THE City Government of San Fernando, through its City Tourism Office, opened on Tuesday, August 28, a photo exhibit of the works of Architect Fernando Hizon Ocampo who is dubbed as the “father of modern architecture” in the country.
Panels showing photos of Ocampo's works are now on display at the old San Fernando train station which is now re-purposed as a museum.
Some of Ocampo’s prominent works were the Arguelles, Paterno, and Cu-Unjieng buildings in Manila, Ayala Bridge in Pasig City, University Theatre in Taft Avenue, and Central Seminary of the University of Sto. Tomas. He also undertook the restorations of the war-damaged Manila Metropolitan Cathedral in the mid-1950s and the Metropolitan Cathedral of San Fernando, Pampanga which was destroyed by fire in 1939.
Historian Alex Castro, in his blog "Views from the Pampang" said that Fernando Ocampo was the son of Basilio Ocampo and Leoncia Hizon, whose father, Anacleto, had been a former gobernadorcillo of San Fernando.
He finished his Bachelor of Arts at the Ateneo in 1914, and after earning his Civil Engineering degree from the University of Sto. Tomas, he took up architecture from the University of Pennsylvania. His contemporaries included Juan Nakpil and Andres Luna de San Pedro (Juan Luna's son). He further pursued advanced studies at the American Academy in Rome, then joined the firm of Ballinger and Perrot in Philadelphia in 1922.
The next year though, he returned to the Philippines and was employed in the Architecture Division of the Bureau of Public Works. In partnership with Tomas Arguelles, Ocampo formed his own architectural firm in 1928. In 1930, he founded the U.S.T. School of Fine Arts and Architecture and was a member of the Board Exams from 1929-1930. His contributions to Philippine architecture were honored with a Gold Medal of Merit from the Philippine Institute of Architects in 1953.