Julio Perez Hernandez AIA

Biography

Educator, Architect and Urban Planner Julio Cesar Perez Hernandez is an accomplished leader, educator, visionary, historian, and published author considered a world-class expert in Cuban architecture and urbanism. He is currently a Professor at the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture since 2017 where he was Visiting Professor during the Fall Semester of 2012.

As an academic, he has lectured and taught in the most prestigious institutions of the United States, Canada, Europe, Costa Rica, Cuba, and Bermuda. Author of the books The Tradition of Courtyards in Cuban Architecture published by Andelani Press in 2025, and both Inside Havana (2011), Inside Cuba (2004) published by Taschen Editorial in several languages. He has also penned numerous professional articles published in international journals. His forthcoming book about The Urban History of Havana is scheduled to be published in 2027 by Andelani Press.

His academic and professional work has been featured in international publications and exhibited in Harvard University GSD and Cuba. In 2002, Perez Hernandez was selected as the inaugural Cuban Loeb Fellow at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he later was selected as the Wilbur Marvin Visiting Scholar in 2012. His academic and professional contributions have gained international recognition, with work featured in distinguished publications and exhibited at Harvard and in Cuba.

He is the author of A Master Plan for 21st Century Havana, a comprehensive urban plan registered at the Library of Congress in 2006, among other urban plans for other cities and neighborhoods in different countries.

As a practitioner he is the founding Principal and Creative Director of Caesar Studio | Architects & Planners, a successful international practice ranging from architecture to urban planning and design with a focus on excellence. In this role, he has designed and built projects in the United States, Cuba, Spain, and Panama, some of them recipients of several awards.