19/08/2025
💯
🚧 Mount Kamuning Overpass: From Stairway to Heaven to Stairway to Sanity
After seven years of commuters gasping halfway up and questioning their life choices, the Mount Kamuning overpass is finally being redesigned. And not by your Tito who “knows a contractor” this time it’s Architect Royal Pineda at the helm.
Yes, that Royal Pineda. The one who designs for humans, not for hamstring endurance tests. If he’d been consulted in 2018, you’d have had a bridge, not a cardio obstacle course disguised as infrastructure.
🏔 The Old Footbridge: Urban Fitness Challenge
The original overpass was:
- 9 meters tall — basically a 3-story building’s worth of stairs.
- Zero ramps, elevators, or compassion.
- Perfect if you were training for the Olympics… in stair climbing.
Even a foreign diplomat once tweeted: “Do pedestrians matter here at all?”
The answer then: Only if they can survive the ascent.
🛠 Why Only Now?
For years, it stood as a monument to poor planning. Then President Marcos Jr. said:
“Tear it down. Build something people can actually use.”
The DOTr remembered PWDs and seniors existed, and called in Royal Pineda proof that life gets better when you start with an Architect.
🚶♀️ The New Plan
- Gentle stairs (burn calories at your own pace).
- Elevators and wheelchair lifts finally, a bridge your lola can cross without a sherpa.
- Tactile paving, shade, seating, and clear signage.
- Busway integration because crossing the street shouldn’t feel like switching countries.
Budget: ₱89 million. This time, your money buys comfort, safety, and dignity not just concrete altitude.
⚠ The Big “But” Nobody’s Talking About
While we now have a good design of the bridge, the next question is: how serious will the DOTr or the government be when it comes to post-construction management of the facilities?
Because let’s be honest most elevators in many MRT stations have been out of service for not just months, but decades. No maintenance, no repairs, and millions worth of equipment now serve as shiny but useless station trophies. They’re nice to look at, but PWDs, seniors, and parents with strollers still have to fight their way up stairs like it’s Mount Kamuning Classic Edition.
A good design is only half the battle keeping it functional is the real game.
📏 Moral of the Story: Always Consult an Architect
Before you build anything especially something thousands will use daily ask an actual architect. Not your cousin’s friend who “does AutoCAD.”
Here’s 12 Architects you could call before another Mount Kamuning happens:
1. Royal Pineda – People-first, modern, functional.
2. Alfredo Fernandez – Context-sensitive, detailed, thoughtful.
3. Jun Palafox – Master of urban planning and sustainable design.
4. Ed Calma – Sleek, contemporary, internationally respected.
5. William Ti Jr. – Socially conscious, community-oriented.
6. Jojo Tolentino – Corporate, large-scale, and highly practical.
7. Jose Pedro Recio – Elegant, functional public and private spaces.
8. Buck Sia – Creative, adaptable, future-focused.
9. Ian Fulgar – Concept-driven and tech-integrated design.
10. Angelito Antonio – Sensitive to heritage and local culture.
11. Jon Orteza - Slope adaptability design
12. Amon Cali - Brutalism
Because infrastructure without an architect is like a play without a director it can still be built, but it might turn into unintentional slapstick.
🏁 From Death March to Sunday Stroll
The “Stairway to Heaven” will soon be a walk in the park. And hopefully, the lesson sticks:
Good design isn’t expensive, bad design is, or even worse.
From the desk of Architect and Arbitrator Alfredo A. Fernandez, PIA, Int’l. Associate AIA.
Photo credit to the true owner:
