Federico Ilustre

Federico Ilustre (1912–1989) was a Filipino

architect who worked for the Bureau of Public
Works (now the Department of Public Works and
Highways). It was during his tenure as consulting
architect that some of the country's prominent
postwar architectural structures were built.

Life

Ilustre graduated with a degree in architecture at

the Mapua Institute of Technology, eventually
becoming a licensed architect in 1937. His
architectural experience however went way back,
when he started out in 1935 as a draftsman in the
architectural office of Juan Nakpil, as well as a
stint as a furniture designer in 1936 for Puyat and
Sons.[1]

He first joined the Bureau of Public Works in 1936

as a draftsman, staying in that position until the
outbreak of World War II in the country in 1941.
He was then promoted to the position of
consulting architect iduring the Japanese
Occupation. After the war, he briefly left the
bureau to join the AFWESPAC of the US Army as
supervising architect and assist them in the
postwar infrastructure rehabilitation. In 1947, he
became the supervising architect of the National
Housing Commission, a position he held for two
years until he returned to the Bureau of Public
Works in 1949 also as supervising architect. He
would remain with the public works office until
the 1970s.[1]

His most notable work would be his design of the

Quezon Memorial Shrine monument, a design he
made for a national design competition held in
1951 for the then-planned monument for late
President Manuel L. Quezon, where he won the
grand prize.[2] In addition, he also designed some
notable postwar structures, varying in
architectural styles from high-modernism to the
neo-vernacular.

Death

Federico Ilustre died in 1989 in Manila,

Philippines.

Works

Quezon Memorial Shrine, Quezon City, 1978

former GSIS Headquarters Building, Manila,

1957

Veterans Memorial Building, Manila, 1957

(Demolished 2007)

Independence Grandstand (now Quirino

Grandstand), Rizal Park, Manila, 1949

Manila International Airport, Nichols Field, 1961

(demolished; currently the site of the Ninoy
Aquino International Airport Terminal 2)

Department of Agriculture Building, Quezon

City

National Housing Authority Building, Quezon

City

Planetarium, Rizal Park, Manila

References

f. ^ a b Lico, Gerard (2008). Arkitekturang

Filipino: A History of Architecture and Urbanism
in the Philippines. Quezon City: University of the
Philippines Press.

i. ^ Lita, Reynaldo S. (March 11, 2014). "QUEZON

MEMORIAL SHRINE GETS MAJOR FACELIFT
AFTER MORE THAN THREE DECADES" .
National Historical Commission of the Philippines.

Last edited 6 months ago by Ser Amantio…

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