Inside the Many Lives of First United Building

(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.

There are plenty of ways to tell the story of a building like this: through its architecture, its famous tenants, or the historical events that unfolded around it. But during the Legacy Tour, Lorraine and Roberto tell it through the people whose lives became intertwined with its walls. In their telling, a curious thread emerges: the First United Building has always been a place of fresh starts and second chances, perhaps beginning with the very man who designed it.

Art history tells us that the building’s beautiful Art Deco look was created by Andres Luna de San Pedro. Unbeknownst to many, Andres was only five years old when his father, painter and patriot Juan Luna, killed his mother, Paz Pardo de Tavera, and grandmother, Juliana, in their Paris home in 1892. One might think that he would grow up loathing creative disciplines because of his father. But despite the gruesome family tragedy, Andres pursued the arts and emerged as one of the celebrated architects of his time, eventually becoming the city architect of Manila from 1920 to 1924.

Among his commissions was the Perez-Samanillo Building, designed for Spanish businessman Luis Perez Samanillo. Completed in 1928, the building—now known as the First United Building—was reportedly the tallest in Manila at the time.

It was one of several landmarks Andres left across pre-war Manila. Nearby stood the Roxas Building, now the Regina Building, which he designed in the neoclassical Beaux-Arts style and completed in 1915. A few blocks away, he would later design the Crystal Arcade in Art Deco and Streamline Moderne, widely regarded as his magnum opus.

Together, these buildings became part of the architectural landscape of Escolta’s golden age—and a lasting reminder of what Andres Luna de San Pedro managed to build beyond the tragedy that shaped his earliest years. 

Decades later, another family tragedy became intertwined with the Perez-Samanillo Building. 

In the aftermath of World War II, Manila emerged as the second most devastated city next to Warsaw in Poland. The Perez-Samanillo Building suffered the same fate as the other buildings in Escolta and sustained heavy damage during the Battle of Manila in 1945. But it remained standing. And like the people who survived, it had to carry on.

This is where the building becomes intertwined with the story of Chinese businessman Sy Lian Teng. In 1945, he was advised to leave Manila for China with his eldest son, Guillermo, as the Battle of Manila engulfed the city. He did. But his first wife, Lee Siok Keng, and eight of their children did not survive the war.

During this part of the tour, Lorraine became subtly emotional while telling their family’s story. You’d think that after that tragedy, going back to the war-torn Philippine capital would be the last thing on Sy Lian Teng’s mind. But he did, and his return brought him a second chance at business—and love.

He reestablished Cosmos Bazar, which he bought out from its former owner, Mr. Lim, years before. He also eventually fell in love with his bookkeeper, Emerenciana Soyangco. They married in 1949 and had four children, including Roberto. Then, in 1951, Sy Lian Teng bought Berg Department Store from Ernest Berg, the German businessman who set up shop on the ground floor of the Perez-Samanillo Building in 1939. 

While life in Escolta was not as great as it was before the war, Sy Lian Teng still enjoyed a relatively prosperous time during the 1950s and 1960s. However, by the mid-60s, the building was entering another transition. In 1968, Jose Cojuangco acquired the Perez-Samanillo Building from Luis Perez Samanillo. For Sy Lian Teng, maintaining a foothold in the building had become increasingly important—not just because the Berg Department Store was doing well, but because a change in ownership could mean higher rents and the possibility of losing the space.

In 1979, he acquired parts of the building through the First United Building Corporation, ensuring that Berg could remain in Escolta. Although the department store eventually closed in 1982, Sy Lian Teng maintained an office in the building and continued to lease and rent it to a variety of tenants over the years.

Lorraine and Roberto have spent much of their lives working within the First United Building’s walls, first helping Sy Lian Teng run Berg Department Store until it closed in 1982, then taking over building operations, and later becoming owners of the building themselves. During the tour, their pride in taking on the task of preserving the historic building, sharing their family’s legacy, and sustaining Escolta’s revival was palpable. But it wasn’t always that way. 

At first, the husband-and-wife duo didn't understand the significance of the iconic building or how their family history was deeply intertwined with it. That changed in the early 2010s, when they met heritage advocates like artist and curator Marika Constantino, architect Dominic Galicia, and heritage conservationist Gemma Cruz-Araneta, who helped them realize why FUB must not only be preserved but also revitalized. 

That realization also prompted the family to look inward. Constantino encouraged them to trace and archive their own history, eventually turning those memories, photographs, and artifacts into the First United Building Community Museum—a space in the building’s mezzanine where the intertwined stories of the Sylianteng family and the building itself could be shared with the public.

Of the many stories Lorraine uncovered, one of her favorites is her fateful discovery of Evelyn Berg Empie, daughter of Ernest Berg. It began with a sepia photograph of a mestiza woman sitting on her father-in-law’s desk. Curious, Lorraine playfully asked, “Papa, who is this woman? Why do you have her picture on your desk?”

“Sabi ko kay Roberto, ‘Baka anak siya ni Papa sa labas,’” Lorraine joked as she looked at her husband. “But she’s obviously not Chinese and very much a mestiza.”

Sy Lian Teng simply said he did not know who she was. But when the photo still followed them after they transferred offices two more times, she couldn’t help asking again, and Mr. Sy’s answer remained the same. However, a clue was written on the photo: “Dearest Daddy with much love, Evelyn, April 1948.”

And so, without any other leads on the mystery lady, heritage advocates encouraged Roberto to do some digging into the history of Berg Department Store. His search eventually led him to a woman who wrote a book about her life in Manila as the daughter of Berg Department Store's former owner. Her name? Evelyn. And yes, she was the woman in the photo, as Lorraine confirmed when she got in touch with Evelyn by email.

