Division, could also face criminal and administrative charges for signing the building's Certificate of Final Inspection and the Certificate of Occupancy.

"Nobody will get off lightly... to make sure this does not happen again," said Atienza.

Also liable for the building's fall are officials of Manila's Building Office, who issued permits for the building's construction and monitored work on the building.

The fact-finding committee found the building's design, especially its pile foundation, faulty, among others.

The fact-finding committee, is headed by Secretary to the Mayor Emmanuel Sison, vice-chaired by City Administrator Dino Nable, and with City Engineer Armand Andres and professional civil engineers as members.

Architects' Code of Ethics Discussion

Join the UAP Makati Chapter in timely discussions on the Architects' Code of Ethics – "Talk About Ethics." Ask the questions you've been dying to ask:
- How much do I charge my clients?
- Can I accept commissions from suppliers?
- Can I use advertisements to get clients?
- What do we do about non-architects practicing architecture?

And more.
This is on August 26, 2004 at the Banquet Hall 2F Milkyway Café, Pasay Rd cor Paseo de Roxas, Makati City. Registration starts 6:30pm. Free Admission. Limited seats. Please come early. Confirm your attendance in advance. Confirm with Arch. Annabelle Sotto (7119572 or 09194103964) and Arch. Elwin Buenaventura (6378596-99 or 09185622501).

SM City Baguio Pays Price for Unique Design

Dean Christopher Espina (he'll always be a "Dean" to me) visited Ateneo De Davao Arki this afternoon to conduct a lecture about Fire Safety and other arki stuff (but mostly about fire safety). I haven't been reading much news lately, but his story about the SM Baguio's teflon roof made me rush to our library and search for this article. The article was written by Vincent Cabreza for the Inquirer.


BAGUIO CITY -- The first shopping mall in the country not to use concrete walls and roofs in order to allow in air and sunshine was one of the casualties when Typhoon "Igme" (international code-name: "Mindulle") struck the city this week.

SM Prime Holdings Inc.'s SM City Baguio had to deal with a virtual waterfall that crashed down to its main shopping and promenade level at the facility's upper ground floor, when its uniquely designed roof failed to block Igme's sustained rains and strong winds.

In a statement, the Shopping Center Management Corp. (SCMC), which supervises all SM malls, said "corrective measures are being done with regard to drainage work to be able to handle extremely strong typhoons and rains."

"We are doing our best to be able to serve our customers and tenants better," it said.

Leo Bernardez, city engineer, said they had tried to discourage SM owner Henry Sy from pursuing an architectural design that capitalized on Baguio's cool climate.

The mall's roof consisted of five overlapping skylight canopies that are made from imported Australian teflon. The canopies are arranged in such a way that both sunlight and strong breezes reach the promenade areas on the mall's ground floor.

Jose Siao Ling, Sy's architect, also raised promenade verandahs on each level that open toward some of the best views of Baguio City, said a local architect, who is associated with Siao Ling.

"This is an excellent design. It offers (tourists) a view of what is very good about Baguio. This is the first mall where Sy relented to the clamor for a different design. It took (Siao Ling) months to convince Sy," the architect told the Inquirer.

SM suggested that the design follow the prescriptions of one of its critics, Virginia de Guia, a former Baguio mayor, who is crusading for the preservation of the city, according to a letter obtained by the Inquirer.

De Guia had been suspicious of SM's entry into Baguio because she feared that a "shoebox-like mall" would disrupt Baguio's landscape.

But it was Baguio's weather that finally convinced Sy to approve the unique design, the Inquirer source said.

The source said Siao Ling's design cut down the mall's air-conditioning cost by 50 percent.

"It is unfortunate that despite its fantastic design, it did not stand its first storm," he said.

The mall is located on top of Luneta Hill, which overlooks downtown Baguio.

"From that height alone, it would have been vulnerable to high winds. Baguio rains fall sideways because of the unusual wind acceleration. We are, after all, the highest city in the country," Bernardez said.

Siao Ling installed retractable glass gates around the terraced patios to address the problem of rains. An SM official said all of the patios were shielded by the glass gates, except for the second floor.

But Siao Ling's remedies did not anticipate the intensity of Igme's rains, which poured down the open skylight canopies toward the ground floor.

Several stall keepers in the mall said they were caught off guard by the storm, although all of them were assured by the SM management that the glass gates alone would be sufficient to hold off stormy weather.

