K
Klaus Philipsen
Guest
- Thread Author
- #1
History
There is no older architecture anywhere in the Americas and the old towns are quainter even than Quebec City or Montreal. The style is decidedly Hispanic, the people mostly speak Spanish among each other, there is a strong local identity, a blend of native, African, British, Spanish and American cultures. You can get here from the US without a passport, the currency is the US dollar, US law applies but distances are given in kilometers, gasoline is sold by the liter, traffic sign are Spanish, and local residents have US citizenship but no voting rights after the US took it from Spain in 1898 in one of the few US colonial acquisitions by force (Treaty of Paris). Obviously, we are talking about Puerto Rico, a place where US citizens live among more history than anywhere on the mainland.
But the protectorate has been a stepchild ever since. It has gone bankrupt, the poverty rate is twice that of Mississippi, the significant debt relief under Obama was eaten up by calamities which struck in quick succession: Two hurricanes, an earthquake, a financial crisis, the pandemic and now a federal government that sees the island as a lost cause.
Next door the Dominican Republic which gained full independence from the Spanish in 1865 seems to fare better, whereas Haiti and Cuba, also long under US influence, are far worse off since independence. Puerto Rico, thus, is not the shining beacon of what US “protection” can deliver nor does it prove convincingly that capitalism delivers much better results than communism. There are many parallels between Cuba and Puerto Rico, more than either side would like. One commonality are certainly the indigenous Taínas people that populated the Caribbean before Columbus when PR was still Boriquén.
Both places came to the US as part of the Treaty of Paris. More recently, young people in both places are leaving in droves so that more of each people live in the mainland US than on their native island. The exodus leaves behind vacant houses, shuttered businesses and a struggling economy. Both countries replaced a flourishing commodity industry (mostly sugar but also manufacturing) with tourism that eventually began to falter, in Cuba thanks to sanctions, in PR thanks to the natural disasters and instability.
To be clear, San Juan is far better off than Havanna, but go outside the capital to smaller towns in the hinterland and a starker reality sets in. In Ponce, still PR’s second largest city, which likes to be called the "Pearl of the South", one can find the beautiful historic center pockmarked by ruins from the earthquake five years ago that are still not repaired for lack of resources. In Cuba and Puerto Rico heroic gestures to achieve modernity via enormous freeways and modern hotels yielded some overblown stuff that sits incomplete, poorly maintained or fully abandoned. Both countries have more expats than residents and in both the relatives working in the US mainland support their relatives on the island. Go to a mountain town like Utuado and there, on the town square you find a lunch place, a barber shop or an appliance store that could just as well sit in Cienfuegos, Cuba. The same holds true for the sad rows of public housing in Utuado. True, there is no food shortage in PR, there are no lines at the gas stations and there are many more cars, certainly not only vintage models. The outskirts of San Juan could be anywhere in the US. Yet, the differences between Cuba and PR are not as big as one would expect.
Thus, economically PR is not a show piece of capitalism's superiority. Without national (US) voting rights, a stagnant economy, but a beautiful setting and unmatched historic architecture, the island sends mixed signals; accordingly the opinions about the best path towards a promising future are divided. Would full US statehood be best, full independence and nationhood or the continuation of the current state as a protectorate?
At the moment these questions are not on the radar of the US. Gaza, Ukraine, tariffs and Greenland take all the oxygen and Puerto Rico muddles through, from one national power outage to the next, while luring tourists with its natural beauty and Spanish colonial history.
Architecture
On this blog about architecture and planning I will focus on some of those aspects and the resiliency issues associated with historical buildings in areas exposed to earthquake, flood and hurricanes.
