Meet the architect behind the brutalist KFC on a Manila highway–my grandfather, Antonio Heredia

After their marriage, Antonio and Gregoria Heredia settled in Florida for a while, with my grandfather taking on projects in Europe and the United States. My grandmother, a chemist from the University of the Philippines, poured her boundless energy into raising their eleven children, the youngest of whom is my mother. 

Among my grandmother’s belongings was an extensive collection of newspaper clippings on her husband’s projects, many of which date from the 1970s onwards. “Tony Heredia, our avant-garde architect, just arrived from San Francisco after a contract for a $200 million Hotel-Condominium Shopping Center Complex in Burlingame,” one newspaper declared. “The architectural and engineering group in California was so impressed with Tony’s design and brilliant ideas that they are asking him to work for one of the largest architectural centres in California.” 

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What set architect Heredia apart was his distinctive blend of engineering and architecture, best exemplified by his pioneering of post-tensioning in the Philippines. “He was amazed by the push and pull of tension steel bars laid over a concrete bed,” wrote my mother’s eldest sister, an architect herself, Mae Heredia-Vanden Dungen. 

“It would be cured for days, and, when ready, the tension gears reached their maximum tensile levels. The contraption would bond into concrete, reaching 4000 PSI. This featured the best of both materials, as steel is weak in compression and concrete is weak in tension.” Some of her fondest memories with her father involved such in-depth conversations; he called post-tensioning ‘a totally different animal’ and would “go on and on in this explanation.” 

Later, the positive post-tensioning was copyrighted by his colleague, engineer Narciso Schutz Padilla, through the Prescon System. “He wanted to give Dad royalties for his designs, but Dad rejected them,” my aunt shared. “In his mind, he wanted distinctions between his roles as architect, engineer and contractor, reducing the conflict of interest. He was a contradiction in terms, being both an architect and an engineer.” 

Still, there was no simple–or truly necessary–way to extricate the dual passions of an architect and an engineer from one another. Architect Heredia also pioneered column-free buildings through the old Unimart and the Greenhills Theatre. This truly innovative approach led “laymen to accuse him of construction flaws” until other companies began copying the system. 

“Dad’s buildings could withstand Richter 8 earthquakes, as compared to buildings with wedge-edges built up to the standard of Richter 5 earthquakes,” my aunt continued. Even economically, the combination of both factors made perfect sense. The removal of the column and the reduction of slab thickness minimised costs while maintaining material strength. 

Architect Heredia was known for taking an unconventional approach, inspired by the modernist German architect Mies Van Der Rhoe. His Berlin Museum project was a steel-and-glass structure devoid of columns, an approach Heredia replicated in the Greenhills Theater in concrete. Notable features of this project include its weather-protected outer lobby and long ramps for disabled patrons to access the building, a progressive feat for its time. 

Another one of my grandfather’s most notable projects was the Bataan Hilltop Hotel, a seahorse-shaped dormitory-hotel overlooking the Export Processing Zone (EPZ)’s industrial areas and the Mariveles Bay. Construction of the 42-room hotel began in February 1974, along with recreational facilities such as a pool, sauna, barbershop, golf course, and Peloton and tennis courts.

Along with this, my mother recalls a Baguio project, the Tower Condominium, which they would often trek up from Manila to visit. Designed for Henry Ng, the owner of Unimart, Architect Heredia was faced with an interesting challenge: that of a tall structure across the way. For the condominium to stand out, my grandfather “designed stilted scenic elevators leading up to the condominiums for a full view over and above the obstruction,” my aunt wrote to me. 

But perhaps the most memorable project my grandfather created was the aforementioned Pacific Office Machines Building, which has taken on many lives since first breaking ground. A cultural touchstone in its own right, the building’s odd angularities now house a Kentucky Fried Chicken, complete with a drive-through. 

At the time of the building’s construction, Epifanio De Los Santos Avenue (EDSA) was a far cry from the buzzing, ever-congested road it is today. The company was headed by Ronald Reidenbach and the Dychiao brothers, who moved their headquarters from Makati City to the developing EDSA. Their products included typewriters, cash registers, and calculators, the literal bulk of which inspired Architect Heredia to create such a timeless and eye-catching structure. 

The building’s red-and-grey façade may, technically, disqualify it from the unvarnished expectations of brutalist architecture. Still, it remains rooted in lofty, post-war projections of independence and strength. My grandfather was perfectly attuned to such a brutalist period; when my mother shares stories about growing up, she often gushes about how he pushed the envelope with his designs, even down to the cabinets and dressers in their Quezon City home.  

Today, my grandfather remains the contemplative, brilliant man he’s always been. His structures, including an apartment building still standing in Legaspi Village, Makati, have blended into the fabric of Manila’s constant evolution. Gone are the grand proclamations of his youth. But in its place stands an enduring commitment to Philippine architectural history. 

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