|
The arrival of the Americans in the early 1900s spurred development in the City.
The American Governor Luke E. Wright commissioned Architect Daniel H. Burnham, a
prominent Urban Planner to develop a plan for a health resort where the American
soldiers and civilian employees can find respite from the sweltering lowland
heat. The plan better known as the Burnham Plan greatly altered the original
mountain settlement and provided the first physical framework plan for the City.
It pave the way for a very rapid physical development, the undertones of which
are still visible up this date.
The physical framework as embodied in the Burnham Plan integrates a road and
park system into one. It envisioned evolving a compact garden city for 25,000 to
30,000 people. Supporting this development plan was the enactment of a charter
approved on September 1, 1909 that provided administrative as well as managerial
autonomy for the city.
Developments following the City’s charter were the opening of the scenic Kennon
Road to vehicular traffic. This triggered the mining, boom in the adjacent areas
in the early to mid 1930s. Baguio City was the service and operations center for
the mining industry hence a direct beneficiary of the economic growth. The event
of the Second World War was stalled all developments leaving the city in total
devastation. A very fast paced development however ensured following the war
years, such development trend transformed the city into what it is today, a
premier urban center north of Manila, performing a municipality of foes, as an
educational, trade, tourism and administrative center.
|