The Italian Legacy in the Dominican Republic

THE ITALIAN LEGACY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

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First International Congress of Modern Architecture was held. Known as CIAM,

it took place at La Sarraz Castle in the Canton of Vaud in Switzerland. In Santiago,

Chile, the Pan-American Union – the predecessor to the Organization of Ameri-

can States (OAS or OEA) – moved forward with a resolution from 1923. It held an

international competition for the design of the Columbus Lighthouse to be erect-

ed on the coast of the Dominican Republic.

Meanwhile in Italy, a young D’Ales-

sandro Lombardi was still dreaming about Santo Domingo, for he had not left the

country permanently. While he worked in Montecristi, he had fallen in love with

the woman who would later become his wife. On April 26, 1930, at a ceremony

attended by generals Desiderio Arias and Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, as well

as President of the Republic Rafael Estrella Ureña, D’Alessandro Lombardi mar-

ried Carmen Tavárez Mayer. Together they had seven children, six of them boys.

In the previous year, 1929, the results were announced in Madrid for the

first phase of the international competition for the Columbus Lighthouse.

Pub-

lications about international architecture started to proliferate. In London, the

prestigious magazine

Architectural Design

was launched, and in Paris the equally

prestigious

L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui

was created. Meanwhile, in New York the

Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) was founded.

In the Dominican Republic, D’Alessandro Lombardi was obliged to become

a Dominican citizen in order to work in the country, and he was appointed as the

head of irrigation in the Northern Zone (1930-1932), based in Santiago de los Ca-

balleros. In the same year that Guido D’Alessandro Lombardi married Carmen Tavárez, one of the first two

Dominicans with degrees in architecture arrived in the country. He was Juan Bautista del Toro Andújar (1892-

1953),

a graduate of École Polytechnique in Paris. The other, architect Guillermo González Sánchez (1900-

1970), graduated from Yale University in the United States but did not return to the Dominican Republic until

1936. Meanwhile, in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.) in 1931, the results in the international

competition for the Palace of the Soviets in Moscow were announced. In Brazil, the Englishman J. L. Gleave

was declared the winner of the second phase of the international competition for the Columbus Lighthouse.

In Italy, the second Rational Architecture exhibition was held in Rome. Concurrently, in the United States,

Rockefeller Center (Hood-Fouilhoux; Reinhard

& Hofmeister; Corbet, Harrison & MacMur-

ray) and the Empire State Building (Shrever,

Lamb & Harmon) were unveiled in New York.

In Germany, the Columbushaus (Mendelsohn)

was inaugurated in Berlin.

In the Dominican Republic, D’Alessandro

Lombardi worked far from the capital. It was

in 1933 that he was assigned the official duties

related to his position. He was commissioned

to create the Army Corps of Engineers, and as

part of his duties, he would also build multiple

forts, primarily in the border zone. He was con-

sequently appointed as a Major for the National

Army, a position that he held until 1938. That

same year, the Golden Gate Bridge spanning

San Francisco Bay in California was unveiled.

While D’Alessandro Lombardi was serving

Engineer Guido

D’Alessandro

Lombardi.

family collection. Courtesy

of José Chez Checo