Alfonso Perez-Mendez, M.S.
Professor of Architecture
College of Design, Construction and Planning
2009 Awardee

Mexico and the Caribbean basin are an important part of the lineage of the School of Architecture’s Preservation Institute Caribbean which Perez-Mendez has carried forward, advancing the student travel initiative into a productive research laboratory. He has led the program in Mexico’s Tequila Valley for eleven years, teaching 25 students per year in core curriculum studio courses and research on urbanization in small towns around Guadalajara. This effort has engaged his students in research and preservation methodologies, while supporting a productive and robust research initiative.
Perez-Mendez has been conducting an ambitious research initiative dedicated to the collection of original documentation about Cuban Modernism of the 1950s. Neither Cuban residents nor Cuban-Americans have had the documentary basis to conduct solid research in this important moment of the history of Cuban architecture. He is also conducting an extensive oral history project with surviving architects of that era, resulting in uniquely valuable records.