Max E. Borges Jr. | |
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| Born | July 24, 1918 |
| Died | January 18, 2009 (aged 90) |
Max Borges Jr., born Max Borges Recio (July 24, 1918 – January 18, 2009), [1] was a Cuban architect best known for his work in Havana in the 1940s and 1950s. He later moved to the United States.
Borges Jr. was born in Cuba, the son of Max Borges del Junco, an architect. He later studied in the United States, earning his bachelor's degree at Georgia Tech and a master's degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Borges Jr. returned to Cuba and joined his father's firm, together with his brother Ernesto.
Borges' style was influenced by his work with Spanish structural engineer Félix Candela who practiced in Mexico and was a specialist in lightweight concrete parabolic structures. Borges invited Candela to work with him in Cuba, and they both developed extraordinary projects. [2] His best known work is the Tropicana Club of 1951, for which he later designed expansions. Other unique buildings like the 1943 Apartment Building of Max Borges-del Junco at Jovellar St. and the Club Náutico place Borges among a few modern architects of the Americas with a recognizable, original style.
After 1959 his family moved to the United States, where he remained active well into the 1980s, along with his brother Enrique, designing and building many residential and commercial buildings in the Washington Metropolitan Area. [3]
He twice won the Cuban National College of Architects Award. First, for his "Medical and Surgical Center" built in 1948 in El Vedado and, the second time, for the Tropicana Club in 1953. In 2006, he was awarded the Cintas Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award "The Cintas' legacy has fostered the development of Cuban artists, promoting the professional development of these artists and the continuity of Cuban traditions in art."
He was son of architect Max Borges del Junco, a well-known Cuban architect. His brother was architect Enrique Borges Recio, with whom he authored many works as partner. He married Mignon Olmo-Garrido (March 18, 1923 - May 6, 2007) on February 5, 1944 at San Juan de Letrán Catholic Church in Havana, Cuba and they had two sons, Philip M. and Max M. Borges Olmo (also an architect), as well as five grandchildren.
Bacardi Limited is one of the largest privately held, family-owned spirits companies in the world. Originally known for its eponymous Bacardi white rum, it now has a portfolio of more than 200 brands and labels. Founded in Cuba in 1862 and family-owned for seven generations, Bacardi Limited employs more than 7,000 people with sales in approximately 170 countries. Bacardi Limited refers to the Bacardi group of companies, including Bacardi International Limited.
Jesús Valdés Rodríguez, better known as Chucho Valdés, is a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger whose career spans over 50 years. In 1965 the young pianist left Elio Reve's Charangon to pursue a jazz career. An original member of the Orquesta Cubana de Música Moderna, in 1973 he founded the group Irakere, one of Cuba's best-known Latin jazz bands. Both his father, Bebo Valdés, and his son, Chuchito, are pianists as well. His wife is Lorena Salcedo. As a solo artist, he has won four Grammy Awards and three Latin Grammy Awards.
El Tropicana Night Club in Havana, Cuba located in a lush, six-acre estate tropical garden opened on December 30, 1939 at the Villa Mina in Marianao. It is located next door to the old Colegio de Belen, presently, the Instituto Técnico Militar.
Dionisio Ramón Emilio Valdés Amaro, better known as Bebo Valdés, was a Cuban pianist, bandleader, composer and arranger. He was a central figure in the golden age of Cuban music, especially due to his big band arrangements and compositions of mambo, chachachá and batanga, a genre he created in 1952. He was the director of the Radio Mil Diez house band and the Tropicana Club orchestra, before forming his own big band, Orquesta Sabor de Cuba, in 1957. However, after the end of the Cuban Revolution, in 1960, Bebo left his family behind and went into exile in Mexico before settling in Sweden, where he remarried. His musical hiatus lasted until 1994, when a collaboration with Paquito D'Rivera brought him back into the music business. By the time of his death in 2013, he had recorded several new albums, earning multiple Grammy Awards. His son Chucho Valdés is also a successful pianist and bandleader.
