It saved beautiful stuff but it is falling fast ( I was there in Dec.
1996 - see photos at http://www.tomco.net/~larak/cuba/cuba.htm.  I just
returned from a Preservation symposium on Cuban architecture at the
Cooper Union in NYC. I think the main thrust of the symposium was to
start a dialogue amongst Cubans and Americans on how to save their
communities, architecture, without succumbing to the damage of
multinational corporations who show up with lots of money and bad
ideas.  The other main issue of course is housing - people are just
packed into the oldest sections of town - also  the preservation of 20th
century architecture is a problem - everyone is gungho on the colonial
but there is plenty more than that - the  art nouveau is terribly
neglected.
:-) LARA

> Another friend was just back from Cuba at Thanksgiving and I listened to his
> report with interest. It seems there is a up side to just about anything. Our
> countries blockade on Cuba may have hurt many people, but it saved many
> beautiful buildings  creighton