The architect Héctor Velarde was born in Lima, Peru, on May 14, 1898. His father was a diplomat and Velarde passed his childhood and adolescence in Brazil, Switzerland, and Paris. Velarde studied in France at the École Spéciale des Travaux Publics, du bâtiment et de l’industrie graduating as an architect-engineer in 1919. In 1920 he entered the École des Beaux-Arts where he studied at the atelier of Victor Laloux, an upcoming neoclassical French architect. In 1924 Velarde returned to Lima, and from then until 1927 dedicated himself to the diplomatic service, to literature and to journalism. In 1928 he resigned from the diplomatic corps and devoted himself full-time to architecture and construction, as well as to teaching at various institutions of higher education, becoming Vice Chancellor of the University of Lima. During his career as an architect he built several projects that can still be seen in the city today. A prolific writer, he produced a variety of academic texts and humorous stories. Velarde died on December 22, 1989.