Puerto Rico's architectural styles are a mix of Spanish Colonial, Gothic, Neoclassical and Baroque churches. One has to wonder whether the Old World heritage architecture derived from predominantly a dry and hot places without hurricanes and earthquakes with its brick, clay tiles plaster and painted stucco as the main materials is really appropriate for the Caribbean, as attractive as it is. Brick walls crumble in earthquakes and the humidity does a number on the stucco and paint so it needs constant maintenance. The thick walls and roof tiles retain the heat like ovens and can’t cool out at night when the humidity keeps temperatures way up. Air conditioning has changed architecture. The vents, shutters and louvers that historically perforated the solid walls to allow a breeze through the building are now undesirable leaks for the electrically chilled air. Where they are now covered up they make the humid heat even more unbearable in one of the frequent power failures. Ponce’s beautiful old town high school has no AC yet, shaded by big trees in the front court, the giant windows stood wide open and allowed the passersby to listen to the instructions given through a big video screen flickering inside, closing the arc between the past and the present.
Conservation and preservation are key to the economy of the PR and their colonial old towns, so the dilemma handed down in shape of the Hispanic architecture suffering under the humidity requires constant toiling, painting and costly fixes.
The new developments outside the old towns offer little in terms of an alternative. Earlier ones often feature the one story Criolla cottages. Even new houses at times evoke the Spanish colonial style also popular in parts of California, Texas and Arizona. Others are low flung junk architecture or the branded fast food joints and drugstores known all over America. New condos, office and hotel towers are frequently modernist white concrete boxes, no better adapted to this climate, or to earthquakes except the very new ones with their seismic fortifications.
The western canon with its origin stories of Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome gives the Hispanic styles as well as modern Bauhaus adaptations of North African vernacular their meaning if not justification. Cultural preference as the result of decades of brainwashing? Maybe. Plus, in my case, my first formative foreign country journeys to Italy, Greece, Spain. PR’s old towns just as those of Cuba feel like old friends to me and can only assume that many others feel the same way, which is why they travel here in spite of bigger, brighter beaches back home on the mainland, be it on the Atlantic or tge pacific. As a younger architect I frowned about Leon Krier’s contention that a real city would have to be built according to Athenian or Roman rules, not least since for their expression of power the Fascists aspired to them as well. But Italy also has the unplanned urbanism of their southern hill towns, Greece the island architecture without a grand axis or symmetry, and the mix of order and seemingly chaos is very satisfying, without any academic analysis.
San Juan
San Juan, the capital, is a vibrant and very clean city. It has now the biggest port, the international airport and a well maintained famous old town. Viejo San Juan is hardly bigger than a handful of American malls but accommodates thousands of residents, hundreds of stores and restaurants, two castles, an art school, several notable churches, a promenade and a handful of beautiful plazas with fountains and statues. The constricted space between the Atlantic on one side and the Port on the other brought about the very thoughtful allocation of space that today attracts millions of visitors from all over the world who don’t mind the congestion of the narrow calles or the lack of parking. People walk, sit down in front of cafes or meet in the rear patios of restaurants to enjoy the company of other people.
This simple method of creating urbanity and happiness has been known to many cultures and continents all over the world until it somehow became forgotten when the automobile took over and the American style suburbanization of the land around cities took a victory leap around the world. Puerto Rico is no exception. In spite of several cities and towns setting the perfect example for good urbanism they let go of all rhyme and reason on the arterials leading to the centers where fast food joints, gas stations, strip malls and car repair shops create the unsightly jumble we all know all too well and which have become the leading US export article.
Coming out of the very well stocked supermarket next to the Plaza des Armas to sit down on one of the benches to watch young and old or listen to the singer who took up a spot to beautifully intone local songs is a joy that we consider a luxury we want to give ourselves only on vacation while we could have it every day if we just would build our places again in the traditional dense manner.
Ponce
Ponce is a different story. After a period of exuberance some 50 - 60 years ago the problems of PR are more visible here, even though this second largest city of 135,000 or so residents is clean, safe and also features a very attractive old town. but hurricanes, earthquakes, the financial crisis and the pandemic have taken a toll.
Five years after the 6.4 earthquake striking the southwest of PR I saw several large or tall concrete apartment buildings condemned and abandoned due to cracks, structurally too compromised to live in, yet standing precariously close to the people walking by. Up on the hill near the cross shaped observation tower one finds the former Intercontinental luxury hotel standing as a naked concrete shell its former white nearly fully washed off. It is described as the political, social, cultural, and artistic epicenter of Ponce from 1960 to 1975, a time when Ponce grew, flourished and drew tourists from far and wide. It stood vacant for half a century, abandoned, not due to natural disasters but the altering economy. It displays past dreams and the permanence of concrete that allows current planners to envision a $40 million rebirth as early as 2026. (The beginning of this project has been expected for at least five years already).
