Antonio Quintana Simonetti

Antonio Luis Quintana Simonetti (April 19, 1919 – September 21, 1993) was a Cuban architect and a forerunner of Modern architecture in Havana.

Quintana graduated from the University of Havana in 1944, among his works are some of the most important modernist buildings in the capital.

Dissatisfied as a student with the classical canons, Antonio Quintana participated in 1944 in the so-called "Burning of Vignola" in the courtyard of the School of Architecture of the University of Havana.

From this date forward, he began to study the precepts of contemporary architecture.

He graduated as an architect in the same year.

Early in his career, Quintana worked with Pedro Martínez Inclán and Mario Romañach in the Barrio Residencial Obrero de Luyanó, a modernist project that consisting of 1,500 houses, eight apartment complexes in four-story buildings, and all the complementary services of the houses: markets, schools, sports fields, and parks.

The Edificio del Seguro Médico Building, located on 23rd street at N corner, is considered an important commercial architectural work of the 1950s in the city of Havana.

It was initially built as a residential building and the headquarters of the Medical Insurance.

Currently, the Latin Press Agency and the Ministry of Public Health are based there.

It has 2 basement levels for parking.

From the 4th floor, there are 3 apartments per floor.

Between 1951 and 1953 he designed, with Alberto Beale, Manuel A. Rubio y Augusto Pérez Beato, the apartment building for Enriqueta Fernández on the corners of 23 and 26 streets, in Vedado, Havana. The building constitutes the first instance in the construction of 12 two-level, duplex apartments in Cuba.

Due to its structural lightness, the building caused an impact at the time.

The volume of the building consists of a block that rests on four columns that are spaced about 12m apart, and a cantilever of about 6m on each side.

The stairs and the elevator are separated from the main body which connects every 2 floors.

The floor of the houses is organized by modules of about 3 meters that give rise to the different rooms.

The structural framework also organizes the façade, generating frames every two floors, which contain each housing unit.

The enclosure is delayed giving rise to a terrace.

Quintana based the building's design on an idea suggested by José Rodríguez Feo, who later lived in the penthouse; he saw "the building as hanging from a cloud", floating, or almost without touching the ground, with the aim of integrating the public and private spaces, making the corner "disappear", the place that would be like a square and used for exhibitions.

It was a very novel structure for its time, supported by only four columns and the building seems to levitate six meters on the sides, as well as the staircase and the elevator seem separated from it and connecting every two floors.

In 1955, economic needs and the search for greater profitability led the ground floor to be occupied by a car dealer, this intervention added new partitions but the original idea and transparency continued to be present, in later years a new cafeteria was added on the ground floor and a restaurant on the mezzanine, nullifying the original conception of the project and making it impossible to distinguish the differentiation of volumes.

The project arose as a result of a public architectural competition held in 1955 for the new headquarters of the Cuban Colegio de Médicos (National Medical Association) and the offices of the Medical Insurance Company.

Given the high cost of the site, the complexity of the initial project was increased by the need to add rental income from apartments that would help to make the building profitable.

Antonio Quintana's proposal was the winner since it managed to solve the complexity of the program with two volumes: a five-story box containing administrative offices, an auditorium, and lobbies, and an eighteen-story modernist slab with its own separate entrance lobby.

Quintana established a visual dialogue between the two geometries and generated new guidelines for the new emerging modernist, mixed-use typologies.

in the city.

The Seguro Medico was a private company, they were the landlord and owner of the residential tower and thus subject to the new property redistribution instituted by the Castro government.

Early in the new revolutionary government, guided by the principals that: 1.

This building is located on Calle L between 21 and 23, the construction of this building led to the Gold Medal award in 1956.

This building has two basement levels designed for parking.

These apartments are currently unused.

It has a cafeteria with a capacity for 200 people and direct access to the street.

It has a theater room that, because it is very deteriorated, does not provide functions.

On the first two floors are the Stomatological College and the offices of the dental offices.

This building was awarded a gold medal in 1956 by the Colegio Nacional de Arquitectos de Cuba.

Currently, the building houses the Faculty of Economics of the University of Havana, the Talía Theatre, and the L Art Gallery (ground floor).

After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution, in 1959, Quintana decided to stay in Cuba and work for the revolutionary government, unlike many of his colleagues, who preferred to leave the country.

He directed the Directorate of Projects of the Ministry of Construction (MICONS), between 1961 and 1969.

He continued to design until 1991 when he concluded his last project, Teatro Heredia de Santiago de Cuba.

He died in Havana on September 21, 1993, at the age of 74.