# Making room for Cuba’s court and porticoes

September 7, 2026. A first building study, with its floor levels and entrance stairs still unfinished.

Cuba's pavilion took the form of a Havana residence. The official guide describes commission offices, a museum and exhibition hall, an internal planted court, and a flat roof used for promenading. The insurance plan lets us separate those spaces more clearly than our first solid block did. [B015, printed page 127](https://archive.org/details/ajq5466.0001.001.umich.edu/page/n134/mode/1up), [M006, sheet 2](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en).

## An open court inside a covered building

The white circle inside the plan is an open court. It now stays open through the roof, while the hall around it remains solid. The separate yellow bands outside the hall are roofed porticoes. They have a first canopy and plain supports, with room to move underneath. The front strip is left open above, following the plan and the photographs. No dome has been placed over the court. [M006](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en), [B003, printed page 208](https://archive.org/details/worldsfair00louia/page/n215/mode/1up), [B015, photograph on printed page 80](https://archive.org/details/ajq5466.0001.001.umich.edu/page/n87/mode/1up).

The books describe a portico on four sides, while the plan distinguishes the roofed side bands from the open frontage. The photographs show a front landing and stairs beside an open side colonnade. That difference matters: a covered walkway is neither an open courtyard nor a solid building wall.

## What is still an estimate

The corner tower is marked three storeys and 40 feet in the insurance plan. Both books give 48 feet. This first model uses the 40-foot reading and records the disagreement. The main roof is estimated at 7 metres; the canopy is 25 centimetres thick. Its fourteen plain posts, their spacing and roughly 58-centimetre width are construction estimates, not individually traced original columns. The black marks on the insurance plan are hydrants, not a column layout. [M006](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en), [B003](https://archive.org/details/worldsfair00louia/page/n215/mode/1up), [B015](https://archive.org/details/ajq5466.0001.001.umich.edu/page/n134/mode/1up).

The photographs clearly show a raised platform and entrance stairs. Those levels have not been reconstructed yet. The first model uses the existing ground as its temporary base, including under the porticoes and inside the court. That grass is unfinished ground, not a claim about the original floor. You can inspect the court by flying; an interior walking route has not been established.

Placement remains approximate too. The early ground plan identifies Cuba's parcel but does not give us clear building-wall corners inside it. We used the nearby China alignment for scale and placed the traced structure within the parcel. Extrapolating from Belgium gives a different position, about 14 metres away. Neither is a surveyed location, and both alternatives remain in the research record. No surrounding roads or neighboring buildings were moved to hide that uncertainty. [M001](https://www.loc.gov/item/2007633932/), [M002](https://www.loc.gov/item/99466762/), [M006](https://data.library.wustl.edu/record/108214?ln=en).

## A photograph beside the model

P048 is the complete Cuba page from the official photographic views: printed page 208, PDF page 216. The caption, page number and visible mark remain with the image. It is another selected page from B003, not a separate independent publication. The books use similar descriptive wording, so their matching tower claims should not be counted as two measured surveys. The exact photographer, capture date and camera position remain unconfirmed. Courtesy Smithsonian Libraries, via Internet Archive. [B003](https://archive.org/details/worldsfair00louia/page/n215/mode/1up).

The source register records the item **worldsfair00louia**, call number **39088013421086**, and a library contact route for sharper scans or related photographs. We have not sent a request or confirmed that a better copy exists.

Astra traced the spaces, compared the height claims and built the first geometry. Luna prepared the photograph's provenance. The coordinating agent inspected the source images, checked the clearances and reviewed the building in the browser. Tests check the court from above, the roof and open space under the canopy, solid walls and posts, and movement along the porticoes. Saving fixed views makes the next correction easier to judge.