Burnham Park

The famous American architect and urban planner Daniel Hudson Burnham (1846–1912), who designed many of Chicago's older buildings, created the original plan for Baguio City. Unfortunately, his plans were not followed by the leaders of the city, judging by the city center's warren of narrow streets. Thankfully, his plan for a park in front of the City Hall was—providing residents and visitors a place to while away a lazy afternoon. Burnham Park is centered around a man-made lagoon with row boats for hire. I love the trees around the lagoon. I think they're weeping willows, but not having any like them in Metro Manila, I'm not quite sure.


I remember going to Baguio with my family when I was a child and my parents renting bicycles for us at the park. I don't remember if any of the bikes then had sidecars like this one. It's great for families with very young children. (Don't ask me why this kid chose a bike with a sidecar—my guess is he just likes the idea of biking with the sidecar and the umbrella. I mean, wouldn't you, if you were his age?) Now that I'm an adult, I think that renting bicycles there is senseless—you can't take the bike out of that one strip of road so you'll just be biking back and forth and back and forth and back and forth… you get what I mean. You can't even take the bike around the park!


Burnham Park is bisected by several small streets. At the very back of the park is a huge lawn. Sadly, it's not well-maintained and the grass is overgrown. That, and the mud, didn't stop these Sunday morning soccer players from having a game though. I couldn't tell who was playing for which side, but I'm sure they did.


Off to one side of the boating lagoon is a skating rink. Since it was a weekend, the place was full of young teens practicing their skateboarding skills. I don't remember ever seeing this area when I was a kid. I love the pattern of the roof and its supporting frame. PHOTO BY DOGBERRY


This relief sculpture depicts various scenes from the lives of the Igorot. Again, I've uploaded this image in a higher resolution than I normally do so you can click it to enlarge it. There are two men fighting, one tied up like a prisoner, someone playing a nose flute, a couple of people dancing, one carrying firewood to two people roasting a pig, and a few others I couldn't figure out. Sigh. Why did vandals have to choose this piece to put graffiti on?


And finally, here's Daniel Hudson Burnham himself, or rather, a bust of him. I'm so glad he spent some time here in the Philippines—Baguio City might not be as pretty if it weren't for him. BAGUIO CITY SERIES #5