No_9_September_1968 — Page 35

PHILIPPINES

DELGADO BROS. HOTEL CORP. Owners

HILTON INTERNATIONAL CO. operators

C.D. ARGUELLES & ASSOCIATES architects

WELTON BECKET & ASSOCIATES

consulting architects

SCOLLARD MAAS

interior designer

CONSENTINI ASSOCIATES

mechanical and electrical engineers

DILLINGHAM INTERNATIONAL CO.

project managers

A. M. ORETA & CO.

main contractor

THE MANILA HILTON

T is axiomatic that a Hilton Hotel

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must provide not only air-condi- tioned comfort and luxury facilities for its predominantly American tourist guests but must reflect in its design and decor something of the history and culture of the locality in which it is set. In the East the degree to which this design borrowing from the national scene is taken varies from the fine Thai silks of the Bangkok Rama to the 'grass huts' of the Honolulu Hilton village. The degree of its aesthetic acceptability varies too.

In the Manila Hilton, the latest in the chain. local materials, local crafts and local scenes have been freely adopted and adapted but here har- moniously blended with the modern services and facilities. Throughout the hotel there is strong evidence of the rich heritage and artistry of the Philippines.

The building itself, presently the tallest in the Philippines, is a simple podium and slab tower structure yet with distinctively Filipino features. The general exterior finish is a rich marble washout, the entire podium is

Far East BUILDER, September 1968.

enclosed in a 40 ft. high solar screen of timber slats, and the roof profile follows the characteristic shape of the Salakot a typical hat used by Philippine farmers.

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Ermita site

at

The Manila Hilton is sited Ermita, once a fashionable residential district during Spanish days and now the commercial centre of the city. It is erected on a lot of 6,500 sq. ft. at the junction of United Nations Avenue and Florida Street

a site which allows each of the guest rooms a magnificent view of the city or of Manila Bay across the newly laid out Luneta National Park.

Architect for the project is Mr. Carlos D. Arguelles, who was also responsible for The Philam, Life Building which stands opposite the hotel on United Nations Avenue and which, with its entire surround of horizontal sun-breakers, is itself a modern landmark of Manila.

Mr. Arguelles developed his plans for the Hilton from a schematic de-

sign executed by the New York architects, Welton Becket and As- sociates.

The hotel owners and operators required that the site contain ap- proximately 440 guest rooms, restau- rants and conference rooms, an open air pool, parking for over 100 cars and some 6,000 sq. metres of shop- ping arcades. In addition to the standard hotel rooms, two suites per floor and one presidential suite was called for and a minimum of 400 rooms was stipulated.

Faced with these requirements, the architect was fortunate on two counts: 1. the site is outside the air corridor for Manila Airport, and 2. the Manila Authorities had at that time just lifted restrictions on the height of new constructions.

A podium and tower was the natural outcome, with the public space, shopping and restaurants in the podium, the open pool on the podium deck and all the bedrooms contained in the tower block.

There are in fact 430 guest rooms in the tower which rises for a further

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