In Cuba, architects ponder future of historic city centers

From Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman

April 13, 1998
Web posted at: 9:21 p.m. EDT (0121 GMT)

HAVANA (CNN) -- More than 300 architects from around the world are gathering in Havana to discuss ways of preserving historic city centers.

They are meeting in a restored 16th century convent in old Havana that was falling apart a few years ago.

Havana, with its glorious yet decaying architecture, is an appropriate meeting place for those who believe that preserving a rich architectural heritage is compatible with inner-city living.

"It's the most beautiful architecture perhaps in the entire world in terms of a city. It's delightful, it meets the standards of sustainable development," said John Gilderbloom of the University of Louisville.

CNN's Lucia Newman describes Havana's architectural heritage
	1.6 M / 29 sec. 240x180 QuickTime movie
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But much of Havana itself won't be sustainable for long unless something is done soon.

The grandeur of a decrepit residence in central Havana still shines through its disrepair. The palatial house originally was owned by a prominent doctor. Now the ballroom is filled with the laundry of about 40 families who live there. The house hasn't been repaired since the 1959 Cuban revolution.

Indeed, once-splendorous central Havana is dangerously overcrowded, its buildings occupied not by the rich but by the very poor.

"The historical centers of the inner cities in most Latin American countries and the Caribbean, for that matter in most countries in the world, are going through this whole question of ... dichotomy and contradiction, between culture richness, culture resource on one hand, and poverty on the other," said Silvio Mutal of the U.N. Development Program.

For decades, the Cuban government allowed old Havana to crumble, but that's changing. The office of the city's historian has been using money from tourism into projects to restore many of old Havana's colonial treasures.

But it will cost countless millions, which the country doesn't have, to save its old buildings. And regardless of money, for some of the architectural gems, it's already too late.

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