Rafael Guastavino (Photo: Beautiful Valencia) Rafael Guastavino

When Rafael Guastavino Moreno dies in 1908, the New York Times calls him "(...) the architect of New York (...)". Rafael Guastavino, and later his son Rafael Guastavino Expósito, was one of the most important creators of the image of contemporary America. A Valencian architect and builder who transformed the way of building in the United States thanks to his constructive innovations. A character to whom we owe the aesthetics of the great public buildings of New York, Boston, Philadelphia or Washington . In the seventies , after a time of oblivion, his work was claimed in the United States . In Spain and more specifically in his native Valencia,It is not yet sufficiently known . Hopefully they can serve these lines to value their work.

Rafael Guastavino was born in Valencia in 1842 . His family was linked to art. His grandfather, on the father's side, was a piano builder and his great-great-grandfather, on the mother's side, was the builder of the Arciprestal Church of San Jaime de Villarreal(Castellón), in which he uses the technique of the later vault used for him. His father was a cabinetmaker. In principle he studied violin, but at fifteen he opted for architecture and began to work as an apprentice in several architectural firms. In 1859 he moved to Barcelona to study at the Escuela de Maestros de Obra. There he will live in his uncle's house, Ramón Guastavino Buch, a textile entrepreneur. By making her uncle's adopted daughter Pilar pregnant, she is forced to marry her. Without his finished studies Guastavino already begins to work. His most significant works at this time were the Batlló Factory in Barcelona (1870) and especially the La Massa Theater in Vilassar de Mar (1881).

Womanizer and infidel, his wife in 1881 leaves him. With forty years he is socially discredited, without money and only with the company of his small son, Rafael, and his lover. He decides to go to New York, for it he gathers money by means of a scam with promissory notes to pay the tickets. He does not know how to speak English, he does not know anyone in the city ... but Guastavino is what we would now call an entrepreneur .

The first times in the city are difficult. His lover abandons him. It does not get projects. But everything changes from its first important commission the Public Library of Boston (1889). From that moment, he began to work as a builder , cooperating with the main architects of the United States and forming his company Guastavino Fireproof Construction Company (1889-1962).

Boston Public Library (Photo: Valencia Bonita)

The Guastavino method for construction is imposed on public buildings, thanks mainly to the partitioned vault . It was a type of vault of traditional use in Catalonia and Valencia. Built without formwork, with thin flat bricks, lightweight, but robust, quick to build, economical and fire resistant. Guastavino perfected it by means of steel braces and the use of Portland cement . The aspect that was most valued was its resistance to fire, The United States had suffered catastrophic fires (Chicago, 1871, Boston, 1872) and the partitioned vaults were an excellent solution to avoid them. It gave to the buildings, on the other hand, quality, beauty and a luxurious image related to Parisian Beaux Art style , with historicism-eclecticism .

More than a thousand buildings in the United States , of which six hundred survive, start from the innovations of Guastavino . Buildings in New York as Grand Central Terminal , the entrance hall of Ellis Island , the Carnegie Hall , Metro Station City Hall or the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine .

Rafael Guastavino a whole character. Friend of Blasco Ibáñez and Sorolla , womanizer, architect, builder, entrepreneur ... A representative of the concept of the American dream .