• Submitted by: manso
• Editorial Articles
• 11 / 02 / 2010

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10/31/2010. By: Ciro Bianchi Ross. Havana is a controversial city. Poet Miguel Barnet wrote that “Havana reigns over time and memories.” Cuban architect Andres Dunay described it as “the Rome of Latin America,” Spanish poet Garcia Lorca said that Havana was simply “wonderful,” art historian Graciella Pogolotti pondered that its charm came from its “irreducible ambivalence,” and historian Eusebuio Leal opined that trying to define the city of Havana was as hard as defining poetry.

Havana is a noisy, chatty metropolis. Its coastal, welcoming, unprejudiced spirit, as Rene Portocarrero's canvases sharply reflect, conceals a rich inner world.

Havana combines all styles and yet, seems not to have a style of its own. “A non-style style," wrote novelist Alejo Carpentier "which, on the long run, and through a process of symbiosis and amalgamation, becomes a peculiar baroque style.”

It is a baroque city in the heterogeneous and motley sense of the term, but it is also a "shy, sober, hidden place," tailored to the stature of men, but designed not to crush him. This is not only true for the old part of the city, but also for the modern neighborhoods, where skyscrapers and tall buildings, even the most regular and tasteless ones, don’t deprive the city of the sun or the sea breeze.
 
Have you ever wonder which is the highest building in Havana? The answer is simple: the FOCSA building, the Havana Libre Hotel, and the Jose Marti Memorial at the Revolution Square.

Of course, these are not the only tall buildings we find in the capital city. Also worth mentioning are the 24-storey/94-meter high building that hosts of the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR); the Ameijeiras Brothers Hospital, with a 12 meter high tower; and the ICRT Television and Radio Studios on 23 and M streets, which was the admiration of Cubans in 1947, when it was inaugurated. Designed by architects Junco, Gaston and Dominguez, it was a modern complex that included a cinema, stores, offices, restaurants, radio studios and a bank. It was a remarkable building, not only for its dimensions, but also for the harmonious relation it established with nearby roads.

A Five-Storey Skyscraper

Although now it may seem ridiculous, the San Francisco de Asis Basilica was the highest building in Cuba during the Spanish colonial period. With little more than 44 meters, it was not only the highest building in Havana, but in all of Cuba.

Towards the first decade of the 20th century, the Lonja del Comercio became a sensation in Havana, with its scandalous five floors and its elevators. Some years later, the Carrera Justiz building, on San Lazaro and Manrique streets, became the new top of the city. Coincidentally, it was on the same corner where the first attempt to kill President Gerardo Machado was made on June 1930.

The action marked the beginning of a new period in the struggle against his regime. When the late-hour Luyano-Malecon streetcar reached the San Lazaro and Manrique corner, it ran over a cigarette pack of the brand Competidora Gaditana, which was full of chlorate and equipped with a detonator. No one was killed, but the explosion shattered the streetcar glasses and caused alarm among the people. The clock in the lobby of the fancy office of Dr. Benigno Souza, one of Cuba’s best surgeons, struck two.

Havana’s first two-storey buildings were constructed in 1779. Towards the 19th century, the first three-storey constructions saw the light, as well as the first apartments for rent, which became more popular after 1917.

On December 28, 1928, President Gerardo Machado inaugurated the Presidente Hotel on G Street, by opening the main door of the hotel with a gold key. The ten-storey building became the highest building in Havana, and although it soon lost that title, 82 years from its inauguration, the four-star hotel continues to be one of the city’s finest, where every guest is given a gold key that gives symbolic access to the secrets of Havana.

Other noteworthy buildings are the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church on Reina Street, with an 81-meter stipple, and the old headquarters of the Great Masonic Logia on Carlos III and Belascoain streets. The dome of Havana’s Capitol building is the sixth largest of the world. The lantern at its highest point is 94 meters over the street level, and at the moment of its inauguration it was the third largest of the world, second only to Saint Peter Cathedral in Rome, and Saint Paul’s Cathedral in London, 129 and 107 meter high respectively.

