Emilio Luis Escobar Loret de Mola

He was born in Lima, Peru, to a Peruvian father and Cuban mother. He settled in Cuba with his family at the age of seven. He studied Architecture at the Universidad de La Habana, where he joined the Directorio Revolucionario 13 de Marzo, which fought against the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista.

He graduated in 1962, and worked as a Design professor at the School of Architecture. From 1963 to 1967 he combined teaching work with duties at the Ministry of Construction. He was part of the team of architects that designed and executed the social work of the Ciudad Escolar Camilo Cienfuegos, in Caney de las Mercedes (municipality of Bartolomé Masó, province of Granma). There he designed three secondary schools, whose architectural value lies in the movement of forms achieved through the displacement of shadows on the façade.

In 1964 he worked on a residential project for Medical students at the Instituto de Ciencias Básicas y Preclínicas Victoria de Girón, in La Habana, with which he achieved an attractive rhythm on the façade, with windows and projecting volumes.

In 1965 he participated, together with architects Mario Coyula Cowley, Sonia Domínguez and Armando Hernández, in the competition convened to select the project for a monument park to the Mártires Universitarios, in which he received first prize. In that project, Escobar encouraged the other participants, and demonstrated his talent as a sculptor. The greatest merit of the winning project was breaking the traditional scheme of a plaza with a monument in the center. The park was built with reinforced concrete.

From 1968 onwards, Escobar was a professor at the Faculty of Architecture at Ciudad Universitaria José Antonio Echeverría (CUJAE), today Instituto Superior Politécnico José Antonio Echeverría (ISPJAE). He collaborated in the decentralization of the University, a program that promoted the transfer of groups of students and professors from the Faculty of Architecture to different provinces, to participate in the plans and projects being carried out in the country. Between 1972 and 1975 he was dean of the Faculty of Architecture at Ciudad Universitaria José Antonio Echeverría.

As for teaching, Escobar held the opinion that both the formal factors and functional elements of designs should be supported by correct technical solutions and that the duty of teachers is to encourage students to create, but with objective criteria, taking into account the purpose of a work and the real possibilities for building it. These criteria on academic training were taken into account in the curriculum designs of the specialty study plans.

For Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan, Escobar designed the Cuba Pavilion, where he achieved a volumetric play of stereocelosías that gave great formal value to the ensemble.

In 1981 he participated in a project aimed at the rehabilitation of the Havana neighborhood of Casablanca, together with architects Orestes del Castillo and Mario Coyula. That same team also presented, in 1981, a project in the competition for a mausoleum for the young university students murdered in the assault on the Palacio Presidencial on March 13, 1956, during the dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista. The team won the award, and their work was placed in the Necrópolis Cristóbal Colón. In the mausoleum, of great symbolic value, stainless steel flags, the plaza and the tombs were used as main elements; with serpentine rocks buried in the grass to achieve contrast with the large gray marble prisms that surround them. In the vegetation surrounding it, a gray-silver colored plant, cineraria, was used to achieve an approximation to the surroundings through color, and the effects of sunlight were also emphasized.

Escobar advised in 1987 the student team that designed the monument to Instituto Superior Politécnico José Antonio Echeverría (ISPJAE) in the city of Cárdenas, (province of Matanzas).

He was also the author, in 1989, of the design of Parque Nguyen Van Troi, in La Habana, and in 1990, of a cultural complex for the Jardín Botánico Nacional, composed of a museum, an amphitheater and a cafeteria. Based on the terrain accidents, rocks, plants and grass, he achieved in the last two works a mimetic integration with the landscape; in the museum, the integration was produced by contrast, through pillars that provide an expressive form of weightlessness.

Among his various works linked to university life, Escobar designed a sundial for the historic Plaza Ignacio Agramonte at the Universidad de La Habana, which established a connection between the staircase of the Faculty of Sciences and the Faculty of Law.

Between 1994 and 1996 he worked at the Centro de Estudios de Tecnologías de Avanzada, in La Habana.

Within the plastic arts, he worked as a sculptor and painter and stood out through small-format works: Gregorio Samsa, Cenit and Figura con reflejo, among others. As a painter, his Inks excelled. In this line of work he was consistent with his ideas of integrating the plastic arts with Architecture.

He held personal exhibitions, among which stand out the one at Galería Artis, in Valencia, Spain (1993/1994), and the one at Galería del Colegio de Arquitectos de Valencia (1994).

He participated in collective exhibitions, such as the Exposición XX Aniversario de la CUJAE (La Habana, 1984), the II Salón Nacional de pequeño Formato (Las Tunas, 1989), the Salón Nacional de Pequeño Formato (Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, La Habana, 1992) and the I Salón de Arte Cubano Contemporáneo (Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, La Habana, 1995).

In 1965, he obtained First Prize in the Concurso Monumento a los Mártires Universitarios (team); in 1982, First Prize in the Concurso Mausoleo a los Mártires del 13 de Marzo (team); in 1989, Honorable Mention in the Concurso Nacional Escultórico for the bicentennial of Simón Bolívar (participating team: Waldo Saavedra, Alfonso Alfonso González, Domingo Alfonso, Domingo García and Roberto Alfonso).

Emilio Escobar died in Ciudad de La Habana on April 7, 2008.

Works
He created small-format sculptures, such as Gregorio Samsa and Cenit and Figura con reflejo.
In his pictorial work his Inks excelled.
He held personal exhibitions, among which stand out:
Galería Artis, in Valencia, Spain 1993 and 1994
Galería del Colegio de Arquitectos de Valencia 1994
He participated in collective exhibitions, such as:
Exposición XX Aniversario de la CUJAE, La Habana, 1984
II Salón Nacional de pequeño Formato, Las Tunas, 1989
Salón Nacional de Pequeño Formato (Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, La Habana, 1992
I Salón de Arte Cubano Contemporáneo (Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, La Habana, 1995.

Awards and Recognition
In 1965, he obtained First Prize in the Concurso Monumento a los Mártires Universitarios (team)
In 1982, First Prize in the Concurso Mausoleo a los Mártires del 13 de Marzo (team)
In 1989, Honorable Mention in the Concurso Nacional Escultórico for the bicentennial of Simón Bolívar (Participating team: Waldo Saavedra, Alfonso Alfonso González, Domingo Alfonso, Domingo García and Roberto Alfonso).