I glimpsed this building from the overhead train and immediately hopped off to get a closer look. It was surrounded by homeless people – one of whom had no teeth and a limp but remarkable persistence. He followed me several blocks begging for change. When I crossed the road to get away I looked back at the 1931 Metropolitan Theatre – which is what it was – and saw the windows were all boarded up and covered in graffiti. Still, it is one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever seen – anywhere. Built in pink marble, with art deco details of life in the tropics carved as bas reliefs into into its corners and little minarets, it stands amid palm trees and squalor at the edge of Manila’s great central park, the Luneta.


[…] And in MANILA, a call for volunteers to help restore the city’s most beautiful building. […]