St. La Salle Hall, Manila

The Saint La Salle Hall or the LS building located in the district of Malate, Manila, is the oldest building on the campus of De La Salle University. This neoclassical styled, four storied H-shaped building faces the Taft Avenue and is currently the campus of De La Salle College (College of Business and Economics). It was built between 1920 and 1924 by Tomas Mapua, who was the winner of the architectural competition for building an iconic structure for 5,000 pesos. Tomas was not only the winner among the ten leading architects of Manila at the time, he also went on to establish the Mapua Institute of Technology and became the first registered Filipino architect.

The structure was constructed to accommodate the growing population of the college. During the Second World War, the building was captured by the Japanese who set the chapel on fire. The building suffered severe damages and was restored over a period of two years in 1948 at a cost of 246,883 pesos. Originally, the building was three storied but another floor was built in the 1990s to serve as the residence of the De La Sale Brothers.

The layout of the building uses Corinthian order. The ground floor is used as offices of the College of Business and Economics, University Registrar and Graduate Admissions. The south wing of the second floor houses the Chapel of the Most Blessed Sacrament. The third floor has the choir loft of the chapel. The second as well as the third floors have lecture rooms.