The rains drenched at least 26 shops, but SM City Baguio declined to provide details about the damages.

A manager of Fabric House, however, complained that the run-off water poured toward their shop. It was aggravated by a hole on their ceiling, where more run-off water passed through.

"We asked (the management) if they can shoulder the repair cost, but we were told they would do repairs charged against our insurance," the store manager said.

Worst hit was the Baguio Pet Habitat, which affected nearby Musar, a shop selling musical instruments.

SM City Baguio compensated by setting up sandbags around these shops. Their crew went on a 24-hour cleanup duty, siphoning off water.

The typhoon, however, did not discourage people from flocking to the mall.

Many actually found the "SM waterfall" an amusing sight and people walked through the mall with their umbrellas.

"But we can still save this design. I was thinking of building another level of teflon roofing that would cover all of the canopies, since that is the only weak spot in SM's nature design. We just need to convince (Sy) to shoulder the expensive remedy," the Inquirer source said.



a view of the atrium




a view of the entertainment area

"Garbage" Senate Committees

Senators Rodolfo Biazon and Alfredo Lim figured in a ruckus during a plenary session on Monday over chairmanships in the committees.

Taking the rostrum, Biazon denounced Lim, a senator for the minority bloc, for using the word “swapang” (greedy) to describe the decision of the 14-member majority group to divide among themselves 28 of the 36 standing committees.

Lim uttered the word while interpellating Senator Juan Ponce Enrile who castigated his colleagues in the majority bloc for leaving those in the minority with what he described as “garbage” committees.

The remaining vacant committees are:

1. cooperatives
2. communities
3. civil service and government reorganization;
4. peace, unification and reconciliation
5. public information and mass media
6. social justice and rural development
7. urban planning and resettlement
8. youth, women, and family relations

Well, now we know which committees our senators think are garbage....

"Greenwashing": Eco-Fraud

By Cathy Lang Ho for Architecture Magazine



"Green buildings" might not be all they're made out to be.

The term "greenwashing" is not yet as common in architecture as it is in the corporate and political worlds, though it soon will be. Defined as the deliberate dissemination of disinformation aimed at presenting an environmentally responsible public image, greenwashing is one of the more pernicious by-products of the growing and otherwise heartening general interest in sustainability. Companies, from Shell to Nike to Home Depot, are among the high-profile alleged greenwashers—skewered by watchdog groups, the press, and in lawsuits for promoting eco-friendly images that are at odds with their actual practices. Equally guilty are politicians prone to generating innocuous platitudes or underachieving legislation in the name of the environment.

Environmental responsibility is fashionable. These days, it's rare to find a new building or product that doesn't make claim to eco- friendliness. Lacking clear definitions, "green building" or "sustainable architecture" are easily manipulated by architects, whose success hinges on publicity. The media, meanwhile, are complicit in the greenwashing problem. Looking for fresh stories, journalists give attention to projects without verifying their green claims.

Despite its complexity, sustainable architecture is routinely reduced to a few buzzwords or ideas (efficient, solar, healthy, passive, reuse, recycled), and here the problem begins. "It's easy for architects to select a few products through GreenSpec and then call what they do 'green,'" remarks Greg Kiss of Brooklyn, New York-based Kiss + Cathcart, referring to the online products directory. The checklist mentality is greenwashing's prime instrument—and good design's main obstacle. "Though many supposed green buildings might be well-intentioned, they often miss the larger point," says Kiss, who has been exploring sustainable design strategies for almost 20 years. "Sustainability is just one input, along with program, client needs, site, budget, experience, beauty, and so on. For example, if green features don't make good economic sense, the design is a failure." In short, we are far from the point where good architecture is green architecture.

"We see lots of projects that make environmental claims, but in most cases, there's not enough information to judge their validity," says Nadav Malin, senior editor of the journal Environmental Business News, which is published by the creator of GreenSpec. He cites the highly publicized Commerzbank in Frankfurt by Foster and Partners. "I tried to figure out the building's energy use per square meter, but the owners didn't want to share that information. In fact, I've never seen any data about the building published anywhere."

Taking the LEED

To help standardize what qualifies as green architecture, the Washington, D.C.-based industry group U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) created the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green-Building Rating System, a voluntary, point-driven certification program that assesses building performance. Both architects and clients recognize the public- relations value of a high LEED rating.

