Renovating a National Artist
Most architects would find it blasphemous to redesign the work of someone they revere. The thought plagued Rebecca Plaza, managing director of Plaza+Partners, when she was asked to renovate a 50-year old house by Philippine National Artist Leandro Locsin. “When I was a kid, I lived on the 6th floor of the Legaspi Towers, and my room faced the Cultural Center of the Philippines,” she says. The monumentality and simplicity of the iconic brutalist building awed the young Plaza and inspired her to study the maestro in school and in her professional practice.
What placated Plaza’s doubts about touching
