Theatre Architects

Born: 1890 (Villarosa, Italy)

Died: 1958 (Pelham, New York)

Casalé was born in Villarosa, Italy, in approximately 1890 and immigrated to the United States in 1900. He received his architectural education from Cooper Union and Columbia University in New York.

Around 1925 Casalé arrived in Tampa, Florida, and soon thereafter established an office in the Tampa Theatre and Office Building which had recently been completed. These surroundings likely influenced Casalé’s design for the Polk Theatre in Lakeland which was designed in an Atmospheric style, like the Tampa Theatre.

Casalé left Tampa about 1928 and returned to New York where he became a prominent architect associated with the redesign of important landmarks in New York City. His most prominent conversions were those of the Villard Houses into the offices of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese (now part of the Palace Hotel), the conversion of the Pulitzer Mansion into apartments, and the conversion of the Lamont House into the Headquarters of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York.

Casalé’s theatre and cinema work is best recognized in the Polk Theatre (Lakeland, Florida) and the Britton Cinema (Tampa, Florida).

With his wife Grace, Casalé had two daughters, Grace and Jane Kathryn. Casalé died in 1958.

Information in part sourced from Wikipedia .

Theatres on this website in which this architect was involved:

Polk Theatre, Lakeland, Florida, USA