Alfredo Wiechers Pieretti | |
---|---|
Born | 26 March 1881 Ponce, Puerto Rico |
Died | 1964 Barcelona, Spain |
Resting place | Montjuïc Cemetery |
Nationality | Puerto Rican |
Alma mater | École Spéciale d'Architecture |
Known for | Engineering, Architect |
Notable work |
Casa Serrallés, Oppenheimer House, Blasini Residence, Quinta Vendrell, Club Deportivo de Ponce, Logia Aurora, Club Deportivo de Damas, Teatro Habana, Banco of Ponce, Hospital Santo Asilo de Damas, Casa Wiechers-Villaronga, Monumento a los heroes de El Polvorín |
Movement | Neoclassical architecture |
Spouse(s) | Carmen Gilet |
Alfredo Wiechers Pieretti was a Puerto Rican architect from Ponce, Puerto Rico. He was an expositor of the Neoclassicism and Art Nouveau architectural styles, doing most of his work in his hometown of Ponce. Today, Alfredo Wiechers' city residence, located in the Ponce Historic Zone and which he designed himself, is home to the Puerto Rico Museum of Architecture. After enriching his hometown city with some of the most architecturally exquisite buildings, he moved to Spain claiming political persecution by the authorities in the Island.
Alfredo Braulio Wiechers Pieretti was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, on March 26, 1881. He was the youngest of five children born to the German Georg Friederich Wiechers Kelm and Isabel Pieretti Marsaud, a Ponceña woman of Corsican ancestry. Alfredo's father was a businessman from Hamburg, Germany who settled in Ponce around 1860 and in 1865 he was named Prussia's consul for Ponce. He was re-appointed in 1872 and 1874, at a time when Ponce was the capital of the southern region of Puerto Rico (San Juan was the capital of the northern region).
Upon the death of his father in Ponce, Wiechers Pieretti, still an adolescent, came to be under the guardianship of Juan Lacot, the husband of Rosa Wiechers Pieretti, Alfredo's oldest sister. A short while later they moved to Barcelona, and Alfredo started studies in Paris at the École Spéciale d'Architecture. In 1901, he was awarded a gold medal for outstanding achievement and excellence during his professional studies. He graduated in 1905 and worked at the office of Enric Sagnier, a famous Spanish architect, in Barcelona, Spain. He lived in Barcelona for six years while working at Enric's distinguished studio.