Building Bacardi: Art Architecture & Identity

By Coral Gables Museum

Building Bacardi tells the story of a company's extraordinary development over a century and a half through the lens of the architecture and art it has commissioned and championed. Founded in Santiago de Cuba in 1862, Bacardi rose from simple beginnings as a regional rum distiller to become a global industry. By the early 20th century, as it acquired wealth and prestige during the consolidation of the Cuban Republic, the company began to attach symbolic and cultural importance to its building activity. Bacardi commissioned major works that reinforced its identity as an iconic Cuban brand and nurtured an emergent position as a serious patron of the arts. The 1930 Edificio Bacardi, an Art Deco tower in the heart of the Cuban capital, was an important marker of this early patronage. Over the next 50 years, as the company accelerated its expansion, both in Cuba and overseas, Bacardi deployed a remarkable range of architectural and artistic strategies to establish itself as a modern multinational corporation.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0988457903
• ISBN13: 9780988457904
• Release Date: January 2012
• Publisher: Coral Gables Museum
• Weight: 1.01 lbs.