Jose Antonio Choy Lopez
José Antonio Choy López
Architect and painter
Santiago de Cuba, November 11, 1949.
Choy graduated from José J. Tejada Plastic Arts School in Santiago de Cuba in 1968
and from Escuela de Arquitectura del Instituto Politécnico José Antonio Echeverría
(Architecture School of the Technological High Institute) at the University of Havana
in 1974.
He is a senior lecturer at the School of Architecture in Havana City and he has given
lectures in some foreign universities, such as, Politécnica de Madrid, in Spain;
Barcelona, the Polytechnic Institute in Milan, the University of Florence, the
Universidad Católica of Santiago de los Caballeros in the Dominican Republic, la
Facultad de Architectura de San Sebastian in the Basque country and Universidad
Piloto de Bogotá, among others.
He was been awarded with the Prize of the Cuban National Culture and the medal
“José María Heredia”. He is a member of the National Council of the Cuban
Association of Writers and Artists (UNEAC) and he is the President of DOCOMOMO
in Cuba.
His works have been awarded with important prizes not only nationally but also
internationally as well. Firstly the Executive Air Terminal was awarded with the Prize
from the Caribbean Biennial in Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic in 1990; the
Railway Station in Santiago de Cuba with the Prize from the Caribbean Biennial in
Camaguey in 1996, additionally it was a finalist at the Mies van der Rohe in 1998 for
Latin America. He has also been awarded the First Prize for the Restoration of the
International Financing Bank at the UNAICC (National Union of Architects and
Engineers of the Construction in Cuba) Architectural Show, as well as the Walter
Betancourt Prize at the 4th Art Biennial of Havana in 1991. From 2001 he won
again, together with the team he leads, some important prizes, being the most
important the contest for the library at Casa de las Américas (America's House),
Centro de Estudios (Studies Center) Che Guevara and the Prize for the Commercial
Center “La Puntilla”. In 2007 he also was awarded the First Havana City Prize to
build a residential and services area on the grounds of the former Trotcha Hotel in
Vedado munipality.
Many of his building projects have been published in magazines and in specialized
books such as: Arquitectura Cuba (Cuba Architecture), Zodiac and Ark from Italy;
Arquitexto (Architext) and AAA from Santo Domingo (The Dominican Republic);
Arquitectura Viva (Living Architecture), from Spain; Escala (Scale), from Mexico;
LÁrchhitecture d' Áujord'hui (Today's Architecture) from France; Suma (Sum) from
Argentina and International Yearbook 2000 and 1000 Architects, among others.
He was the editor of the Arquitectura Cubana (Cuban Architecture) dossier ,
between society and culture, La Gaceta de Cuba (The Gazette of Cuba) No. 6 Year
2007.
His drawings, ink drawings and watercolors have been shown in galleries of his own
country and abroad, in places such as Bordeaux, France and in the National Institute
for Architectural Education- NIAE and in the Parson School of Design, in New York in
2002. In the same way his works are in private hands as well as in hotels such as
Iberostar in Varadero and Trinidad, in Cuba and in the Beach Club Resort in Cap
Cana and some others in the Dominican Republic. He participated in the Biennial in
Havana with a painting sold in the Havana Auction in 2004.