Spanish colonial Havana architecture, fortresses in Havana

Interiors of the residence of Catalina Lasa and Juan Pedro Baró (1922-1927)
Calle Paseo No. 406 entre 17 y 19, El Vedado
Arquitects Evelio Govantes and Félix Cabarrocas
Although its façade is inspired in the Florentine Renaissance, the luxurious interiors, especially the dining room and Juan Pedro Baró's bedroom, were conceived in the the art deco style with a predominance of rectangular shapes repeated in floors, ceilings, glass cabinets, furniture and lighting fixtures. The house was decorated by French designer René Lalique and the furniture was designed by Pedro Luis Estévez Lasa, Catalina's son. The garden was a creation of Jean C. Forestier, originator of the first Master Plan for Havana (1926-1928), as well as other projects for plazas, parks and gardens within the city.

Residence of Dr. Clemente Inclán (1930)
Calle 8 No. 314 entre 3ra y 5ta, Miramar
Architect Pedro Martínez Inclán
Although it does not feature the distinct verticality that is characteristic of other Art Deco edifices, a preference for geometric elements in grillwork, floors, flowerbeds and windows, the use of the trapezoidal arc and ornamental details found on the façade, it is one of the first and best preserved treatments of this style in domestic architecture, applied with close attention to Cuban light and climate, although its interiors are much in keeping with typical historicist models of stately homes in Havana of previous decades.

Bacardí Building (1930)
Calle Monserrate esquina a San Juan de Dios, La Habana Vieja
Architect Esteban Rodríguez Castells and associates architect Rafael Fernández Ruenes and engineer José Menéndez
Conceived as headquarters for the Bacardí rum company, it was the tallest building in Havana in its time. The exuberant and organic decoration, both on the façade and in interiors (it was said that marble and granite from a number of European nations?Germany, Sweden, Norway Italy, France, Belgium and Hungary?had been used for the Bacardi building) and its elegant verticality, reinforced by the sequence of windows and the layered tower, crowned by the Bacardi bat, emblem of the company, make this construction, whose restoration was completed in 2003 by the Office of the City Historian of Havana, on of the most famous landmarks of Art Deco in the Island.

López Serrano Building (1932)
Calle 13 esquina a L, El Vedado
Architect Ricardo Mira and engineer Miguel Rosich
It is considered the first Cuban skyscraper as it reproduces, on a modest scale, the model of tall New York buildings, conceived with layered fittings in order to let air and light in. The linear and geometric lines of the façade are enhanced by the Moroccan red marble of the interior, the decorative large flowerpots, ceiling lamps and doors to lifts and apartments, and “Time", a relief sculpture made in nickel silver by Cuban artist Enrique García Cabrera, whose home at 22nd St. in El Vedado is also a beautiful example of Art Deco style. The López Serrano Building was the property of the heirs to José López Serrano, owner of the La Moderna Poesía bookstore, who committed suicide in 1921 because he felt he was bankrupt regardless of having eleven million dollars in his personal bank account.

Rodríguez Vázquez Building (1941)
Calle Galiano entre Neptuno y Concordia, Centro Habana
Architects Fernando Martínez Campos and Pascual Rojas
It repeats the structure of lines that emphasize verticality and includes a small two story-tower. The ground floor housed two large theatres: the 1,800-seater America Theatre, whose lobby depicts a favourite element of Art Deco decorators: the signs of the zodiac; and the Radio Cine Theatre, which already existed at the time. The building’s architects also made the projects for the El País newspaper (calle Reina, No. 158, Centro Habana), a sample of Art Deco adapted to edifices of many different sorts.

Solimar Building (1944)
Calle Soledad esquina a San Lázaro, Centro Habana
Architect Manuel Copado
An interesting and typical example of the Streamline movement which preferred rounded corners and a sensation of motion. The recovery of simple forms and the alternation of flat and curved surfaces free this edifice, which is perfectly adapted to the trapezoidal shape of the terrain, from a certain rigidity so common to Art Deco, lending a daring modernity to it, perhaps somewhat incongruous with the urban environment.

Municipal Children’s Hospital (1935)
Avenida de los Presidentes entre 27 y 29, El Vedado
Arquitects Evelio Govantes and Félix Cabarrocas
This Havana hospital is representative of the Monumental Modern variation of Art Deco. The H-shaped ground floor, the play with volumes, the predominance of vertical lines in exterior walls and a certain scenographic character define basic features which were later repeated in similar edifices, including the Military Hospital in Marianao and the Topes de Collantes Sanatorium in the province of Sancti Spíritus. For many years, it was the only paediatric hospital in Havana and, after a lengthy process of restoration, will continue being a children’s hospital.

Maternidad Obrera of Marianao (1939)
Avenida 31 y calle 84, Marianao
Architect Emilio de Soto
This maternity hospital was awarded the Gold Medal by the National Architects’ Association. Also exhibiting features of Monumental Modern, the extreme verticality of different elements in its portico, topped by Mother and Child, a huge and expressive sculpture by Teodoro Ramos Blanco, is powerfully striking. This large, highly functional building is close by to an Art-Deco complex at the square-cum-roundabout known as the Plaza Cívica de Marianao or Plaza Finlay, with a syringe-like obelisk in its centre, a tribute to Dr. Carlos J. Finlay, who discovered that yellow fever was transmitted by mosquitoes.

