Miguel Angel Moenck Peralta

He was a prominent Cuban figure of the twentieth century, first standing out as an athlete and sports leader, later as a university professor and renowned architect, co-owner of the firm Moenck and Quintana, which managed several emblematic works in the Cuban capital.

He was born in Havana. He began practicing athletics in the specialties of long jump, high jump, and 800 meters, participating in the first competitions organized in Cuba.

With the creation of the Cuban Olympic Committee, he was elected president, later coming to hold the position of member of the International Olympic Committee.

Graduated as an architect in the mid-1920s, he worked in the Architecture department of the University of Havana, later founding the firm Moenck and Quintana, executor of important works in the Cuban capital.

In sports
In 1908 he participated as an athlete in an athletic competition held in Havana, competing in the long jump specialty, later also doing so in 800 meters and high jump.

In 1914, when the National Amateur Baseball League was founded, he was part of its board of directors, serving and directing the Athletic Club of Cuba.

In 1920, no longer practicing sports, he was part of the first Cubans to travel to study in the United States, doing so in the Architecture program at Tulane University in New Orleans.

After graduating as an architect he returned to Cuba and in 1926, when the Cuban Olympic Committee was created, he was elected president, a position he held initially until 1930.

He was part of the organizing committee for the second Central American and Caribbean Games held in Havana in 1930, and was also a member of the commission that traveled to different countries in the area to deliver the official invitation to the event.

He again held the presidency of the Cuban Olympic Committee in 1938 and 1939, being a member of the International Olympic Committee from that year until his death in 1969, and served on the executive committee between 1953 and 1957.

In architecture
Upon returning from his Architecture studies in the United States, he joined the faculty at the University of Havana, where he was a professor at the School of Engineers and Architects (Havana). In 1928 he was full professor of the Construction Legislation and Superintendence department, and that same year he founded, together with Nicolás Quintana, the firm Moenck and Quintana, which executed several emblematic works in the Cuban capital.

Among the firm's main works are cited: the building of the School of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Havana, the Havana Biltmore Yacht and Country Club, both in 1927, the Pro-Arte Musical Auditorium in 1928, now the Amadeu Roldán Auditorium - also the Bus Terminal of Havana in 1951.

Other works are the School of Medicine, also at the University of Havana, as well as the Moenck and Quintana building on O'Reilly Street between Compostela and Aguacate. This firm won awards in the Rotary Club Facade Competition in 1928, 1929, and 1935, with the Pro-Arte Musical Auditorium project being one of the awarded designs.

In the 1950s he built outside Havana, on Varadero beach, the Hotel Cabañas del Sol, a facility that marked a milestone in Cuban architecture by virtue of its functional and aesthetic values.

Responsibilities
Professor at the School of Engineers and Architects of the University of Havana. Member of the College of Architects of Havana, where he served as treasurer. President of the Moenck and Quintana Construction Company S.A. Vice President of the Viñales-Guanes Marble Company.

College of architects
It was founded on April 5, 1916 in Havana, with architects Gabriel Román Casals, Rogelio Santana Fdez, Jorge Broderman de Vignier, and Lorenzo Rodríguez Ubals cited among the founders.

In 1928 the board consisted of Esteban Rodríguez Castells as president; Emilio de Soto, vice president; Miguel Angel Moenck, treasurer; Alberto Camacho, librarian, artistic director of the journal and member of the legal and publicity commission together with Joaquín Weiss and Enrique Luis Varela, while Pedro Martínez Inclán was a board member.