Background
Arroyo was the third of five children born to lawyer Nicholas Arroyo, and Hortensia Marquez.
(Located in the Civic Plaza the Theatre is a huge monument...)
Located in the Civic Plaza the Theatre is a huge monumental scale building designed with modern lines. It is formed by the intersection of different volumes that simultaneously serve different functions. This great cultural space was ideal for locating various environmental artworks scale of important Cuban and foreign artists like Raul Martinez, Rita Longa, Roberto Estopiñán, Alfredo Lozano and Sandú Darié.
Arroyo was the third of five children born to lawyer Nicholas Arroyo, and Hortensia Marquez.
He received his architecture degree from the University of Havana in 1941 and practiced in Cuba until 1959, during which time he also served as Cuba's minister of public works.
In December 1942 Nicolás Arroyo married fellow architect Gabriela Menendez Garcia-Beltran, whom he met at the University of Havana. After their marriage, Arroyo and Menéndez lived in a house and studio they built on Fifth Avenue in the Havana district of Miramar that reflected their admiration for the ideas of Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier.
Together they formed the architectural firm "Arroyo y Menendez." The firm designed several iconic modernist buildings of 1950s Havana, including the Havana Hilton Hotel, rechristened the Habana Libre after the 1959 Revolution, the Teatro Nacional, and the city’s famed sports complex, known today as Ciudad Deportiva.
In 1944, Arroyo and a colleague, Eugenio Batista, pushed for Cuba’s participation in conferences organized by the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM), a conclave founded by Le Corbusier and other prominent European architects to shape and promote modernist architecture and urban planning.
He came to own shares in various businesses such as Building Codeco SA, Industrias Siporex SA, Construction Bank, and was owner of farms and land.
As a Cuban Minister of Public Works in 1954, Arroyo established Cuba’s Junta de Planificacion, a national planning body whose blueprints guided a massive wave of public works across the island, including a modern highway system, made possible by the growing economic prosperity of the era.
As minister, Arroyo oversaw construction of a tunnel under Havana Bay in 1956 and the highway that helped turn Varadero beach, east of Havana, into a famous tourism center. He also built Barlovento, today known as the Hemingway Marina.
He remained as Minister of Public Works until 6 March 1958. He was appointed ambassador of Cuba to the United States on April 16 of that year. Arroyo was the Cuban ambassador to the United States from 1957 to 1958. After the 1959 Cuban revolution, he settled in Washington, D.C. He stayed in Washington, where he practiced for more than 30 years, and never returned to Cuba. Arroyo served on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts from 1971 to 1976.
Nicolás Arroyo died in Washington, D.C., from heart complications on July 13, just three days after the death of his wife and working partner of more than 60 years, architect Gabriela Menéndez y Garcia Beltrán.
Quotes from others about the person
Cuban exile architect Nicolás Quintana: “His importance within the modern architecture movement on the island is enormous.”
Quintana: ‘‘Arroyo’s influence was decisive in putting Cuba on the CIAM map.’’
Eduardo Castellanos, Arroyo’s cousin: ‘‘He never wanted to get into politics, but Martha Fernández [Batista’s wife] begged him and he ended up taking the job.’’
His wife was Gabriela Menendez Garcia-Beltran (1942–2008). She was one of the first Cuban architects to excel in a typically male world. Their son is Nicolas Arroyo-Menendez.