ArchInspire #007: Old Bus Station

My fascination for the history of the neighbourhood where I grew up probably started from an old advertisement poster featuring a newly opened public transport bus station circa date unknown I found while going over old memorabilia photos of Manila from a group in Facebook. Pantranco is the name of the place where Roces Avenue and Quezon Avenue meets. It was a common assembly place with friends and group mates back in high school and a very well-known name posted all over jeepneys routing Quezon Avenue. Aside from the old brutalist D&E Building I have admired until it was turned into a hotel frequented by Koreans learning English from a nearby Language school and local promiscuous couples looking for a place to unload their bodily tensions, little did I know that there was such a bus station near our place so renowned that after years of nonexistence its name still remains. I can only imagine how everything might have looked like during those old days.

The old poster itself was a time capsule and a looking window to the yesteryears of our neighbourhood that jerks a stream of excitement on my part as if I have unearthed a long forgotten mystery. My major subjects on City Planning with our first topic on History of human settlements and community development luckily are complementing my curiosity in this field of interest.