HERMES MALLEA
CURRICULUM VITAE
Architect Hermes Mallea is the author of “Great Houses of Havana, A Century of Cuban Style”, (The Monacelli Press, 2011) which is currently in its third printing.
In October 2014, Rizzoli published Mallea’s “ESCAPE, The Heyday of Caribbean Glamour”. The book traces – for the first time - the development of elite tourism in the region between 1920 and 1980 and provides a context for Havana’s tourism of the 1920’s and 1950s.
Mallea has presented his books at The Houston Museum of Fine Arts, The Americas Society, The New York Public Library, Sotheby’s, Evergreen Museum at Johns Hopkins University, The Center for Architecture in San Antonio, The Preservation Society of Newport, Winterthur Museum, The Sulgrave Club in Washington, Bungalow 8 in Mumbai, The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach, The Mill Reef Club in Antigua, the Musee des Beaux Arts in Montreal and other venues.
Mallea is a lecturer annually for visitors to Havana organized by the Friends of the Sir John Soane Museum Foundation, presenting an architectural orientation that explains the 20th Century development of the city’s residential neighborhoods while showcasing theirlandmark architecture. In these presentations, as well as those listed below, Mallea introduces a new audience to the sophisticated architecture and design of20th CenturyHavana–while emphasizing his personal interest inmaking the Cuban family’s home life come alive.
Mallea has presented papers on Caribbean architecture and on historic Cuban family life at Havana’s annual Jornadas Tecnicas de Arquitectura Vernacula in 2010 and in 2009, when he was inducted to the Gonzalo de Cardenas Chair of Vernacular Architecture of the Havana Historian’s Office, Directorship of Patrimonial Architecture.
In March 2013, Mallea presented a paper on the designlinks between Havana and Paris at the International Art Deco Congress in Havana, with subsequent presentations of this topic at CUNY’s Billdner Center and the New York School of Interior Design.
An essay by Mallea on Havana’s houses was included in Carlos Riobo’s “Cuban Intersections of Literary and Urban Spaces”, The SUNY Press 2011
In 2011, Mallea curated and installed “Luz de Memoria, la lente y la imagen de la famila Lopez de Quintana”, an exhibition of a century of family photographs at Havana’s Museum of Natural History. The exhibition was designed to be presented as part of the Festival del Cine Pobre, in the Gibara house where five generations of Mallea’s family were born.
Mallea has presented research on historic photographs of Cuban domestic interiors at The Cooper Hewitt Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, the University of Miami’s School of Architecture and the Bildner Center’s International Cuba Symposium at the City University of New York. He has published on the subject in the Financial Times and Modern Magazine.
Mallea has recentlycompleted Living in Havana Today/ Cuba Home Style Now (Rizzoli 2017) a presentation of Havana lifestyle stories chronicling the individualism and self-expression that have been accomplished in spite of the island’s severe constraints.
Mallea received a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the University of Miami, attended the Master’s Program in Historic Preservation at Columbia University. He is licensed in New York State and is a member of the AIA.
Hermes Mallea formed the interiors and architecture practice, M(Group), in 1983 with interior designer Carey Maloney. M(Group) has received numerous awards including The Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts’ Residential Restoration Award. The firm’s work has been published internationally and has been included in Architectural Digest’s AD100 as well as the top designer listings of “House Beautiful”, “House & Garden” and “New York Magazine”, etc.
Mallea has been active at the New York Public Library for three decades – currently serving on The Library Council.
Mallea serves on the Board of Directors of The Friends of the Upper East Side Historic Districts, organizing the presentation of preservation awards at the group’s annual meeting.
Mallea is a Trustee of the Friends of Clermont State Historic Site and is currently exploring grants to develop an App that will present architectural and cultural historic sites of the Hudson River Valley, connecting them to the history andgenealogy of Clermont’s Livingston family.
In 2000, Mallea began a relationship with PS 161 a mostly-Hispanic elementary school in Harlem, first participating in the annual Principal for a Day event, which led to two appearances as Graduation speaker. In 2004 Mallea established an annual residency in design education, funding the AIA Center for Architecture Foundation’s instructors and spearheading the creation of a customized curriculum connecting thesedisadvantaged students to their historically significant neighborhood. In 2008, anticipating the expansion of Columbia University’s Morningside Campus into their neighborhood, students began documenting the changes to their surroundings while initiating a new connection to the nearby university.
Mallea is a board member of the Cintas Foundation which awards fellowships to Cuban artists working off the island and a founding board member of Havana Heritage Foundation which seeks to promote, preserve and restore the city’s architectural and cultural heritage.