Architect Felino “Jun” Palafox, Jr., a graduate of Master of Environmental Planning in 1974 and recipient of the UP Alumni Association’s Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award in 2024, made a brief visit to the UP Mindanao Office of the Chancellor for an exchange of tokens on July 18, 2025.
Ar. Palafox took the opportunity to visit the campus for the first time on the occasion of a planning meeting between his associates and the UP Mindanao Knowledge Innovation Science and Technology (KIST) Park committee.
Public Relations Officer Rene Estremera met and escorted Ar. Palafox and his associates to Administrative Officer Analiza Fulvadora, who facilitated the exchange of tokens.
During the brief visit, Ar. Palafox asked about the campus land area and, after learning its 204-hectare size, offered three ideas that he observed in US universities, which UP Mindanao could consider: a digitally-tagged arboretum; campus residences; and a solar farm.
The UPAA Lifetime Distinguished Achievement Award citation on its website states, “Felino Palafox, Jr. is an architect and environmental planner. He took up the Advanced Management Development Program in Harvard Graduate School of Design, the lone Asian in his class, and guest-lectured at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a member of various international and national organizations, such as the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, where he is a fellow and regional leader; the American Institute of Architects, where he is an international associate; Urban Land Institute; American Planning Association; US Green Building Council; and the United Architects of the Philippines.
He is the first Filipino architect and urban planner invited and name-hired to plan the desert town of Dubai into a first-world country, and was awarded the UAE Dubai Awards’ First Lifetime Achievement Award. He established and leads Palafox Associates, cited in the World’s Top 500 Architectural Firms of World Architecture Magazine. The firm has carried out more than 1,800 projects in 40 countries. Palafox Associates and Palafox Architecture Group Inc. currently manage ten ongoing projects within various campuses of the University of the Philippines.
His awards include the Outstanding Professional of the Year in the field of Environmental Planning from the Professional Regulatory Commission, the 48 Heroes of Philanthropy in Asia 2013 by Forbes Magazine, and the Gusi Peace Prize 2011 Laureate for Architecture Excellence and International Urban Planning. His book, `The Philippines Towards Resilient Cities and Communities,’ won the 37th National Book Awards as Best Book on Professions.”
