The 7 Wonders of Cuban civil engineering FOCSA Building Considered one of the
seven wonders of Cuban civil engineering, its construction began in 1954 and lasted approximately two years and four months. When it was completed in 1956, it was considered the second concrete building in the world to exceed 18 floors. It had an approximate cost of 8 million pesos and of this amount of money 700,000 were dedicated to the acquisition of the land where it would be built. Many wonder where its name comes from and the owners were not too complicated: they used the initials of the construction company Fomento de Obras y Construcciones, Sociedad Anónima. It has a height of 121 meters with 373 apartments spread over its 36 floors, of these 7 are pent houses and two duplexes. Originally it was thought that it would be necessary to build a total of 400 apartments to be able to amortize the acquired loan of 6 million pesos to support the construction since the Continental Bank considered that having so many debtors buying apartments it would be almost impossible to lose money due to delinquencies.
Each floor was designed with 13 apartments, of those five they had three rooms and an auxiliary room and eight of two rooms and an auxiliary room. Originally two apartment prices were thought: those with 3 rooms cost 21,500 pesos and the smallest with 2 rooms cost 17,500 pesos. But this really was only the price without buying on the first floor of the apartment because as you went up the floor the purchase cost increased by 30 pesos. This means that if someone ended up buying an apartment on the top floor with the same characteristics as one on the first floor, they had to pay a surcharge of 870 pesos. When writing this article I found some of the original flyers promoting the sale, something caught my attention and almost no summary about this building takes it into account. The two central apartments on each floor, and which form the sheet of the structure's curious book shape, had an intermediate price of 20,500 pesos and this was due to the fact that they ended up narrowing a little towards the area of the windows, losing some meters of usable area. In addition, almost illogically, the first apartments to be sold were those with the highest floors.
Propaganda brochure to promote the sale One of the most striking aspects in its construction is that despite its high height, no cranes were used because its concrete structure was made with continuous walls from its foundations to the roof. Another curious fact is that thinking about the great winds that are generated at these heights, and that increase due to their proximity to the sea, it was projected from the beginning that the structure only moved 10cm under the lash of winds of 240km / h; something barely noticeable by the neighbors. Its electricity supply was divided into three levels, so that every 10 floors the electrical system is independent, resulting in one part of the building being without power while the rest is operating normally. This was created with the size of the building in mind and if it was necessary to carry out some type of electrical arrangement, affect as few neighbors as possible. In the area that occupies its beautiful coffin-shaped pool, a concrete mixer was located during construction to meet the needs of the work and thus avoid transportation costs, which ultimately contributed to the final savings of 5% in the lower floors and the 18% on high floors
Since it was created as a luxury building, its corridor system, located at the end of the building, separated the entrance of service personnel and vendors from the area destined for the entrance of the owners. In several floors a kind of pilot floors were chosen which were decorated by the main firms that existed in Cuba related to the field, harmoniously highlighting the final quality for sale. Images from FOCSA in the late 1950s, with the building already completely finished In the first years of the present century, a constructive intervention was carried out in order to rehabilitate the original conception of the building and eliminate all subsequent additions. This restoration was of such high quality that it was awarded in 2005 the Architecture Prize by the National Union of Architects and Construction Engineers of Cuba. Currently, in addition to its housing function, it houses several restaurants, cafes, shops, the Guiñol Theater, several offices and television studios, a post office, a Money Exchange, an Etecsa commercial office, a pharmacy and a savings bank. .
