November 15, 2005

A FEU Good Men (the sequel)

Five years down and I'm still impressed!

Yes, it's been five years since I took my first walking tour of the fabulous Far Eastern University Campus conducted by the Heritage Conservation Society. I've been raving about it until recently. Well, I decided to check it out once more yesterday and joined a tour, this time by the Museum Foundation of the Philippines.

I'll have the pictures speak for themselves.

To start-off, a bird's eye view of the FEU Campus and the University belt of Manila in the University's spanking new 9-storey East Asia College Building...



Then it was off to the Administration building, a 1940's (?) Art-Deco structure which forms one face of the quadrangle. Streamlined Chic.



And the lobby, you just gotta love Deco-esque interplay of geometry and colors (official green and gold of course!) Very simple yet it works.



A frieze by Italian sculputor Monti depicting the Chinese arrival (followed by Spanish and American) to the country. Nice touch.



End of the line and up via the Deco elevators of the building.



Oh, and you do the speak the King's language do you? (Spell 'epol'....)



Out the quadrangle and this time and on to National Artist Vicente Manansala's sculptures. A rare treat indeed since the guy was a painter and rarely did sculptures.



The chapel main altar and this time to National Artist Botong Francisco's inspiring artworks...now that's class!



An outstanding mural rendition of the Catholic Stations of the Cross....wonderful! But needs cleaning though...



Back inside one one of the buildings. Climbing stairs = six-pack abs?? How inspiring!



In any case, even if it didnt deliver as promised, the stairs of FEU are a delight to climb....see? Art-Deco to the last detail!



The founder and builders really took a step further to imprint the Tamaraw pride to its students. This banister reads FEU!



With stairs such as these, who'd want to use the elevator???



Everything is a piece of sculpture!



My personal favorite!



This is the library. A funky mix of 1950's tables(in tropical hard woods no less!) and circa Y2K furnishings! Ahh...the joys of reading....



The fully-restored theater and its 'fools the eye' detail that, again, proclaims FEU!



My favorite mural at the entrance to the theater. It's called 'Empowering the Youth' and is a stunning stylized (Art-Deco of course!) representation that was meant to inspire the youth. Did it? I don't know but it certainly inspired me and some of the tour participants!



The grand finale...a sweeping view of the huge(and recently restored!) FEU quadrangle from the rostrum outside the theater!



A truly awesome way to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon...my hat's off to the FEU management and personnel for sharing your jewel taking the Tamaraw pride to the next level!

That UNESCO Award was truly worth every bit!