JUAN Marcos de Guzman Arellano (1888-1960) was one of the Filipino architects who made Manila's image as the pre-war 'Pearl of the Orient' with its gleaming white-washed neoclassical public buildings, wide, tree-shaded boulevards and its apartments, mansions and fantasy palatial cinemas. Despite his extensive training in America and following a master plan and building style imposed by Americans, he still articulated a deeply nationalistic voice that spoke of aesthetic excellence, love for humanity and adulation of the vernacular.

He was the designer of many significant structures from Manila's Metropolitan Theater (1931), Legislative Building (1926), now National Museum of Fine Arts, the Manila Central Post Office Building (1926), the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex (1934), the Bank of the Philippine Islands Cebu Main Branch (1940), the twins of Calumpit Municipal Hall in Bulacan and old Jaro Municipal Hall now National Museum-Western Visayas Satellite Office (both in 1934); and the William A. Jones Bridge from Plaza Lawton to Santa Cruz during the pre-war era. Arellano also proposed designing the mansion of the American High Commissioner (now the US Embassy) in the Mission Revival Style. He did the 1924 award-winning design for the unbuilt Bank of the Philippine Islands Building in Binondo and won first prize in the 1915 design competition for the erection of a monument in honor of Andres Bonifacio, which was initiated by then-mayor of Manila Felix Roxas. He was also responsible for doing the urban zone plan of Manila (1933), the master plan of Quezon City (1938), and the preliminary design and construction works of the University of the Philippines Diliman Campus (1939-1940). Villamor Hall of the old UP Manila campus (now part of the Supreme Court), which was opened in 1941, was another public building designed by Arellano.