LEED is a positive starting place, but the system is far from perfect. "We're still learning about what it is we're measuring," says Malin. Furthermore, while accordance to USGBC's standards is desirable, many LEED-rated buildings can hardly be considered exemplars of sustainable architecture. Colin Cathcart of Kiss + Cathcart remarks about a coastal California building recently awarded the group's highest rating, Platinum: "It met all the LEED requirements, but it had no connection with the ocean, and just looked like a regular building that could have been anywhere." He adds, "It was also expensive because almost all the environmental aspects were change orders." The architects went back and slapped on green features to earn LEED points.

The simplification of green tools, from product catalogs to building ratings, may actually exacerbate the greenwashing problem. "LEED seems geared at generalizing standards and making them universally applicable, but it's wrong to recommend certain so-called green materials or techniques to any situation," says James Wines, of New York City-based architecture firm SITE and a pioneer of green architecture. "Unless a building is designed with the regional context in mind, it cannot be sustainable." So, for example, photovoltaics should be used where there is a lot of sun and windmills where there is wind, but not necessarily vice-versa, despite the fact that each technology earns LEED points for exploiting renewable energy. Though LEED does reward contextual responses, its blanket approval of other features (materials with recycled content or certified wood, for example) elides the fact that these might not be the best choices under all circumstances.

Regional significance was one of the criteria that curator David Gissen employed in evaluating projects for the Big and Green exhibition, a review of large commercial projects at the National Building Museum. He also considered expressiveness and historical meaning, in addition to operating performance. The regional and historical filters allowed Gissen to include buildings boasting accomplishments that might be seem piddling against current standards, but remain notable as "firsts." New York City's Four Times Square, for example, was groundbreaking as a large-scale, speculative urban office building using fuel cells in the 1990s (although the project has been accused of greenwashing). In one sense, Gissen's relativist standards emphasize an important aspect of green architecture: It is in constant flux. Acknowledging this, USGBC is working to launch a post-occupancy recertification program for previously LEED-rated buildings, as well as a program to certify existing buildings.

A theoretical project designed by Kiss + Cathcart and included in Big and Green, is an example of how unstable presumptions about sustainability can be. In light of the growing malleability and affordability of photovoltaics, a building's skin can be a valuable energy-producing system, suggesting that it may be wise to maximize a building's skin-to-floor ratio. This could overturn the notion that minimizing the skin-to-floor ratio is environmentally kinder because it conserves resources. Any strategy that has been regarded as eco-friendly must be continually revised. "Architects must constantly update their awareness of not only what technologies are out there, but how to use them," says Cathcart.

Modern ideal

Greenwashing is keeping the bar low—not just for sustainable architecture but for architecture in general. "It becomes harder to recognize where the real green developments are happening," says Malin. "Those who claim to do green things without having proven it create unrealistic expectations about what actually can be done within a certain time frame and budget."

Interestingly, the checklist approach that characterizes most sustainable architecture today echoes the beginnings of modernist architecture, which was codified to a set of industrial materials and systems—and an "efficient" imagery to match. Observes Wines, "At the end of the 1800s, everyone was claiming to be a modernist, but a lot of the work was still stuck in nineteenth- century practice. It wasn't until the 1930s when you saw a bursting out, a real expression and understanding of what modernism was about. That's happening now with sustainable architecture."

Meme Na: Ang I.n.K. 2004 Annual Exhibit with Magic Pencil

Children's dreams take flight in Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang I.n.K.) and British Council's joint exhibit.



The Philippine's only organization of illustrators for children, Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang I.n.K.) and British Council, the UK's international organization for cultural relations, present a joint exhibit that invites kids and kids at heart to dream with their eyes open.
Ang I.n.K.'s 2004 exhibit, fondly entitled "Meme Na," features 50 dreamy artworks that explore children's colorful adventures in the Land of Nod, while the British Council's traveling exhibition of British illustrations for children,"Magic Pencil," presents 60 starry prints by 13 of Britain's most accomplished illustrators.



Dreamers are invited to participate in the opening day festivities, which include performances by indie bands Narda and Bagetsafonik, on Friday, August 6 at 4pm.

