A colorful slideshow presenting the Cuban ambiance in architecture from the 16th through the 20th Century by Bob Mayers, an Architect, Professor and leader of Architecture/Design trips to Cuba.

To visit Cuba is to experience another world; in some ways frozen in time and in other ways quite progressive. Havana is a marvelous city, with graceful plazas and an iconic waterfront. Ignored for three decades, it was bypassed by urban renewal, which ruined so many cities in our hemisphere. True, it is crumbling, but it's also undergoing a unique restoration program. Abandoned convents and warehouses are being turned into boutique hotels, atmospheric bars and restaurants; newly landscaped plazas are home to musicians and outdoor markets. A primary goal, of course, is to attract tourist dollars. But, Havana is no Disney production; restoration includes housing so that people will continue to live in the old city. Bob has studied the island from Pinar del Rio in the west to Santiago in the east. One of his major areas of interest is the mass-produced prefab housing construction of the 1960's-70's (built by amateur builders organized in "microbrigades").

In the 1960's Bob designed large scale housing and community facilities throughout Central and South America for the Alliance for Progress and architectural projects from Bangladesh to Nigeria. He is a founder of the Manhattan firm of Mayers & Schiff Associates, Architects/Planners/Urban Designers and has served as Adjunct Professor of Architecture at Pratt Institute. His work includes the "tkts" pavilion and Renaissance Hotel in Times Square and the Miller Theatre and Furnald Hall at Columbia University. Bob first visited Cuba in 1957 and in recent years he has taken many Architecture/Design groups there for the Center for Cuban Studies.

The exact date of this concert is not known, but it occurred in the marked year around this time.