The Hotel Habana Riviera by Iberostar , originally known as the Havana Riviera , is a historic resort hotel located on the Malecón waterfront boulevard in the Vedado district of Havana , Cuba . The hotel, which is managed by the Spanish Iberostar chain, was built in 1957 and still maintains its original 1950s style. It has twenty-one floors containing 352 rooms all of which feature views of the water and the Vedado neighborhood.
22-896: Riviera Hotel or Hotel Riviera may refer to: in Ukraine Hotel Riviera, Kyiv, Ukraine in Cuba Hotel Habana Riviera , Havana, Cuba in England Riviera Hotel , Bowleaze Cove , Dorset in Spain Hotel Riviera (Ibiza) in Lebanon Riviera Hotel Beirut in the United States Riviera Hotel (Hot Springs, Arkansas) , listed on
44-468: A Canadian textile company and several others. It was built at a cost of US $ 8 million, most of which was provided by the Bank for Economic and Social Development (BANDES), a state-run development bank set up by then President, Fulgencio Batista . Lansky's investment partners included some of Las Vegas's biggest power brokers. Besides Dalitz were his old friends Morris Kleinman, Sam Tucker, Wilbur Clark of
66-640: The Cuban Revolution caused all of Americans' properties in Cuba to be seized. Lansky, whose health was declining by this point, chartered a plane that same New Year's Eve headed for the Bahamas . With him went his dream of being at the center of Cuba's gambling operations. On January 22, 1959, Fidel Castro held a press conference at the Copa Cabaret inside the hotel where he gave his response to
88-668: The Desert Inn (and Lansky's Hotel Nacional casino); Ed Levinson of the Fremont Hotel ; Charles "Babe" Baron looking after Sam Giancana 's interests and Hyman Abrams and Morris Rosen of the Flamingo Las Vegas (of Bugsy Siegel fame). As with all of Lansky’s dealings, he and his underworld associates’ ownership of the Riviera was hidden behind layers of managers and front men. In selecting an architect for
110-595: The Las Vegas Strip . It was intended to rival the comfort and contemporary luxury of any Las Vegas hotel of the era. The choice to build in Havana was because Lansky simply did not want to be subject to U.S. laws or the scrutiny of the FBI . The hotel was officially operated by the "Riviera de Cuba S.A. company", established in 1956. The original incorporation papers also listed the names of certain "Miami hotel operators",
132-563: The drive-in restaurant and the theme hotel to futuristic works of art. His 1941 El Rancho Vegas was the very first resort hotel on the Las Vegas Strip , and his iconic 1949 Bob's Big Boy restaurant in Burbank, California is a California historical landmark. He created iconic circular drive-in restaurants in Southern California , including Simon's, Herbert's, and Robert's in the 1930s. McAllister's first major commission
154-580: The Caribbean", it was considered the epitome of resort-construction, and certainly was one of the more costly hotels in Cuba. It was also the first of its kind in Havana to have air-conditioned rooms. Each room had a view of the Gulf of Mexico . The hotel was not only near downtown Havana, but also close to residential Miramar and Country Club. When the Havana Riviera opened on December 10, 1957, it
176-610: The Cuban government's confiscation of the hotel. They did not file a claim for damages with the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission , however. The hotel was operated for many years by the Gran Caribe chain, a Cuban state-owned company. On December 10, 2016, it was announced that Iberostar Hotels & Resorts , a Spanish chain, would assume management of the hotel in 2017. The hotel was renamed
198-592: The El Rancho Vegas, McAllister created the original plans for other hotels in Las Vegas, including El Cortez , Desert Inn , Sands Hotel , and the Fremont Hotel and Casino . His partner William Wagner created Binion's Horseshoe in 1961. His obituary in The New York Times reported that he moved to Washington, D.C. to work for Marriott in 1956, becoming a Vice President and supervising
220-588: The Hotel Habana Riviera by Iberostar. In 2018, Iberostar announced plans to invest €35 million in renovations. Wayne McAllister Wayne Douglas McAllister (November 17, 1907 – March 22, 2000) was a Los Angeles -based architect who was a leader in the Googie style of architecture that embraced the automobile and the Space Age . Inspired by tail fins and gleaming chrome, he elevated
242-741: The NRHP in Garland County, Arkansas Riviera (hotel and casino) , on the Las Vegas Strip Riviera (Palm Springs hotel) , in California Disney's Riviera Resort , in Bay Lake, Florida Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Riviera Hotel . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to
