Profile

Personal Greeting Angel Saqui, FAIA Member Emeritus

Angel C. Saqui, FAIA, Architects, Planners, Interiors, Ltd.

Contact Details

Angel C. Saqui, FAIA, Architects, Planners, Interiors, Ltd.
Miami, FL

Bio

I began a design-build business in Cuba in 1951, My projects were mainly modernist-style residences and apartments.
My office was in a building owned by the Colegio Nacional de Arquitectos de Cuba.
In 1959, when Castro took-over the country, the only work available was for the government.
The first project I became involved with was for Castro himself, as the client:
It was a School City for 20,000 children in the Sierra Maestra mountains, where he had fought the war.
Then I became engaged in a Fishermen's City with 500 homes, a Shipyard, a School and a Market, all in prefabricated concrete, plus over 5,000 prefabricated concrete homes in the vicinity.
A year later I was in charge of design-building 200 homes for residents of a slum through the self-help method in which I had to teach the residents construction methods and they had to build the units themselves.
After this, I became involved with several projects in the central part of Cuba, including the Escambray mountains, where part of the war had taken place.
Back in La Habana, I had the following positions:
Director of the Minimal Technical Knowledge required for the Construction Trades,
Director of Work-Salary Standards for the Construction Industry,
Designer of Architectural Standards for Refrigerated Warehouses and Bovine Artificial Insemination Projects.
I was the Architect for an experimental Milk Production Project, plus several other projects on the Island.
Simultaneously, I was a Materials and Methods of Construction professor at the José Martí Technological Institute.
I also held two architectural design contracts with the Medical Supplies Enterprise and the National Railroads Enterprise.
In my spare time, I kept an architectural office designing single homes, a presbyterian church and a gofio factory (a very popular cereal in Cuba). 
I Emigrated to the USA with my family in 1967.
In Atlanta, Georgia, I worked for Architects Toombs, Amisano, and Wells through 1968 as part of design teams for large shopping centers, a high-rise office building and a museum.
From 1968 through July 1971 I worked for Architect I. E. Saporta, AIA, in Atlanta, GA, designing low-income residential projects, a high-rise apartment building for senior citizens and an early learning center.
I obtained my architectural license in the State of Florida in 1970.
Upon licensing, I joined the AIA immediately.
From July to November 1971 I worked for Architect Richard Reilly in Fort Lauderdale, FL  designing high-rise condominium apartment buildings.
In November 1971 I opened my architectural practice in Miami, Florida.
When my son Angel II, who studied architecture at the University of Miami, obtained his architectural license, he became a partner of my firm.
Through the years we have designed shopping centers, stores, schools, medical facilities, automobile projects, residential projects, plus government and institutional projects.
I retired from my office in 2018, dedicating my time to designing some modernist, hurricane-flood-fire resistive homes, some residential subdivisions in the Caribbean, doing some AIA work, and writing books.

Education

University of La Habana and Escuela de Artes y Oficios (School of Arts and Trades)
La Habana, Cuba
Architect and Civil Builder, 1960
Architecture, Planning, Civil Building
1951 To 1960
Dissertation: None
Advisor: None

Job History

Angel C. Saqui, FAIA, Architects, Planners, Interiors, Ltd.
Founding Partner
Miami, FL, United States
November 1971 - January 2018