“Sabi niya, ‘My mind is blown away; yes, that’s me,’” she excitedly recalls Evelyn’s answer from one of their exchanges, which are all printed and on display at the First United Building Community Museum for curious visitors to read. 

Inspired by their newfound appreciation for history and heritage, Lorraine and Robert eventually began teaming up with artists to enliven the spaces within and around First United Building. Among the first artist-led groups they welcomed was 98B COLLABoratory, whose programs and activities Marika Constantino co-directed from 2012 to 2018. Meanwhile, the space where the legendary Berg Department Store once stood is now HUB: Make Lab, an adaptive reuse incubator space for artists and creative startups. These partnerships also led to some of the events Escolta became known and loved for in recent years, such as Hola Escolta, Escolta Block Party, and ESC Biennale. 

The glitz and glamour of Old Manila may have slipped away in the Post-War era, but the last decade has seen a renaissance brewing in Escolta. Its old spaces have been given a new lease on life, now serving as cradles of heritage, artistry, and creative entrepreneurship.

Within the First United Building, for example, some of the offices occupied by well-known tenants in the past have been converted into artist-run spaces and alternative work setups. Comedian Dolphy’s office on the 5th floor is now One/Zero Design Studio, the headquarters of Hub’s resident architect Arts Serrano, while veteran actress Nora Aunor’s office a few doors down is now the First Coworking Community.

Meanwhile, the building’s penthouse Dome, once used for storage, has been converted into a multi-use space. While usually off-limits, it’s occasionally opened for pocket events and performances like the intimate candlelight concertos by the Manila Philharmonic String Quartet for noname in 2024.

Some of FUB’s resident artists and creative entrepreneurs are also deep into their second acts. Jodinand Aguillon, the creative force behind Glorious Dias at HUB: Make Lab, previously ran Pineapple Lab in Makati. When its grants dried up during the pandemic, Gab Villegas, who was then running The Den café at the Hub, encouraged him to start anew at FUB.

For Belg Belgica, the move to FUB brought his career full circle. After years in the corporate world—and with parents who once worked in Escolta—he now runs Espacio Creativo, a photography and creative studio on the fifth floor.

Then there’s Mycah Santos, co-founder of the Hub’s Project Lemons, who turned her pottery side quest into a main quest by opening Lemon Lab, a community pottery studio on the fourth floor. 

In their own ways, each has found a new chapter within FUB’s old walls.

“A visit to FUB can even be a literal transformative experience. You can go up to the fifth floor, walk through the doors of Magpatina, and come out with a completely different look—or hair color,” jokes Robby Sylianteng, Roberto and Lorraine’s youngest son and the current Managing Director of First United Building. Magpatina, one of FUB’s newest tenants, is an alternative hair studio that also offers tattoo sessions, piercings, and tarot readings.

Robby joins the tour, listening to stories he knows all too well while offering a few of his own. This particular tour, he remarks, is the first time the family has included FUB’s creative spaces in the itinerary—a natural progression, he says, and a reflection of the family’s belief that its creative community is central to FUB’s story of second chances and Escolta’s future as a revived cultural hub.

For Robby, introducing visitors to FUB’s artists is also a way of honoring the building’s creative legacy, which stretches all the way back to its architect, Andres Luna de San Pedro. “It’s no different from looking up to personalities like Manny Pacquiao, Alex Eala, or Hidilyn Diaz,” he says. “For example, in the case of FUB, it’s different when, instead of saying ‘luma na ’to’, you say, ‘a Filipino made this during the time of colonialism.’”

As FUB finds its stride in this new era, it seems only fitting to look back at the journey that brought it here, hence the tour. But the Syliantengs’ Legacy Tour revealed something bigger taking shape—something they could hardly have foreseen when they first set out to reinvent First United Building for a new century.

Somehow, the FUB’s new era is also paving the way for other centuries-old buildings in the area to find a new lease on life. Burke Building, for example, has opened one of its spaces to Escolta Coffee Company, a coffee shop and roastery that carries Philippine specialty coffees. Meanwhile, Regina Building is getting ready to open the doors of its first creative space in the coming months.

For the Syliantengs, that ripple is also shaping what comes next for the Legacy Tour. Robby says the family is gathering ideas and suggestions from their creative tenants as they explore new ways to make the tour more accessible and relevant. Eventually, they hope it can become a springboard for a “greater Escolta tour,” bringing together the owners of neighboring heritage buildings and telling a larger story of the district’s revival.

It’s a fitting next step for a building whose long life has been shaped by its ability to make room for something new. FUB didn’t survive by simply preserving its past. Instead, it opened its doors to a new generation of tenants: artists, entrepreneurs, and communities looking for a place to begin again. Now, those fresh starts are spilling beyond its walls, giving Escolta’s other old buildings a chance to begin their own next chapters.

After the Legacy Tour, it’s easy to walk out of FUB’s gates feeling hopeful about what comes next. Inside, the building feels less like a relic of Escolta’s past and more like a living, breathing community—one where old walls hold new ideas, and where people continue to find ways to make a place their own.

Whether you’ve just discovered Escolta’s vibrant community or have followed its progress from the beginning, the energy throughout its spaces is infectious. You arrive as a curious visitor and leave with the feeling that you’ll be back, whether as a spectator, a creative, or simply someone who wants to see what happens next. Because perhaps that’s FUB’s greatest lesson after 98 years: sometimes, a second chance doesn’t end with you. It gives someone else a chance to begin, too.

Photos by Paul Sugano

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