Raymond F. Almirall

Almirall was born in New York City, in 1869. He studied architecture at Cornell University and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

In 1896, he established an architectural firm in New York City with John W. Ingle, Ingle & Almirall.^[1] The firm lasted until the end of 1900, when Almirall opened an independent office.^[2] In the mid-teens, Almirall made Philip Alain Cusachs a member of his new firm, Almirall & Cusachs, which lasted into the 1920s.^[3]

Almirall's work often incorporated the latest architectural techniques including structural steel, reinforced cement and reinforced concrete.^[4]

In 1909, Almirall designed what might have been his masterpiece, the Beaux-Arts classical style Brooklyn Central Library which was expected to be a major example of the City Beautiful architectural style in that city. But money was short, and construction did not begin for several years. Soon after, money ran out and only the west wing wall was actually built. In 1937, the project was renewed and the New York firm of Githens & Keally was hired to redesign the building in the Modern Classical style. Almirall’s original scheme was abandoned in favor of the new one and the redesigned library was completed in 1941.^[5]

Almirall also designed several large churches for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn. One of these, the Mortuary Chapel at Calvary Cemetery, Long Island City, New York, was described at the time of its construction as ‘’the Most Remarkable Mortuary Chapel in America’’.^[6]

He was one of the very few American architects of his day to design a Cathedral in a foreign country. His byzantine styled Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kingston, Jamaica, which contains a "broad, clearly articulated facade" and a large concrete dome. In his book Hagia Sophia, 1850-1950: Holy Wisdom Modern Monument, author Robert S. Nelson compares the Cathedral to the Hagia Sophia.^[7]

Almirall also designed most of the buildings for the Seaview Hospital in Staten Island, New York, which at the time of its construction was the largest tuberculosis hospital in the world where many of the successful treatments for this disease were to be created. Today this hospital is a ruin.