Francisco Javier Blanco (GFR Media)

Architect, Founder of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico (currently Para la Naturaleza)

For 33 years, don Javier Blanco, as he was best known, led multiple environmental and historical conservation projects that helped increase awareness and educate current generations about the value of preserving our heritage for the enjoyment of a better future. Among the main projects of the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico under his management were Hacienda Buena Vista (in Ponce), San Cristóbal Canyon (in Barranquitas), Las Cabezas de San Juan Lighthouse (in Fajardo) and Hacienda La Esperanza (in Manatí). All of these places are educational sites on various aspects of history and the sciences in Puerto Rico, as well as being popular tourist attractions.

He was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico, on January 15, 1934. His parents were Agustín Blanco Géigel and Ana María Cestero, who were part of the socio-cultural and economic development of the era. He was the nephew of writer Tomás Blanco. He was raised in Miramar and spent the summers in the family country home in Barranquitas. From an early age, he was aware of the contrasts of life in the capital and the values of the countryside, creating in him the need to achieve a balance between both by striving to preserve the Puerto Rican natural landscape.

He studied at the Perpetuo Socorro Academy in Miramar and at Georgetown Preparatory in Bethesda, Maryland. He attended college at Columbia University in New York, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts with a concentration in History of Architecture, Mathematics and French. He studied for his master’s degree at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. Among his teachers were Constantino Nivola, who had created the sculptures for Le Corbusier, Serge Chermayeff, Zaleski, and landscape architect Ideo Sasaki. After finishing his third year of professional studies, Blanco requested a leave to travel to Puerto Rico and design his first building: a new headquarters for his father’s company. He returned to Harvard and completed his master’s in Architecture. At that time, he worked in the design firm of professors McKínnell and Boegner. The former was known for his design of Boston City Hall. He got married and had three children, Agustín, who is an architect, Andrés, and Mónica.

In 1965, Governor Roberto Sánchez Vilella named him chairman of a new citizens committee (Governor’s Committee for Aesthetic Affairs and Natural Resources), operating under the Parks and Recreation Commission, and in 1968 Blanco joined the Planning Board. That year, he served as a professor at the Graduate School of Planning at the University of Puerto Rico.

In December, 1969, the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico was created. It was a project promoted by Governor Sánchez Vilella and Stuart Udall, secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior during the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson. Blanco was named Executive Director. Under his leadership, the entity focused on the need to control unchecked urban expansion and the deterioration of the environment. The Trust was established as a private, non-profit institution to protect and highlight the natural resources and beauty of the Island.

The Trust dedicated its resources to acquiring properties of great ecological, aesthetic, historical and cultural value to preserve them and to developing educational programs that raised awareness of the need to protect them for the enjoyment of all. Among the Trust’s acquisitions are the following properties: the area of La Parguera, the San Cristóbal Canyon in Barranquitas, Las Cabezas de San Juan in Fajardo, the haciendas La Esperanza in Manatí and Buena Vista in Ponce, and the Power y Giralt House in Old San Juan.

Among the recognitions Blanco received are: the Henry Klumb Award (1985), the highest recognition granted to one of its members by the Puerto Rico Association of Architects and Landscape Architects; the National Trust for Historic Preservation Prize (1988), for the restoration of Hacienda Buena Vista, Ponce; the Presidential Citation by the American Institute of Puerto Rico (1991); the URBE Prize (1991); the Alexander Calder Conservation Award (1992), granted by The Conservation Fund, Washington, D.C.; the Caribbean Preservation Award (1996) from American Express, for the restoration of Power y Giralt House. He was also named Citizen of the Year in 1996 by the Puerto Rico Chamber of Commerce. In 2003, the University of Puerto Rico Río Piedras campus awarded him an honorary doctoral degree.

He died October 3, 2020.

References:

Cordero Mercado David. “Fallece el arquitecto puertorriqueño Francisco Javier Blanco Cestero”, https://www.elnuevodia.com/noticias/locales/notas/fallece-el-arquitecto-puertorriqueno-francisco-javier-blanco-cestero/, retrieved 4/10/2020.

Fernández, Leticia. Circular “Fallecimiento del Arquitecto Dr. Francisco Javier Blanco, Adalid de la Conservación Ambiental en Puerto Rico y quien fuese distinguido con el primer Doctorado Honoris Causa concedido por nuestro Recinto”, https://www.uprrp.edu/2020/10/fallecimiento-del-arquitecto-dr-francisco-javier-blanco-adalid-de-la-conservacion-ambiental-en-puerto-rico-y-quien-fuese-distinguido-con-el-primer-doctorado-honoris-causa-concedido-por-nuestro-recin/, retrieved 6/10/2020.