Martín Domínguez
(San Sebastián, 1897 - Nueva York, 1970)

Martín Domínguez studied at the School of Architecture in Madrid and graduated in 1924. He lived in the Residencia de Estudiantes, where he was a friend of Federico and Francisco García Lorca, Miguel and Emilio Prados, Luis Buñuel, and José Moreno Villa, among others. After his graduation, he worked in Secundino Zuazo’s architectural study. He traveled to Paris and was in contact with Le Corbusier, whom he had met in the Residencia de Estudiantes when the Swiss architect came invited by the Sociedad de Cursos y Conferencias, in 1928. He and his partner, Carlos Arniches, built several buildings commissioned by the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios, such as the secondary school pavilion and the kindergarten of the Instituto-Escuela, and the auditorium and library of the Residencia de Estudiantes.

They also built road hostels for the National Tourism Board, and the Zarzuela hippodrome, the latter together with Eduardo Torroja. Between 1932 and 1933, he worked in Hollywood building film sets.
A supporter of Manuel Azaña and his political party, Izquierda Republicana, the outbreak of Civil War forced him into exile in Cuba, where he built significant works, such as Radiocentro building in Havana, together with Emilio del Junco and Miguel Gastón, and the FOCSA building, with Ernesto Gómez Sampera.  After the Cuban Revolution, he moved to the United States and taught at Cornell University that created the Martín Domínguez Distinguished Teaching Award after his death.