Even when grants for reconstruction have approved, implementation is still another matter. Plus some of the ideas of the 1970's are a burdensome legacy.
Maybe there is no better project than the la Guancha boardwalk project near Ponce (Paseo Tablado La Guancha) and the grandiose plans for a Port of the Americas on the Carribean coast, to illustrate the intertwined problems of misguided planning, lack of resilience, poor governance and bureaucracy. Both are located just south of downtown Ponce.
I won’t pretend to understand the full complexity of the undertaking. Rafael Hernandez Colón, the populist Governor at the time of first thoughts about this project, for example, saw it as one of the many good deeds he bestowed on his people following his motto that progress means to see the presence with the eyes of the future. The future did not come to pass in quite the way he imagined it, though, neither for the port nor for the entertainment beach.
I kind of stumbled on this in my search of a nice beachfront that initially led me to what is called Ponce Playa, clearly misleading me. There is more desolation, abandonment and poverty than beach. The Enrique Gonzales square offering the only public water access is a sad affair with a plaque commemorating eight slaves the Spaniards landed and sold here. It didn’t look anything was recently done, even though refurbishing funds had been approved five years ago. In my search of the beach I followed the coast and came across the equally sad looking working port with two rusting idle container cranes and stacked up unloaded cars.
On a truly torturous circuitous path around inlets I reached a six plus lane highway with access to two east west highways via vast interchanges. This is another highway to nowhere, heading straight for the coast where it dead ends in a circle; testimony of the past and vast aspirations that manifested themselves first and foremost in expensive and over the top roadway construction. There are also vast and underutilized parking lots plus many as of yet undeveloped land parcels. True, the road also accesses the port with its occasional cruise ship and some bulk cargo, but it has long lost its luster to St Juan’s much larger facilities. An oversized star shaped park with radiating paths and various structures in different states of use, incompleteness or abandonment aim for an organizing geometry and scale which would have made Albert Speer proud.
On this sunny Sunday afternoon in April there were, indeed, local people here, enjoying the lawns at the edge of the sea while vendors hawked food, trinkets and drink on a makeshift gravel path defying the star geometry.
The reason why those vendors are arranged in such a temporary fashion in the otherwise so geometric setup reveals itself only upon closer inspection through chainlink fences and concrete barriers. Those are erected to seal off what had been constructed as a boardwalk with sturdy concrete "kiosks" from the where food, drinks and beachwear were sold. The dream took nine years to construct and one hurricane to destroy it. An earthquake and a second hurricane finished the boardwalk off to a point that repairs were abandoned. It still sits there as it was after the last disaster.
The desire to rebuild, though, exists. An APA Assistance team report doesn't question the reconstruction either; an architect was just been hired to do the redesign. APA suggest a larger vision in which old Ponce Playa, the Port and Guancha would be tied together through more direct connections.
The first hurdle for everything: FEMA bureaucracy. Whether any of the boardwalk kiosks can be salvaged remains unanswered as of yet. FEMA will allow and pay for repair only if it entails less than 50% of the full reconstruction cost which probably means total demolition after the five years of abandonment. Meanwhile the vendors operating from pop-up carts and stands produced the most lively aspect of the area and suggest that more impromptu nature might be more appropriate than any new fortified multi-million structure. In the next hurricane, the carts, trailers and trucks could be moved out of harms way, their improvised nature an expression of beach culture one can also see in the popularity of The Kioskos de Luquillo east of San Juan. The assorted surviving concrete structures that dot the open spaces of today's Guancha area all look sad, austere and badly kept.
The successful place-making of Ponce Vieja or San Juan could have been a model for the layout of the reconstructed La Guancha project by reducing scale and cost. Not by clustering dense mixed uses right at the endangered oceans edge, but by laying out the spaces respect the human scale.
