ARCHITECT JUAN GÜNTER DOERING, DIRECTOR OF THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE OF USMP, WAS ELECTED FELLOW OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF HISTORY

Last Tuesday, March 23rd, Juan Günther Doering, architect, was elected fellow of the “National Academy of History” (Academia Nacional de Historia). The Ceremony has been held at the “House of Osambela” (Casa de Osambela). The table of honor was presided by José Agustín De la Puente Candamo, historian, Mrs. María Rostowroski, RF Armando Nieto, and Federico Kauffman Doig, among others.

Juan Günther Doering presented the work: “Evolution of urban landscape in Lima”. He said: “Lima is changing in a permanent evolution, it is an alive city; currently Lima is a melting pot, it is unifying Peru. Things that are happening here would later reach the provinces; for instance, the music from Lima later on becomes the music from Piura, Trujillo, Cajamarca, etc. Lima is an entity which is full of life; we neither can compare it to the Lima from the past, nor to the pre-Hispanic Lima, the Viceroyal Lima, the Republican Lima from the 19th century, not even to the first 50 years of the 20th century. Only 1950 onwards a really explosive evolution and growth starts, but with richness brought by all of the regions of Peru”.

Juan Günther Doering was born in Trujillo, on May 24, 1927. He studied in the “National School of San Juan” (Colegio Nacional de San Juan) of Trujillo. From 1946 to 1951: studies of architecture and planning from the Faculty of Architecture and Art of the “National Engineering University” (Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería). From 1952 to 1955: post graduate studies, scholarship holder of the French government, Urban Planning and Urban Geography, from the Institute of Urbanism of Paris and from the School of Higher Studies of the Sorbonne respectively. From 1956 to 1978: full-time professor at the National Engineering University as Head of the last Workshop of Architectural Design, and professor of the course of Architectural Analysis, and also, temporarily, professor of the courses of Cultural History, Art History, History of Architecture and Urban Development of Peruvian cities, especially Lima.

Between 1957 and 1988, he carried out different planning projects and more than 28,000 cheap housing in Lima and the main Peruvian cities, as well as over 16,000 more in the cities of Santiago de Chile (Chile), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Sao Joseph dos Campos (Brazil), San Juan de Puerto Rico (Puerto Rico), Chiriquí (Panamá), Golfito and Quepos (Costa Rica), San Pedro de Zulia and Puerto Pizarro (Honduras), and Caracas and Valencia (Venezuela). In Venezuela, he also designed a beach club and a mountain club. He won multiple architectonic contests and many honorific awards, among which outstands the “Chavin Award” ("Premio Chavín"), highest distinction conferred by Peruvian Government to architects. He has been honored with the “Civic Medal” (“Medalla Cívica”) of Lima, and with medals of the districts of Miraflores, Barranco and San Borja; he has also been selected best engineer of 1997, and one of the forty best national engineers of the 20th century by the “Society of Engineers of Peru” (Sociedad de Ingenieros del Perú) in 1998. In 1969 he has been appointed as Head of the Section of Architecture and Planning “Ad-Honorem” of the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of the “National University of San Marcos” (Universidad Mayor de San Marcos). He is professor emeritus of the Universities of Engineering and Federico Villarreal. There is a batch of architects of the “Ricardo Palma University” (Universidad Ricardo Palma) that graduated with his name, and many national and international public institutions decorated him for his position defending the heritage of the capital of the Republic.

Among his outstanding projects, most of them won in architecture contests: the airport of Arequipa, the current “Ministry of Women” (Ministerio de la Mujer), the molls of the vanished chain “Todos”, including the building located in the corner of Paseo de la República and San Isidro Central Av., the Electronic School of the Peruvian Armed Forces, the air bases of Pisco and La Joya, the Association of Veterinary Surgeons, the pharmaceutical laboratories of Hoechst and Sanivet, the TV assembly factories of JVC in Lima and Tacna, as well as multiple office and apartments buildings and individual housing. He has also made the regulative plans of Lambayeque, Iquitos, Huaral and the sugar cane haciendas of Casa Grande, Pomalca, Pucalá, Batán Grande and Pátapo. Likewise, he has carried out the technical and financial supervision of the construction of the buildings of the “Cartagena Agreement” (Acuerdo de Cartagena) and the War Department and Army Headquarters. In 1992 he projected the Peruvian Pavilion of the Sevilla EXPO, which has been awarded by the Spanish newspaper El País with four stars.

He is co-founder of the Patronato de Lima, in which, as Project Director, he coordinated the presentation of Lima to UNESCO to declare it a Humanity’s Cultural Patrimony.

He is the author of “Plans of Lima” ("Los Planos de Lima") (1983) for the Municipality of Metropolitan Lima; “Spaces of Mankind” (“Los espacios del Hombre”) (1990) for the Andean Development Corporation; "Lima" jointly published with the historian Guillermo Lohmann Villena for MAPFRE, Spanish company, for the Fifth Centenary of the discovery of America (1992); jointly with other authors “500 Years Later, the New Face of Peru” ( "500 Años Después, el Nuevo Rostro del Perú") (1993) for the Peruvian Commission of the Fifth Centenary of the Discovery of America; “Lima, viceroyal religious architecture and sculpture” ( “Lima, arquitectura y escultura religiosa virreinal”) (1996); the viceroyal part of “Peruvian House” (“Casa Peruana”) (2000) published by “Continental Bank” (Banco Continental); four CDs on national art and history named “Peruvian Cultural Patrimony 1, 2, 3 and 4” (“Patrimonio Cultural del Perú I, II, III y IV”) for the “Documentary Fund of Peruvian Culture” (“Fondo Documentario de la Cultura Peruana”) of the National University Federico Villareal (Universidad Nacional Federico Villareal) which besides are located in the gateway of “Telefónica del Perú”. Currently he is about to publish “History of Lima”(“Historia de Lima”) in two thick volumes. He is currently the Director of the Architecture Professional School of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of the San Martin de Porres University.
Were present in the event: Raúl Bao García, Vice Chancellor of the USMP, recognized historians, professors and students of the Architecture School of the USMP, and personal friends of Juan Günther that wanted to share with him such important recognition.

Santa Anita, May 24th, 2006
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