Façade of the Fausto Theatre (1915, remodelled in 1938)
Paseo del Prado esquina a Colón, La Habana Vieja
Remodeler architect Saturnino S. Parajón
Built in 1915, it was reconstructed and remodelled in 1938 according to a project which was awarded the Gold Medal by the National Architects’ Association. Its pure Art Deco façade is faced with a mixture of white cement and stone dust which reflect colour changes of its illumination, achieved by incandescent gas tubes. It was the first air-conditioned theatre in Cuba. Art Deco was the preferred style for the first movie houses in the city, such as Moderno, Arenal and City Hall theatres.

Lutgardita Theatre (1932)
Calzada de Bejucal No. 30901, Rancho Boyeros
Arquitects Evelio Govantes and Félix Cabarrocas
In contrast to the sober facade, its interior is an ornamental apotheosis of the Art Deco style, using stylized motifs of Mayan culture: serpents, jaguars, friezes, trapezoidal arcs, with a deep scenographic sense. It was part of a project for a working-class neighbourhood, which was opened in 1929 with 100 homes, a schoolhouse, a railroad station and a post office, all commissioned to Govantes and Cabarrocas.

La Moderna Poesía Bookstore (1941)
Obispo y Bernaza, La Habana Vieja
Architect Ricardo Mira and engineer Miguel Rosich
Owned by the López Serrano family―who evidently had a preference for Art Deco―is a sample of how the sober interplay between lines and volumes can achieve a discreet elegance highlighted by the typography, in keeping with the style, on the façade above the entrance. Snce its opening, it has been the “insignia" bookstore of the city.

Veterinary School of the University of Havana (1943)
Carlos III y Ayestarán, Centro Habana
Arquitecto Manuel Tapia Ruana
The façade shows an attractive contrast, not only regarding volumes, but also between the texture of the stone used for the portico and the stucco on walls. The tall pilasters, surmounted by stylized figures of horses’ heads, sculpted by the building’s architect himself, are characteristic of the Monumental Modern trend, which is also present in the nearby Biblioteca de la Sociedad Económica de Amigos del País on Carlos III Ave., designed by architects Govantes and Cabarrocas, as well as in other buildings on University Hill.

Santa Rita Church (1941-1942)
5ta Avenida esquina 26, Miramar
Architects Leonardo and Víctor Morales
The succession of parabolic arcs made of reinforced concrete in contrast to the three stories of rectangular windows which alternate with the arcs, create a sense of motion and modernity, accentuated by a synthetic Santa Rica de Casia, by sculptor Rita Longa. The commitment to Art Deco codes in the interior of the church is reasserted by the rectangular geometric lines of the belfry. The style had been used previously by the architects in another religious edifice: the San Agustín Church (Avenida 37 entre 42 y 44, Playa).

Mausoleum of Catalina Lasa (1932)
Cristóbal Colón Cemetery
Designer René Lalique
This white marble and black granite mausoleum, which combines a sober façade with a splendid apse-shaped chapel boasting glass-covered rectangular and square openings, is the final scene of the love story played out by beautiful Catalina Lasa―who had been previously married to Luis Estévez Abreu, son of the first Vice-President of the Republic and patriot Marta Abreu, considered benefactor of the city of Santa Clara―and landowner Juan Pedro Baró. After a series of vicissitudes in order to obtain her divorce, Catalina and Juan Pedro took up residence in a luxurious Havana mansion decorated in the Art Deco style. After Catalina’s early death, Juan Pedro Baró commissioned René Lalique to design the pantheon, also Art Deco, with a stained-glass window whose rose motif brings to mind the variety of roses he created which he named after his beloved wife. The legend has it that Baró asked to be buried upright beside his wife’s tomb, as a last tribute of love.

Teatro América
Calle Galiano 252 entre Concordia y Neptuno, Centro Habana, Ciudad de La Habana
Opened in 1941 as part of the Rodríguez Vázquez Building
—whose art deco style was used coherently in the magnificent interiors—and initially conceived as a movie theatre, from the very start it included musicals and theatrical presentations. Since then until the present day, concerts, recitals, zarzuelas, operettas, dramas, musical revues, dance productions and even whole circus seasons have performed there. Outstanding figures of Cuban culture, such as Ernesto Lecuona, Rita Montaner, Benny Moré, Bola de Nieve, Chucho Valdés, Juan Formell and Adalberto Álvarez, and visitors such as Lola Flores and Sara Montiel from Spain, Pedro Vargas from Mexico and US-born Josephine Baker from France have all been applauded in this theatre, which is dedicated today to musical revues and variety shows backed by the America Ballet, formed by fifty dancers who also sing and act. The theatre also organizes dance, make-up, hair styling, massage, photography and popular dance workshops.