Nostalgia can’t be the guide for the future and different scales for different things are appropriate. But the human scale has not changed as much, no matter what technology we use. What makes us feel comfortable is more related to our bodies than we have admitted in modern urban design.
As a protectorate Puerto Rico can be a US model for placemaking with its history that predates the mainland by quite a bit.
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
(now also on Substack)
Materials and sources:
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/puerto-rico-us-territory-crisis
Other travelers articles on this blog:
We are all Americans: An attempt to understand Cuba
Impressions from Port au Prince, Haiti
Southern India Behind the Scenes (Part A), (Part B)
Photo gallery San Juan (all photos by author unless otherwise noted):
Photo gallery Ponce:
(Musea de la Musica)
Historic Casino of Ponce
Photo gallery Utuado
There is no older architecture anywhere in the Americas and the old towns are quainter even than Quebec City or Montreal. The style is decidedly Hispanic, the people mostly speak Spanish among each other, there is a strong local identity, a blend of native, African, British, Spanish and American cultures. You can get here from the US without a passport, the currency is the US dollar, US law applies but distances are given in kilometers, gasoline is sold by the liter, traffic sign are Spanish, and local residents have US citizenship but no voting rights after the US took it from Spain in 1898 in one of the few US colonial acquisitions by force (Treaty of Paris). Obviously, we are talking about Puerto Rico, a place where US citizens live among more history than anywhere on the mainland.
[td]
[/td]
[td]
From fighting invading English and Dutch
Castillo San Cristobal, San Juan has gone to welcoming
the giant cruise ships in its port. (Castillo Cristobal, author)
[/td]Castillo San Cristobal, San Juan has gone to welcoming
the giant cruise ships in its port. (Castillo Cristobal, author)
But the protectorate has been a stepchild ever since. It has gone bankrupt, the poverty rate is twice that of Mississippi, the significant debt relief under Obama was eaten up by calamities which struck in quick succession: Two hurricanes, an earthquake, a financial crisis, the pandemic and now a federal government that sees the island as a lost cause.
Next door the Dominican Republic which gained full independence from the Spanish in 1865 seems to fare better, whereas Haiti and Cuba, also long under US influence, are far worse off since independence. Puerto Rico, thus, is not the shining beacon of what US “protection” can deliver nor does it prove convincingly that capitalism delivers much better results than communism. There are many parallels between Cuba and Puerto Rico, more than either side would like. One commonality are certainly the indigenous Taínas people that populated the Caribbean before Columbus when PR was still Boriquén.
[td]
[/td]
[td]
Early migrations of indigenous peoples in the
Caribien Sea (Tableau
[/td]Caribien Sea (Tableau
Centro Ceremonial Indígena
de Tibes
author)de Tibes
To be clear, San Juan is far better off than Havanna, but go outside the capital to smaller towns in the hinterland and a starker reality sets in. In Ponce, still PR’s second largest city, which likes to be called the "Pearl of the South", one can find the beautiful historic center pockmarked by ruins from the earthquake five years ago that are still not repaired for lack of resources. In Cuba and Puerto Rico heroic gestures to achieve modernity via enormous freeways and modern hotels yielded some overblown stuff that sits incomplete, poorly maintained or fully abandoned. Both countries have more expats than residents and in both the relatives working in the US mainland support their relatives on the island. Go to a mountain town like Utuado and there, on the town square you find a lunch place, a barber shop or an appliance store that could just as well sit in Cienfuegos, Cuba. The same holds true for the sad rows of public housing in Utuado. True, there is no food shortage in PR, there are no lines at the gas stations and there are many more cars, certainly not only vintage models. The outskirts of San Juan could be anywhere in the US. Yet, the differences between Cuba and PR are not as big as one would expect.
[td]
[/td]
[td]
Two rusting container cranes stand as idle witnesses to the decline
of the Port of Ponce, formerly the Port of the Americas, a story
of a glorious past and failed aspirations (author)
[/td]of the Port of Ponce, formerly the Port of the Americas, a story
of a glorious past and failed aspirations (author)
Thus, economically PR is not a show piece of capitalism's superiority. Without national (US) voting rights, a stagnant economy, but a beautiful setting and unmatched historic architecture, the island sends mixed signals; accordingly the opinions about the best path towards a promising future are divided. Would full US statehood be best, full independence and nationhood or the continuation of the current state as a protectorate?
