Burnham Park
Burnham Park is the very heart of Baguio City in the Philippines.
It is located at the most valuable piece of Baguio real estate and is free for the enjoyment of visitors and residents alike.
The 'mother of all parks' in the Summer Capital of the Philippines, all other developments like the city's commercial center Session Road, majestic Baguio Cathedral, our
City Hall, and the hugely popular Baguio City Market were built around Burnham Park. It may be accessed from any one of the following roads: Harrison , Kisad Road, Governor Pack and Magsaysay Roads
Designed by and named after premier American architect and urban planner, Daniel Hudson Burnham, who also designed the original plan for Baguio City. Burnham Park remains, to this day, one of the Philippines' most well known and best-loved parks.
The park retains much of Daniel Burnham's original design and layout a century ago, with a few features added, in true Filipino fashion, to make it a vibrant center of activity for everyone to enjoy.
Burnham Park has 12 cluster areas: the man-made lake with rowboats for hire that folks refer to as the Burnham Lagoon, the Children's Playground, the Skating Rink, the Rose Garden, the Orchidarium, Igorot Garden, Melvin Jones Grandstand, the Athletic Bowl, a Picnic Grove, the Japanese Peace Tower, Pine Trees of the World and Sunshine Park.
Who Was Daniel H. Burnham?
"Make no little plans for they have no magic to stir men's blood..."
- Daniel H. Burnham
Burnham (1846-1912) was one of Chicago's greatest architects and planners, whose Philippine resume includes Dewey (now Roxas Boulevard) in Manila, Philippines as well as Baguio City itself, which was both a bustling mining and and recreational town!
Mr. Burham had grand visions for everything he designed. In 1904, the Philippine capital city of Manila, he developed the areas outside the walled city of Intramuros, with a great emphasis on classic-al buildings and wide open spaces, taking into consi-deration the Philippines' Spanish influence as Spain had just six years before turned the Philippines over to the Americans.
For Baguio, he 'forced' a splendid geometric pattern amid rolling hills and wind-ing roads, which is what we know now as Burnham Park, around which the rest of the city was built.
Quick Links
- Burnham Park: Then & Now by Jonathan Best @Baguio Insider
Interactive Map of Baguio City
FInding the location of Burnham Park has just gotten easier. Even if it is in the center of the City of Pines, our winding roads can get visitors confused in the beginning of their vacation. Click the image to the left to view the interactive map of Baguio City.
Originally intended to serve as a much-needed green park, to provide a bustling city with a peaceful environment with wide open green spaces, Burnham Park under Filipino administration is now more of an amusement park with boating, bicycle and skating areas, sports and gaming areas, plus a few eateries.
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