(SPOT.ph) Bring anyone on a trip to Escolta, and chances are you’ll find yourself spending an inordinate amount of time at First United Building (FUB). And why not? Its ground floor is home to a growing roster of buzzy creative brands, all housed within its artist-led creative space, HUB: Make Lab. Head upstairs, and you’ll find even more artists, designers, galleries, performance spaces, and independent shops that have made the nearly century-old building their home.At 98, FUB has no shortage of stories to tell. It’s easy enough to find encyclopedic accounts of its many lives, from its early days as the Perez-Samanillo Building, when it stood as a landmark of pre-war Escolta’s golden age, to the post-war years when it went thru its department store era, to the many incarnations that followed.While FUB features prominently in many Escolta and Binondo heritage tours, there are some stories that can only come from being in the thick of running a nearly century-old building—keeping its aging infrastructure functional, making sure it remains safe for tenants, and watching its spaces evolve with the times. For years, owners Roberto and Lorraine Sylianteng have occasionally opened the building to family and friends through informal tours, sharing stories of its many chapters and the challenges of carrying a piece of Manila’s history into the present. But on one rare Sunday this September, they opened those stories to the public. The First United Building Legacy Tour offered visitors a glimpse into the building’s past, its present and future—straight from the people who know it best.The Syliantengs’ story isn’t simply about an old building surviving nearly a century of change. It is a story about second chances—about people, places, and communities finding new ways to move forward despite the odds stacked against them.