Right across the National Art Gallery building of the National Museum, right in the northern part of Rizal Park, stands two neoclassical buildings with a shared history, from the style to the architect and their usage, past and future.
Both buildings were remnants of what Daniel Burnham had in mind for Manila to be a “city beautiful” with the area where the buildings stand was envisioned to be the equivalent to the “National Mall” of Washington DC. Also, both were designed by the same architect who helped design the current National Art Gallery, Antonio Toledo, who himself started as a partner of Burnham’s longtime associate William Parsons. Both were completed by 1940, damaged by World War II and were restored after the war. Now both these buildings serve to show a bright future for the National Museum.