The joint exhibit will run from August 6 till August 24, 2004 at the 3rd and 4th levels of Shangri-la Plaza Mall.Shangri-la Plaza Mall is located at Edsa corner Shaw Blvd., Mandaluyong City

Here are the other free activities during the three-week exhibit:

August 14. Saturday. 2-4pm Adarna Publishing`s "Meet the Illustrator" art workshop and Alitaptap storytelling :: Illustrator Brian Vallesteros talks about his newest Adarna book "The Greediest of Rajas and the Whitest of Clouds" and conducts an art workshop for kids.

August 20. Friday. 3-5pm Shadow Puppet Workshop by Teatro Anino

August 21. Saturday. 2-4pm Interpreting Your Childhood Dreams by seasoned psychologists

This event is sponsored by Adarna Publishing, Lampara, Anvil, YKL, WWF, British Council, Shangri-la Plaza Mall, Glaxo, Granny Goose, Oishi, YKL, Star Paper, Mindgate, Arch. Enrico L. Chua and Manila Bank.

Finding Sustainable Development in the Philippine Architectural Industry

As I recall, I first encountered the word “sustainable development” when I was in 2nd year in Arki. I think it was related to a design contest which had environmentalism as its theme. I can’t remember exactly whether “sustainability” was its main theme, or that it was mentioned in a book I was reading in connection with the contest. In the years after that, the term keeps on being reiterated by professors and classmates alike, in their lectures, in their required readings, in their plates, and in their thesis.

So what exactly is sustainable development? Exact definition in available literature differ, but to put it in simple terms, sustainable development means the “ability to meet the needs of today’s generation without sacrificing the next generations’ ability to meet theirs.” Originating in the late 1970’s, this concept came out of the realization that we, as caretakers of the earth, should not stop at satisfying our development needs, but should also exert effort to preserve the environment, since this is also where the succeeding generations would also get their resources for their own needs.

Most often used as a policy principle in planning, sustainable development has seen its application in almost all aspects of society, from high-impact projects like transportation infrastructure and forest management, to low-impact projects like the construction of simple houses or development of recyclable paper. Its application is also not limited to capital or physical projects like those mentioned above, but also to non-capital projects like people capability and institutional improvement programs, since development can also be non-physical.

Architecture, because of the cumulative magnitude of its practice and their potential huge impacts to the environment, is one of the industries which is trying hard to apply principles of sustainable development. This can be evidenced by some architects designing buildings with less energy consumption, or specifying materials that have lesser impacts to the environment.

Here in the Philippines, is sustainable development actually being practiced? Given that I first became aware of the term from my college and that it is a topic often being expounded by the professors from the college, I would expect that the answer would be “yes”. An observation of the conditions shows the contrary, however. Take, for example, the following scenarios.

In professional practice, typical architectural offices cut down on their operational costs by offering low salaries to their staff. Career development for the staff is also rarely being programmed in most offices, as many employees get stuck in their same position for many years. In this case, arki firms satisfy their present needs of reducing costs and increasing profits, but compromises the needs of the succeeding generations for income stability and professional growth. No wonder then that more and more arki graduates are applying in call centers, since it shows more sustainable career development rather than the arki profession.

In the academe, most of the professors are also professional practitioners since the arki schools do not offer them lucrative income to make them full-time faculty. And since professional practice is indeed more lucrative, naturally, they would spend more time in their projects, and more often than not, at the expense of preparing lesson plans and checking plates. In this case, the schools satisfy their needs for someone to handle the classes and the professors satisfy their need for a more stable source of income, but in the end, this compromises the need of the future generations for quality education.

Since professors require quality presentations from their students, students go out of their way to make their submissions really topnotch. More often than not, they go too far away to the point that their submissions are an overkill, as in the case of many thesis presentations. Some even use extensively non-environmentally friendly materials like styrofoam and plastics. At the end of the semester, the arki lobby is littered with models, boards and tracing papers that have little recyclable value, except maybe as alternative landfill materials for the new arki building complex. In this case, the professors and the students satisfy their present need of “quality” output, but compromising the quality of the environment.

And we even haven't talked about the design itself of our buildings and plans...

Given these practices, can we truly say that there is sustainable development in the local architectural practice? It seems not. It’s more like “sustainable development” is just being used as a nice tagline to our designs and presentations, so we could sound more “scholarly” or “well-updated”.

