![]() ![]() Fenestrations feature rectangular windows decorated with grillework. ![]() The corner bays feature another group of four columns with similar Corinthian capitals. The projecting central bay features a group of four columns, with corbeled balconies on the third level. Decorative entablatures lie above the columns and pilasters surrounding the entire wall. The façades are articulated with giant Corinthian columns and pilasters rising from the second floor level to the height of the two stories of the building, with the first story resembling the one-story high plinth where these columns and pilasters rest. The west portico has four Corinthian columns rising the full height of the building. The columned portico at the second floor signals the west entrance accessed through the flights of stairs and the carriageway ramp coming from the ground level along Padre Burgos Street. Staircases are at both ends of the entrance halls, and the four corners of the building. The associated rooms are organized around these courtyards with single volume hallways east and west, and double volume hallways north and south. The building’s central core spaces are flanked by courtyards north and south. The four-story building has a rectangular plan and lay out oriented with its line of symmetry in an east-west axis, longitude in a north-south axis, and its main entrances on the east and the west. The building was rebuilt in 1949, maintaining its original building footprint and four-story height, but with less ornate façade articulation. The building’s north and south wings were heavily damaged. ![]() For several days until February 27 the American forces bombarded the building with artillery fire. Guns and other heavy machine guns were strategically installed on the building floors. Obstacles, roadblocks, trenches, pillboxes and barbed wires surrounded the building. In February 1945 the Japanese forces used the building and its premises as their stronghold and modified it with their defensive installations. Arellano revised the plan by adding the fourth floor and the chambers for legislators, changing the central façade and incorporating the ornamentation and sculptural work. ![]() The building began its construction in 1918, was delayed for lack of funds, and was decided to become the Legislative Building. Doane with the assistance of Toledo, designed the building originally as the National Library. The building designed by Ralph Harrington Doane, Antonio Mañalac Toledo and Juan M. Along Padre Burgos Street heading southwest, the monumental Old Legislative Building is presently the National Museum of Fine Arts. ![]()
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