At the moment these questions are not on the radar of the US. Gaza, Ukraine, tariffs and Greenland take all the oxygen and Puerto Rico muddles through, from one national power outage to the next, while luring tourists with its natural beauty and Spanish colonial history.
Architecture
On this blog about architecture and planning I will focus on some of those aspects and the resiliency issues associated with historical buildings in areas exposed to earthquake, flood and hurricanes.
Puerto Rico's architectural styles are a mix of Spanish Colonial, Gothic, Neoclassical and Baroque churches. One has to wonder whether the Old World heritage architecture derived from predominantly a dry and hot places without hurricanes and earthquakes with its brick, clay tiles plaster and painted stucco as the main materials is really appropriate for the Caribbean, as attractive as it is. Brick walls crumble in earthquakes and the humidity does a number on the stucco and paint so it needs constant maintenance. The thick walls and roof tiles retain the heat like ovens and can’t cool out at night when the humidity keeps temperatures way up. Air conditioning has changed architecture. The vents, shutters and louvers that historically perforated the solid walls to allow a breeze through the building are now undesirable leaks for the electrically chilled air. Where they are now covered up they make the humid heat even more unbearable in one of the frequent power failures. Ponce’s beautiful old town high school has no AC yet, shaded by big trees in the front court, the giant windows stood wide open and allowed the passersby to listen to the instructions given through a big video screen flickering inside, closing the arc between the past and the present.
[td]
[/td]
[td]
Tall room and double doors to a balcony for
ventilation (Author)
[/td]ventilation (Author)
The new developments outside the old towns offer little in terms of an alternative. Earlier ones often feature the one story Criolla cottages. Even new houses at times evoke the Spanish colonial style also popular in parts of California, Texas and Arizona. Others are low flung junk architecture or the branded fast food joints and drugstores known all over America. New condos, office and hotel towers are frequently modernist white concrete boxes, no better adapted to this climate, or to earthquakes except the very new ones with their seismic fortifications.
The western canon with its origin stories of Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome gives the Hispanic styles as well as modern Bauhaus adaptations of North African vernacular their meaning if not justification. Cultural preference as the result of decades of brainwashing? Maybe. Plus, in my case, my first formative foreign country journeys to Italy, Greece, Spain. PR’s old towns just as those of Cuba feel like old friends to me and can only assume that many others feel the same way, which is why they travel here in spite of bigger, brighter beaches back home on the mainland, be it on the Atlantic or tge pacific. As a younger architect I frowned about Leon Krier’s contention that a real city would have to be built according to Athenian or Roman rules, not least since for their expression of power the Fascists aspired to them as well. But Italy also has the unplanned urbanism of their southern hill towns, Greece the island architecture without a grand axis or symmetry, and the mix of order and seemingly chaos is very satisfying, without any academic analysis.
San Juan
San Juan, the capital, is a vibrant and very clean city. It has now the biggest port, the international airport and a well maintained famous old town. Viejo San Juan is hardly bigger than a handful of American malls but accommodates thousands of residents, hundreds of stores and restaurants, two castles, an art school, several notable churches, a promenade and a handful of beautiful plazas with fountains and statues. The constricted space between the Atlantic on one side and the Port on the other brought about the very thoughtful allocation of space that today attracts millions of visitors from all over the world who don’t mind the congestion of the narrow calles or the lack of parking. People walk, sit down in front of cafes or meet in the rear patios of restaurants to enjoy the company of other people.
[td]
[/td]
[td]
An odd angle between some small streets, a large tree, a cathedral
as background and a memorable public space is made.
(San Juan, Plaza de la Cathedral, author)
[/td]as background and a memorable public space is made.
