The Architect of New York
In 1881, Rafael Guastavino Moreno, a well-known Spanish architect, immigrates to America with his wife, two daughters and a young son, Rafaelito (Rafael, Jr.). His dream of professional success in New York City begins during the Gilded Age, a time of vast industrial expansion. As Spanish immigrants, the family finds little common community in the city, unlike their Irish and German neighbors. After a few months, his unhappy wife decides to return to Spain with their two daughters. Disheartened, Rafael now must take care of his son, who is distraught at losing his mother.
Known in Spain for his fireproof, Moorish-inspired vaulted arches constructed of custom-made terracotta tiles and mortar, Guastavino’s hard work quickly leads to commissions. His beautiful vaults abound in the City Hall Subway station, Grand Central’s Oyster Bar, the Manhattan Municipal Building, and the Della Robbia Bar. His fame spreads with designs for the Boston Public Library, restoring Jefferson’s cupola at the University of Virginia, and working on George Vanderbilt’s Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.
He starts a business in 1889, Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company, with headquarters in Woburn, Massachusetts. The 1893 financial Panic almost ruins Guastavino. But that same year, his son travels with him to The World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s arrival in the new world. Guastavino was invited to give the keynote address to the Congress of the American Institute of Architects and was the principal architect for the Spanish Pavilion. His son becomes his business partner; he trains him in every aspect of architecture.
This intricate and fascinating tale of an immigrant father and son’s relationship, both personal and professional, unfolds in Javier Moro’s rich and fluid prose that sifts through Rafaelito’s recollections. Inevitably, Rafaelito unearths uncomfortable family truths as well as his own identity.
