House and Studio of Nicolás Arroyo and Gabriela Menéndez
Nicolás Arroyo and Gabriela Menéndez
Querejeta, Playa
1942/1952
Arroyo and Menéndez’s first house and studio showed influences from Frank Lloyd Wright. Situated on 5th Street in Miramar, at the corner of 84th Street, the house is an excellent example of the early stripped villa of cubic volumes, flat projecting eaves, and both vertically and horizontally extruded windows. The house is centered around a brick clad stairwell that functions as a hinge around which all the main volumes extend, and their studio was located above the carport that extended directly out front, perpendicular to 5th Avenue. Around 1950, Arroyo and Menéndez created a new compound around their 5th Avenue house that included a large estudio taller (studio workshop). The family lived in the original house at the corner of the lot, and just behind it on 84th street, rose the three stories of the new studio workshop. The entire façade was clad with vertical louvers and a large roof terrace overlooked the street.