(San Juan, Plaza de la Cathedral, author)
This simple method of creating urbanity and happiness has been known to many cultures and continents all over the world until it somehow became forgotten when the automobile took over and the American style suburbanization of the land around cities took a victory leap around the world. Puerto Rico is no exception. In spite of several cities and towns setting the perfect example for good urbanism they let go of all rhyme and reason on the arterials leading to the centers where fast food joints, gas stations, strip malls and car repair shops create the unsightly jumble we all know all too well and which have become the leading US export article.
Coming out of the very well stocked supermarket next to the Plaza des Armas to sit down on one of the benches to watch young and old or listen to the singer who took up a spot to beautifully intone local songs is a joy that we consider a luxury we want to give ourselves only on vacation while we could have it every day if we just would build our places again in the traditional dense manner.
Ponce
Ponce is a different story. After a period of exuberance some 50 - 60 years ago the problems of PR are more visible here, even though this second largest city of 135,000 or so residents is clean, safe and also features a very attractive old town. but hurricanes, earthquakes, the financial crisis and the pandemic have taken a toll.
[td]
[/td]
[td]
Ponce's showpiece is its central square and fountain.
With an antique car show the resemblance to Cuba
was striking. (Plaza Las Delicias, author)
[/td]With an antique car show the resemblance to Cuba
was striking. (Plaza Las Delicias, author)
Five years after the 6.4 earthquake striking the southwest of PR I saw several large or tall concrete apartment buildings condemned and abandoned due to cracks, structurally too compromised to live in, yet standing precariously close to the people walking by. Up on the hill near the cross shaped observation tower one finds the former Intercontinental luxury hotel standing as a naked concrete shell its former white nearly fully washed off. It is described as the political, social, cultural, and artistic epicenter of Ponce from 1960 to 1975, a time when Ponce grew, flourished and drew tourists from far and wide. It stood vacant for half a century, abandoned, not due to natural disasters but the altering economy. It displays past dreams and the permanence of concrete that allows current planners to envision a $40 million rebirth as early as 2026. (The beginning of this project has been expected for at least five years already).
Even when grants for reconstruction have approved, implementation is still another matter. Plus some of the ideas of the 1970's are a burdensome legacy.
Maybe there is no better project than the la Guancha boardwalk project near Ponce (Paseo Tablado La Guancha) and the grandiose plans for a Port of the Americas on the Carribean coast, to illustrate the intertwined problems of misguided planning, lack of resilience, poor governance and bureaucracy. Both are located just south of downtown Ponce.
I won’t pretend to understand the full complexity of the undertaking. Rafael Hernandez Colón, the populist Governor at the time of first thoughts about this project, for example, saw it as one of the many good deeds he bestowed on his people following his motto that progress means to see the presence with the eyes of the future. The future did not come to pass in quite the way he imagined it, though, neither for the port nor for the entertainment beach.
[td]
[/td]
[td]
Overview plan showing Ponce Playa, the Port and
Guancha with suggested improved connections (APA)
[/td]Guancha with suggested improved connections (APA)
I kind of stumbled on this in my search of a nice beachfront that initially led me to what is called Ponce Playa, clearly misleading me. There is more desolation, abandonment and poverty than beach. The Enrique Gonzales square offering the only public water access is a sad affair with a plaque commemorating eight slaves the Spaniards landed and sold here. It didn’t look anything was recently done, even though refurbishing funds had been approved five years ago. In my search of the beach I followed the coast and came across the equally sad looking working port with two rusting idle container cranes and stacked up unloaded cars.
On a truly torturous circuitous path around inlets I reached a six plus lane highway with access to two east west highways via vast interchanges. This is another highway to nowhere, heading straight for the coast where it dead ends in a circle; testimony of the past and vast aspirations that manifested themselves first and foremost in expensive and over the top roadway construction. There are also vast and underutilized parking lots plus many as of yet undeveloped land parcels. True, the road also accesses the port with its occasional cruise ship and some bulk cargo, but it has long lost its luster to St Juan’s much larger facilities. An oversized star shaped park with radiating paths and various structures in different states of use, incompleteness or abandonment aim for an organizing geometry and scale which would have made Albert Speer proud.