El Cementerio de Cristóbal Colón, also called La Necrópolis de Cristóbal Colón, was founded in 1876 in the Vedado neighbourhood of Havana, Cuba to replace the Espada Cemetery in the Barrio de San Lázaro. Named for Christopher Columbus, the cemetery is noted for its many elaborately sculpted memorials. It is estimated the cemetery has more than 500 major mausoleums. Before the Espada Cemetery and the Colon Cemetery were built, interments took place in crypts at the various churches throughout Havana, for example, at the Havana Cathedral or Church Crypts in Havana Vieja.
Enrique Molina was a Cuban film and television actor.
del Junco is a Spanish surname meaning “from the reeds”. The most notable family with this name is the Rodrigo del Junco family which originally came from Asturias, Spain. In the 16th century they immigrated to St. Augustine, Florida and then in the mid 17th century to Matanzas, Cuba. Their home in Matanzas was the Palacio de Junco and is now a museum. They also owned the Palmar de Junco where in 1874, the first game of baseball was played in Cuba. The Matanzas del Junco family have a large crypt in the Necropolis de San Carlos Borromeo.
Tirso Del Junco is an American politician who served as chair of the Republican Party of California, and the head of the University of California board of regents. He is also a former Olympic rower and a medical doctor.
Club Náutico is a private boat club in Cuba. It is in the reparto of Náutico, Playa, Havana.
Iglesia de Jesús de Miramar is the second largest church in Cuba. It is located in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Cristobal de la Habana.
Maximiliano de la Luz Borges y del Junco was a well-known Cuban architect and Minister of Public Works during the presidency of Dr. Federico Laredo Brú of Cuba.
Hugo Consuegra was a Cuban-American architect and artist specializing in graphic design, painting, and engraving.
Leonardo Morales y Pedroso was one of the most prominent Cuban architect in Cuba in the first half 20th century. In 1900 he entered and attended pre-university studies at De Witt Clinton High of New York, where he obtained a Bachelor's degree. In 1909 he graduated of Bachelor in Architecture from Columbia University of New York, USA. After graduating, he returned to Cuba in 1909 where he worked a time in the local architect firm of Newton & Sola with the architect Thomas M. Newton, who was director of the civil construction section of the Secretary of Public Works during the 2nd American intervention in Cuba. In February 1910, he returned to the United States and obtained a Master's degree (Doctor) in Architecture from Columbia University in the State of New York. After obtaining his doctorate in architecture he joined in march 1910 the architecture Company Morales y Mata arquitectos, created in 1907 by his elder brother the engineer Luis Morales y Pedroso in association with the master builder Jose F. Mata. In 1917, after having built more than 30 important buildings, they decided to separate from José Mata, who had to stop working because illness and died a short time later. The company changed its name for Morales y Compañia Arquitectos with his brother the engineer Luis Morales y Pedroso as President and Leonardo as Associate together with other 7 architects. He was able to obtain noteworthy real estate commissions partly because of his family’s origin, good social connections and social standing in Havana high society. He was named by the cuban press of the time as the "Havana's architect" and his architectural style is recognized as the "Morales style". During 50 years Leonardo Morales y Pedroso received around 250 notable architectural commissions, some of them include:
Ricardo Porro Hidalgo was a Cuban-born architect. He graduated in architecture from the Universidad de la Habana in 1949 and built this year his first project Villa Armenteros in Havana, following which he spent two years in post-graduate studies at the Institute of Urbanism at the Sorbonne.
Colegio Nacional de Arquitectos de Cuba (C.N.A.C.) is a Cuban national institution that grew out of El Colegio de Arquitectos de La Habana.
The Radiocentro CMQ Building complex is a former radio and television production facility and office building at the intersection of Calle L and La Rampa in El Vedado, Cuba. It was modeled after Raymond Hood's 1933 Rockefeller Center in New York City. With 1,650 seats, the theater first opened on December 23, 1947 under the name Teatro Warner Radiocentro, it was owned by brothers Goar and Abel Mestre. Today the building serves as the headquarters of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT).
Martín Domínguez Esteban was a Spanish architect.
Mario Romañach (1917–1984) was a Cuban, modernist architect, planner, and university professor.
The Colegio de Belén located between 45th and 66th streets – situated next door to the Tropicana nightclub – in Marianao, Havana, was designed in 1925 by the architect Leonardo Morales y Pedroso and his brother the engineer Luis Morales y Pedroso of the firm Morales y Compañía Arquitectos.
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