09. The Bank of Nova Scotia, shown in 1916, is by Arthur Lobo, born in the West Indies and trained at Columbia. He designed the apartment house at the southeast corner of West End Avenue and West 96th Street. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Cuban capital was spectacularly rich, Newport-rich, with a large cadre of highly trained local designers. In 1902 The Real Estate Record and Guide gave some idea of the sophisticated level of regulation; cornices, balconies, ornament and even colors required approval, and the architect had to present an elevation drawing of the entire block, to make sure the house was aesthetically agreeable. One of the earliest buildings by a New York architect was Bertram Goodhue’s Episcopal cathedral, designed in 1905 and architecturally optimistic on a very Roman Catholic island. Goodhue, a recognized master of ecclesiastical architecture, was firmly a Gothicist, but for Havana developed a Churrigueresque design, a flowery version of the Spanish colonial. Where it stood is unclear, but it is gone now. The oldest section of the city, Old Havana, fronts on the Bay of Havana, with narrow, almost medieval streets. But in the early 20th century the section around Obispo and O’Reilly Streets was home to so much bank construction it was nicknamed “little Wall Street.” In 1913, Arthur Lobo, born in the West Indies and trained at Columbia, worked out a lush neo-Classical facade for the Bank of Nova Scotia at O’Reilly and Cuba Streets. Shoehorned into a tight intersection, Lobo’s bank rounds the corner, making a sheltered half-circle vestibule of double height MANZANA DE GOMEZ Havana’s central station, shown about 1913, was designed by Kenneth Murchison, who did the Erie-Lackawanna Terminal in Hoboken, and various buildings around New York. It is one of more than two dozen buildings in Havana by New York architects.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 22:47:34 +0000
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