Fernando Ocampo y Hizon, Civil Engineer and Architect

Fernando Ocampo himself is born to a prominent family in San Fernando, Pampanga. Anacleto Hizon, his maternal grandfather, is a gobernadorcillo of San Fernando.

He received his Bachelor of Arts in Ateneo de Manila in 1914, his Civil Engineering degree in UST in 1919 and studied Architecture in the University of Pennsylvania and worked in the United States for a short time.

He return to the Philippines in 1928 and joined Architect Tomas Arguelles to form their Architecture Firm. Likewise they also formed the UST School of Architecture and became one of the pioneer faculties of the University. In 1929 - 1930, he is one of the Members of the Board of Architecture.

His talents in both Civil Engineering and Architecture are manifested in his long lasting works. The Cu-Unjieng Building in Plaza Cervantes, still exerting a strong architectural statement in the old Binondo Business Disctrict, the Calvo Building, the UST Central Seminary and the postwar Manila Cathedral. Though the old look of the Manila Cathedral still fresh with the earlier generations of Manilenos, he did not deliberately copied everything from the 6th Manila Cathedral, instead he added his own mark in it. Look at the pineapple finials, byzantine and renaissance design and the use of functionality over grandeur, that is why the interior is more simplistic in design.

He also likewise designed the San Fernando Cathedral in his hometown and some residences of some prominent families in San Fernando, Pampanga.

(Source: arkitektura.ph)