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#1732779685902264-416: The Riviera, Lansky initially approached Wayne McAllister , who was the prolific Los Angeles–based designer of Las Vegas's stylish Desert Inn , Fremont, and Sands hotels—all properties controlled by Lansky’s associates in the " Cleveland Gang ". But Lansky's insistence that the hotel be completed in less than six months led McAllister to respectfully decline the offer. Instead, Igor Boris Polevitzky , one of
286-687: The deans of Miami Modern architecture, took the job with Irving Feldman, who had a dozen prestigious hotels and apartment blocks to his credit in Miami Beach, serving as the project's general contractor. Original blueprints of the hotel were made in Miami by the Feldman Construction Corporation, as well as by the Cuban-based architect, Manuel Carrera Machado. Lansky then hired Albert B. Parvin of Los Angeles to design
308-405: The hotel and T. James Ennis, who was well known in Cuba hotel circles, as the managing director. Lansky's official title was "kitchen director," but he controlled every aspect of the hotel, especially the casino which was operated by Frank Erickson , Giordino Cellini, Ed Levenson and Dusty Peters. He had initially appointed Dino Cellini from Ohio to run the casino but replaced him with Erickson who
330-488: The hotel featuring Mamie Van Doren swimming in the pool. Other celebrated guests included William Holden , diva Jean Fenn , Nat King Cole and Ava Gardner who was rumored to have dragged a bellhop into her bed. After the hotel was finished, Lansky installed himself in the Presidential Suite on the top floor as his command post, appointing Harry Smith, a prominent hotelman from Toronto as president of
352-623: The hotel's original decor. Parvin was an interior decorator who had laid carpets in many of the big hotels in Vegas. His main occupation was operating the Flamingo, a post he held between 1955 and 1960; nine years after Lansky himself agreed to Lucky Luciano 's demands that a hit be put out on the casino's would-be original operator, Bugsy Siegal at the infamous Havana Conference . Lansky also hired two of Cuba’s great artists, muralist Rolando Lopez Dirube and sculptor Florencio Gelabert, who designed
374-521: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Riviera_Hotel&oldid=1259167221 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Hotel Habana Riviera The Havana Riviera was originally owned by mobster Meyer Lansky who had been inspired to build it after visiting his friend, Moe Dalitz 's nine-storey Riviera Casino on
396-513: The white marble sculptures of an intertwined mermaid and swordfish that fronts the entrance porte cochere, and "Ritmo Cubano" (Cuban Rhythm), a large lobby sculpture that depicts twirling male and female dancers rendered in bronze. Between them, the three men deftly captured the marine outdoor atmosphere. Work began on the site of a former sports arena in December 1956 in the midst of the revolutionary upheaval. Already envisioned as "The Riviera of
418-519: The world with regards to the Cuban Revolution. In October of the following year he nationalized all the island's hotel-casinos and outlawed gambling. The hotel still maintains the famous "Palacio de la Salsa Club" where salsa bands regularly perform. The Tampa Tribune reported in December 2015, that Lansky's heirs, who still live in the Tampa, Florida , area, are seeking restitution for
440-607: Was serving as Frank Costello ’s representative in Cuba. Since Cubans had never been trained for gambling operations on such a large scale, pit bosses , dealers and stickmen were brought from the States as "technicians" and in that category were allowed to stay on two-year visas. These men, veterans of the working class of illicit U.S. gambling, eventually turned into tutors for the Cubans. The casino would make over $ 3 million in its first four months of operation. Unfortunately for Lansky,
462-790: Was the Agua Caliente Casino and Hotel in 1928, a resort casino and race track that presaged his work in Las Vegas . He designed restaurants and nightclubs , including Pig 'n Whistle , Mike Lyman's, Van De Kamp's, Lawry's , Bob's Big Boy , Cinegrill in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel , and restaurants and nightclubs at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel including the Biltmore Bowl , home to many Academy Awards ceremonies. After
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#1732779685902484-628: Was the largest purpose-built casino-hotel in Cuba or anywhere in the world at that time outside Las Vegas (the Havana Hilton surpassed its size a few months later). The opening act that night at the Copa Cabaret was Ginger Rogers and her music revue directed by Jack Cole . Lansky complained that Rogers could "wiggle her ass, but she can't sing a goddam note!" Within days the hotel became a symbol in Havana, attracting such acts as Abbott and Costello and Steve Allen who taped an episode of his prime time Sunday night show, The Steve Allen Show from
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