As I am re-introduced to the term in my post-graduate courses, and am being exposed to actual successful sustainable development practices, I find it disconcerting that the arki industry is NOT practicing what it is preaching. It would do well to the local architecture industry to look at successful examples of sustainable development elsewhere, and understand the key ingredients for their successful implementation, and then see how these can be applied in architecture. They should not stop at merely reading articles about it.

Leaders of the local architecture industry should take the initiative in the promotion of sustainable development. They could also attend. They could also seek expert advice from various agencies on how to apply sustainable development concepts, specifically for the arki industry. Afterwhich, they can publish these findings so that the practitioners are aware of them. They could also coordinate with legislators on how to enact policies which would promote sustainable development practices.

The academe can also contribute in the promotion by first and foremost, inputting the topic all throughout their curriculum, and not just in a single course in a particular semester. By continuously incorporating the concept into the various subjects (such as design, construction, and building materials) at various year levels, the students would then be more ingrained with the concept. Additionally, they could also encourage research onto the topic.

On the pragmatic side, they could enforce policies regarding the quality of the outputs, like for example encouraging the use of recycled boards for mini-plates or banning altogether the use of styrofoam for any submission. More importantly, to avoid a case of the blind leading the blind, the schools should also enrich themselves with the topic through additional reading, research and attendance in symposia. As architectural practitioners, we could also do our share of promoting sustainable development by educating our clients about it.

Given the status of the industry and the environment right now, it’s about time that we actually get down to brass tracks and really understand what sustainable development is all about, and aggressively lobby for its application in the industry. Although at first, there will be that period of sacrifice and adjustment, but in the end, we will all benefit from it. Otherwise, if we just let things stand as they are, we face the risk of an arki industry that will gradually die in the next few decades.

The Architect of the Game was an Architect

The Birth of a Game

In 1931, Poughkeepsie in New York State was in a similar predicament to the rest of the USA ....deep in the depths of the depression.

There was no job security. Living on your wits was the order of the day.

And so it was that when the local architect, Alfred Mosher Butts, lost his job he decided to explore his passion for games and words.

Mild-mannered, bespectacled Butts disliked dice games. They were all down to luck. On the other hand, he felt that all-skill games, like chess, were too highbrow for the general public.

Half Luck Half Skill

So he set out to devise a game that was half luck, half skill. And by the end of 1931 he had developed the initial idea for the game, which he called Lexico.

Lexico was played without a board and players scored on the basis of the lengths of the words formed. There were additional scores for words employing 'minor honours' (B, F, H, M, P, V, W, Y) and a higher additional score for major honours (J, K, Q, X, Z).

Butts calculated the letter frequency and value of each letter of the alphabet by meticulously combing the front page of the New York Times.

He reasoned that too many S's made the game too easy. So he reduced them to 4.

Rejection

In 1933, Butts' application for a patent for Lexico was turned down.

Similarly, when he submitted the game to two games manufacturers, Parker Brothers and Milton Bradley, all he received were polite refusals.

Undeterred, over the next 5 years Butts made nearly 200 games himself which he gave or sold to friends. But that was as far as Lexico went. It wasn't a commercial success.

The Crossword Connection

1938 saw Butts make a big breakthrough in developing the game.

The popularity of crosswords gave Butts the idea of combining the letters with a playing board, on which words could be joined in the manner of a crossword.

Lexico became New Anagrams, Alph, Criss-Cross then Criss-Crosswords.

The boards for the first Criss-Crosswords games were drawn with his architectural drafting equipment, reproduced by blue printing and pasted on folding chessboards.

The tiles were similarly hand lettered, then glued to quarter inch plywood and cut to match the squares on the board.

Through the years that followed, the game changed in its development. For example, at one time the opening word was placed near the upper left-hand corner of the board.

However, several of Butts original features have remained. The 15 by 15 square board and the 7-tile rack were original features. Also the distribution and the values of the letters remain unchanged from 1938 to this day.

But Criss-Crosswords met the same flat refusals as Lexico. The patent board turned him down again. And so did more games manufacturers. A decision they were collectively going to regret !

With a Little Help from His Friends

Butts thought briefly about becoming a manufacturer. But he cheerily acknowledged that he was no entrepreneur and returned to being an architect. And with the intervention of the Second World War, Butts didn't consider further development until 1948.

Then came the big breakthrough in the shape of James Brunot, an owner of one of the first Criss-Crosswords games.

The Brunots were intrigued by the game and believed it should be marketed. What's more, James Brunot had the time and inclination to make a commercial venture of it.

