page_title: Havana Plan Piloto
section_title: Palacio de las palmas
hierarchical_section_title: Havana Plan Piloto / Plan piloto / Palacio de las palmas
caption_attribution_description: English: plan piloto de la habana.2 1956
context_page_description: The Havana Plan Piloto was a 1955-1958 urban proposal by Town Planning Associates which included Paul Lester Wiener, Paul Schulz, the Catalan architect Josep Lluis Sert, Seely Stevenson of Value & Knecht, Consulting Engineers seeking to combine "architecture, planning, and law," in a project heavily influenced by the politics of Fulgencio Batista which in turn were dictated by his involvement with the American Mafia and their desire to augment United States tourism, and thru his architects, the modernist principles of CIAM and the Athens Charter. The Charter got its name from the location of the fourth CIAM conference in 1933, which, due to the deteriorating political situation in Russia, took place on the in SS Patris II bound for Athens from Marseilles. This conference is documented in a film commissioned by Sigfried Giedion and made by his friend Laszlo Moholy-Nagy "Architects' Congress." The Charter had a significant impact on urban planning after World War II and, thru Josep Lluis Sert and Paul Lester Wiener, on the proposed modernization of Havana and in the effort erase all vestiges of the 16th-century city.
context_section_description: The Cuban government-owned the site the future presidential palace was going to be, it was a large piece of land between two fortresses, El Castillo del Morro and La Cabaña; thus, the proposed site had a prominent topography, did not require expropriation, and had historic relevance. Wiener was advised that a competition would be held for the design of a new presidential palace. Competitors included Wells Coates, Franco Albini, and the firm of Welton Beckett, Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer would also be invited. Mario Romañach indicated to Wiener his desire to work on the project and, along with Town Planning Associates, was added to the list. Soon after the initial announcement, the idea of a competition was abandoned, Town Planning Associates was given the commission outright as well as to Mario Romañach and Gabriela Menéndez. Several people have noted that the future location of the palace on the undeveloped east side of the bay in conjunction with the construction of the new Havana Tunnel that would encourage the development of Havana toward the east, maintaining Habana Vieja as a vital center and discourage westward expansion. With the commission for the presidential palace secured, Sert and Romañach become the primary designers of the project, Félix Candelawas to be the structural engineer and Hideo Sasaki the landscape architect. Sert and Romañach commenced their design the following year developing the project between the fall of 1956 and the summer of 1957 after initial plans and a model was exhibited for Batista and his cabinet in the Salón de Los Espejos of the existing presidential palace.
  The Plan Piloto then included the project by Romañach, Gabriela Menéndez, Mercedes Diaz and Josep Lluís Sert for the new Presidential Palace which would have been located near the Castle of San Carlos de La Cabaña and the Castle of the Three Kings of El Morro. The designers of the Plan Piloto contemplated the construction of a monumental Presidential Palace, conceived as a large civic complex with a yacht dock with private access to the bay. The presidential palace was the center of this ambitious project with several ministries, two large civic plazas, a José Martí park, an oceanography museum and an aquarium.
caption: Plan Piloto proposed presidential palace.[1]
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