The Lopez Serrano building located on the corner of 13 and L streets, in Vedado, became the tallest of the city in 1932 with its 14 floors, including the 4-storey tower. It put end to the supremacy of the Bacardi building, which with its 12 floors and its 7,000 square meters had became the highest in 1932, when it was inaugurated on Monserrate street. Later, the America building on Galiano Street would take the title away from the Lopez Serrano building.

Gold Medalists

In 1952, President Batista signed Decree Law #407 for the development of the so-called horizontal properties, and in March 1953, he passed Decree Law #750 for the Promotion of Insured Mortgages (FHA). Both laws favored the construction of tall apartment buildings financed by banks.

The unavailability of space for new houses, especially in Vedado, and their high costs made the horizontal property system a wonderful solution: the investor would buy a spot in the center of the town for a high price, which was later split among the owners of the future apartments, making them available for middle class and small bourgeoisie families.

The city of Havana then began to grow vertically. In 1956, the Odontologists’ Building on L Street, across from famed Coppelia ice cream parlor, deserved the Gold Medal of the Architects Association. The place was mainly devoted to dentists’ offices.

The next year the award went to the Doctors’ Building, on the corner of 23 and N streets, across from the Pabellon Cuba exhibition ground. It was the headquarters of the Doctors Association, and many of its floors housed offices and executive and conference rooms, as well as a 19-storey plant with three apartments per floor. The architect of both buildings was Antonio Quintana Simonetti, the same architect that some years after the 1959 revolution designed the Havana Convention Center, the Lenin Park, and many other projects of social interest, as he became a close collaborator of Celia Sanchez.

The 1950s

The Havana Riviera Hotel, inaugurated in 1957 with 400 rooms, was 71 meters above sea level, while the Havana Libre Hotel, inaugurated on March 19, 1958, was 126 meters above sea level. The construction of the latter was financed with the retirement savings of workers in the food industry. At the moment of its inauguration, it had two parking lots under the street level, a main hall with a large lobby, a desk and administration offices, and 21 floors with 630 rooms and 42 suites.

Towering 121 meters above street level, the FOCSA building is five meter shorter than the Havana Libre Hotel. In 1956, it was the world’s second highest building in the world, second only to the 144-meter high Marinelli building in Sao Paulo, Brazil. It has 373 apartments, including the 7 penthouses on the 29th floor. On the upper floor, we find the La Torre restaurant, where clients can enjoy of a wonderful aerial view of Havana’s neighborhoods.

This building was designed for 5,000 people to live and work in its proximities. Its concept was radically different from the isolated designs of the great mansions of the 1920s, which didn’t develop the urban context as a living space. The FOCSA building became the first example of “a city inside a city," a building equipped with all kinds of services. Its construction was valued at some 10 million Cuban pesos, and it was a total success: all the apartments and offices were sold out by 1957 –only 16 months after its inauguration.

The highest human made construction in Havana is the Jose Marti Memorial at the Revolution Square. The tower is almost 142 meter high including the lantern and flags. It has an elevator that goes as high as 90 meters and a 579 step stair that leads to its highest point. Its viewpoint offers a panoramic view of the city of over 60 kilometers of distance.

The Marti statue is 18 meters high. It was sculpted in white marble by Juan Jose Sicre. He began the work on October 15, 1956, and finished on August 15, 1958. The marble was extracted from an area nearby El Abra, in Isla de Pinos, where Jose Marti was sent to serve part of his sentence following the trial in which he was found guilty of conspiracy against the Spanish crown in the 19th century. The head of the statue was carved on a 3 meters high and 18-ton block. The sculpture was divided into 52 pieces that were carved in the same place where the monument rises today.

Speaking of statues, two other remarkable statues in Havana worth mentioning are the Republic Statue inside the Havana Capitol building, the third tallest indoor statue in the world at 14.6 meters; and the Christ statue at Havana Bay, which is 15 meters high and was sculpted by Cuban artist Jilma Madera.

Source: JR