They shook hands on a deal. In return for allowing Brunot to manufacture the game, Butts would receive a royalty on every game sold.

Scrabble!

The Brunots decided that the game needed a few finishing touches.

They rearranged the premium squares and simplified the rules, which were overly long and reconsidered the name of the game. Then they lodged a Copyright application, which was granted on 1 December, 1948.

Soon after, came the all important name change ! After much searching, they decided upon the name Scrabble for the game and managed to register the trademark on 16 December, 1948.

The modern game of Scrabble was born at last !

1991 saw the first world championship take place in London. The second was held in New York City in 1993.

Regrettably, James Brunot died in October 1984. So he didn't live to see the first championship. But Alfred Butts did. He lived to be 93, passing away in April 1993.

He took pleasure in playing his game with family and friends to the end of his life. And this modest, unassuming man lived to see his brainchild become a worldwide phenomenon.


Scrabble is owned by Mattel except within the USA and Canada where it is owned by Milton Bradley. The information posted here is from the Scrabble history website.

What Does It Take To Save A Tree?

The following was summarized from an article by Augusto Villalon for the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

100-year old Dao Tree

One of the strongest responses to the call to avoid the cutting of mature trees happened recently at Mount Carmel Church in Quezon City. It came from Perry Ong, an alumnus of the University of the Philippines in Los Baños (BS '83 and MS '88 in Zoology).

Ong asks for the postponement or suspension of the Aug. 4 cutting of a spectacular fully grown dao tree in front of the Student Union building at the UPLB campus, which is estimated by botanists to be over a century old.

The tree is a campus landmark. UPLB veterans claim that the dao tree was there before National Artist Leandro Locsin began construction of the Student Union building in 1968. Locsin and landscape architect Salvador Bautista both respected the tree, integrating it into their design schemes.

The tree stands 20 meters tall. Its trunk is only a meter away from the main asphalted road of the campus. A large portion of its root system is covered with concrete that is a primary reason for its poor health these days.

It should have been left alone, in an environment that simulated forest conditions as closely as possible for a university campus. It should have been kept away from any concrete. That is not what happened. However in the 1960s, people approached conservation with far less information than we have today.

The tree aged badly. It now leans. Some campus humorists call it a "leaning tower." The sidewalk over its roots is cracking seriously, causing some alarm with people who think the tree is ready to fall over.

To exacerbate the situation, there has been a history of damaging tree falls at UPLB. Two of them, in fact, collapsed behind the Student Union building in 2003 and destroyed parts of its basement. A professor's residence was another casualty after a typhoon in 1995 when a tree collapsed on his house.Public safety is clearly at issue here.

What does one do with the tree?

Options

Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Elisea Gozun ordered the Los Baños-based DENR Ecosystems Research and Development Bureau (ERDB) and the DENR Community Environment and Natural Resources (Cenro) to investigate the issue.

They recommended pruning the tree to cut down on the weight of the upper portion to prevent further tilting. They also recommended the structure to prop up the midsection of the main trunk to strengthen and stabilize the tree'sposition. Their last recommendation was to rehabilitate the decayed lower portion of the tree.

EDRB recommended measures that prevented the tree from endangering public safety, constructively pointing out that the tree could be saved.

UPLB authorities consulted Dr. Ernesto Militante, a tree pathology expert and tree surgeon. He found the tree to be over-matured, saying that its concrete-covered location was not ideal for growth. It was difficult to know, he claimed, how deep the tree's roots were and therefore difficult to determine anchorage.

Dr. Militante recommended after his investigation that the tree should be cut.

Creative Approach

Many people today no longer think of pulling down bell towers in Spanish colonial era churches because they lean over (and many do) or are a threat to public safety. Instead, we find solutions to stabilize the tower.

Most solutions are painstaking, costing more than demolishing the tower, but we persevere because if the tower disappears an important part of church heritage vanishes forever. If the tree were to be cut, it would vanish forever in the collective memory of the UPLB family.

The dao issue introduces the heritage dimension for the first time to the discipline of forestry. It adds an unfamiliar layer to the standard forestry and public safety reasons on whether the tree should not be cut down or not. It asks that more solutions be explored before getting to the last resort of removing the tree forever.What is called for is a creative approach.

The decision taken by UPLB authorities will make a precedent in environmental and heritage preservation in the Philippines.