Some Fun Facts: Construction Start: February 1954 Construction Completion: June 1956 It is 121 meters high, 35 floors, 39 levels It has 10,000 m² of total area, of them 2,500 manufactured and 7,500 m² of park It has 367 apartments and 6 pent houses 2 swimming pools, 8 elevators, and a parking lot for 500 cars were built 35,000 m³ of concrete were used Almost 20% of homeowners paid for their floors in cash It was not a Gold Medal from the College of Architects in 1957, because no prize was awarded that year for the death of José Antonio Echevarría that occurred the same day of delivery
The 7 Wonders of Cuban civil engineering FOCSA Building Considered one of the
seven wonders of Cuban civil engineering, its construction began in 1954 and lasted approximately two years and four months. When it was completed in 1956, it was considered the second concrete building in the world to exceed 18 floors. It had an approximate cost of 8 million pesos and of this amount of money 700,000 were dedicated to the acquisition of the land where it would be built. Many wonder where its name comes from and the owners were not too complicated: they used the initials of the construction company Fomento de Obras y Construcciones, Sociedad Anónima. It has a height of 121 meters with 373 apartments spread over its 36 floors, of these 7 are pent houses and two duplexes. Originally it was thought that it would be necessary to build a total of 400 apartments to be able to amortize the acquired loan of 6 million pesos to support the construction since the Continental Bank considered that having so many debtors buying apartments it would be almost impossible to lose money due to delinquencies.
Each floor was designed with 13 apartments, of those five they had three rooms and an auxiliary room and eight of two rooms and an auxiliary room. Originally two apartment prices were thought: those with 3 rooms cost 21,500 pesos and the smallest with 2 rooms cost 17,500 pesos. But this really was only the price without buying on the first floor of the apartment because as you went up the floor the purchase cost increased by 30 pesos. This means that if someone ended up buying an apartment on the top floor with the same characteristics as one on the first floor, they had to pay a surcharge of 870 pesos. When writing this article I found some of the original flyers promoting the sale, something caught my attention and almost no summary about this building takes it into account. The two central apartments on each floor, and which form the sheet of the structure's curious book shape, had an intermediate price of 20,500 pesos and this was due to the fact that they ended up narrowing a little towards the area of the windows, losing some meters of usable area. In addition, almost illogically, the first apartments to be sold were those with the highest floors.
Propaganda brochure to promote the sale One of the most striking aspects in its construction is that despite its high height, no cranes were used because its concrete structure was made with continuous walls from its foundations to the roof. Another curious fact is that thinking about the great winds that are generated at these heights, and that increase due to their proximity to the sea, it was projected from the beginning that the structure only moved 10cm under the lash of winds of 240km / h; something barely noticeable by the neighbors. Its electricity supply was divided into three levels, so that every 10 floors the electrical system is independent, resulting in one part of the building being without power while the rest is operating normally. This was created with the size of the building in mind and if it was necessary to carry out some type of electrical arrangement, affect as few neighbors as possible. In the area that occupies its beautiful coffin-shaped pool, a concrete mixer was located during construction to meet the needs of the work and thus avoid transportation costs, which ultimately contributed to the final savings of 5% in the lower floors and the 18% on high floors
Since it was created as a luxury building, its corridor system, located at the end of the building, separated the entrance of service personnel and vendors from the area destined for the entrance of the owners. In several floors a kind of pilot floors were chosen which were decorated by the main firms that existed in Cuba related to the field, harmoniously highlighting the final quality for sale. Images from FOCSA in the late 1950s, with the building already completely finished In the first years of the present century, a constructive intervention was carried out in order to rehabilitate the original conception of the building and eliminate all subsequent additions. This restoration was of such high quality that it was awarded in 2005 the Architecture Prize by the National Union of Architects and Construction Engineers of Cuba. Currently, in addition to its housing function, it houses several restaurants, cafes, shops, the Guiñol Theater, several offices and television studios, a post office, a Money Exchange, an Etecsa commercial office, a pharmacy and a savings bank. .
Some Fun Facts: Construction Start: February 1954 Construction Completion: June 1956 It is 121 meters high, 35 floors, 39 levels It has 10,000 m² of total area, of them 2,500 manufactured and 7,500 m² of park It has 367 apartments and 6 pent houses 2 swimming pools, 8 elevators, and a parking lot for 500 cars were built 35,000 m³ of concrete were used Almost 20% of homeowners paid for their floors in cash It was not a Gold Medal from the College of Architects in 1957, because no prize was awarded that year for the death of José Antonio Echevarría that occurred the same day of delivery