Nicolás Quintana

Nicolás Quintana
Born	Nicolás José Braulio del Carmen Quintana y Gómez Arango Díaz January 26, 1925 Havana, Cuba
Died	May 31, 2011 (aged 86) Miami, Florida
Nationality	Cuban
Alma mater	Universidad de la Habana
Occupation	Architect
Parent(s)	Nicolás Quintana Arango Carmen Gómez Diaz
Practice	Moenck & Quintana
Buildings	Hotel Cabañas de Sol Varadero Yacht Club Residential Condominum National Bank of Cuba Hotel Club Kawama Thang Loi Hotel Roberto Clemete Coliseum Ashford Terraces Condominium

Nicolás Quintana (January 26, 1925 – May 31, 2011) was a Cuban-born architect and one of the frontrunners of modernist architecture in Cuba.

Early life

Nicolás José Braulio del Carmen Quintana y Gómez Arango Díaz was born on January 26, 1925, in Havana, Cuba.[1] Quintana was the son of a prominent Cuban architect, Nicolás Quintana Arango and Carmen Gómez Diaz. He lived his early years in Vedado and later in Miramar.[2]

Following in his father's footsteps, he enrolled at the School of Architecture at the University of Havana. He was one of the architectural students who participated in the "Burning of the Viñolas" event in the courtyard of the School of Architecture's library in 1944.[3]

Career

After his father died in 1950, he graduated and became co-director of Moenck & Quintana in February 1951. In less than a decade he designed two dozen projects which consisted mostly of private houses and resorts.

Quintana formally represented Cuba at the Congrès Internationaux d'Architecture Moderne in Aix-en-Provence in 1953 and Dubrovnik in 1956.[4]

Following the establishment of the National Planning Board in 1955, he oversaw the master plans for the cities of Varadero and Trinidad as a director of Public Works.[5]

In 1958, he was commissioned to design and build the new National Bank of Cuba building in Havana.[6] When the revolution triumphed in 1959, Quintana was accused of being a conspirator by Che Guevara and he was given three options for punishment: exile, incarceration, or the firing squad. He firmly ended his career in Cuba by choosing exile.[7] On January 8, 1960, he was forced into exile following the Castro revolution. He moved to Venezuela and then Puerto Rico where he continued work as an architect, before eventually settling down in Miami by the 1980s.[8]

Teaching career

Quintana began his teaching career in the Department of Architecture at Florida International University in 1986, where he taught until 2010.[9] He retired as professor emeritus for health reasons.

Death

Nicolás Quintana died in Miami, Florida, on May 31, 2011.

References

1. "NICOLAS QUINTANA GOMEZ Obituary". legacy.com. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
2. "Revista Herencia Vol. 18.1 - March 2012". issuu.com. Retrieved 2024-05-19.
3. "Looking Back: An Interview with Ricardo Porro, Part 1". cubanartnewsarchive.org. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
4. "The Quintana Plan". miaminewtimes.com. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
5. "Interview with Nicolás Quintana". digitalcollections.library.miami.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
6. "Nicolás Quintana papers, 1950-2012". researchworks.oclc.org. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
7. "Cuba's Vanishing Modernity: The Architecture of Nicolas Quintana (1925-2011)". docomomo-us.org. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
8. "Quintana, Nicolás | Lifetime Achievement Fellows". cintasfoundation.org. Retrieved 2024-05-18.
9. "Nicolas Quintana's FIU Legacy was Already Immortalised; Now His Scholarship Fund is Too". cartanews.fiu.edu. Retrieved 2024-05-18.

External links

• The Nicolás Quintana Papers are held at the Cuban Heritage Collection, University of Miami Libraries, University of Miami.