[td]
[/td]
[td]
The destoyed boardwalk and abandoned kioskos
(author)
[/td](author)
On this sunny Sunday afternoon in April there were, indeed, local people here, enjoying the lawns at the edge of the sea while vendors hawked food, trinkets and drink on a makeshift gravel path defying the star geometry.
The reason why those vendors are arranged in such a temporary fashion in the otherwise so geometric setup reveals itself only upon closer inspection through chainlink fences and concrete barriers. Those are erected to seal off what had been constructed as a boardwalk with sturdy concrete "kiosks" from the where food, drinks and beachwear were sold. The dream took nine years to construct and one hurricane to destroy it. An earthquake and a second hurricane finished the boardwalk off to a point that repairs were abandoned. It still sits there as it was after the last disaster.
The desire to rebuild, though, exists. An APA Assistance team report doesn't question the reconstruction either; an architect was just been hired to do the redesign. APA suggest a larger vision in which old Ponce Playa, the Port and Guancha would be tied together through more direct connections.
[td]
[/td]
[td]
Abandoned for 50 years: The former luxury hotel Intercontinental
(author)
[/td](author)
The first hurdle for everything: FEMA bureaucracy. Whether any of the boardwalk kiosks can be salvaged remains unanswered as of yet. FEMA will allow and pay for repair only if it entails less than 50% of the full reconstruction cost which probably means total demolition after the five years of abandonment. Meanwhile the vendors operating from pop-up carts and stands produced the most lively aspect of the area and suggest that more impromptu nature might be more appropriate than any new fortified multi-million structure. In the next hurricane, the carts, trailers and trucks could be moved out of harms way, their improvised nature an expression of beach culture one can also see in the popularity of The Kioskos de Luquillo east of San Juan. The assorted surviving concrete structures that dot the open spaces of today's Guancha area all look sad, austere and badly kept.
[td]
[/td]
[td]
The Guancha boardwalk when it was completed and before it
washed away (APA report)
[/td]washed away (APA report)
The successful place-making of Ponce Vieja or San Juan could have been a model for the layout of the reconstructed La Guancha project by reducing scale and cost. Not by clustering dense mixed uses right at the endangered oceans edge, but by laying out the spaces respect the human scale.
Nostalgia can’t be the guide for the future and different scales for different things are appropriate. But the human scale has not changed as much, no matter what technology we use. What makes us feel comfortable is more related to our bodies than we have admitted in modern urban design.
As a protectorate Puerto Rico can be a US model for placemaking with its history that predates the mainland by quite a bit.
Klaus Philipsen, FAIA
(now also on Substack)
Materials and sources:
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/puerto-rico-us-territory-crisis
Other travelers articles on this blog:
We are all Americans: An attempt to understand Cuba
Impressions from Port au Prince, Haiti
Southern India Behind the Scenes (Part A), (Part B)
Photo gallery San Juan (all photos by author unless otherwise noted):
[td]
[/td]
[td]
San Juan, Port area
[/td][td]
[/td]
[td]
University Carlos Albizu Miranda, with the 2005 restored Plaza se la Barandilla
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[/td]
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Calle Tetuan, Viejo San Juan, curved and creating a wider outdoor area
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[/td]
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Calle de Donenell (the grid is not entirely regular and some vistas are beautifully terminated)
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Callejon de la Capilla, San Juan
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[/td]
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San Juan Nuevo as seen on the approach to the airport
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Caleta de San Juan
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Caribe Ferry on its way to the Dominican Republic
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[/td]
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Mercado de Santurce
[/td][td]
[/td]
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Mercado de Santurce (San Juan)
[/td]Photo gallery Ponce:
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[/td]
[td]
Courthouse Ponce
[/td]
[td]
[/td]
[td][/td]
The
Ponciana
is one of 23 condominium buildings in Ponce that have sustained structural damage along with 404 houses (Earthquake 2020)
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[/td]
[td]
Preservation and earthquake resilience, not always easy to reconcile
[/td]
Historic Casino of Ponce
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Serrallés Castle Museum (top of hill)
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[/td]
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Music at Plaza Delicias Ponce with historic fire-house in background
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Ponce art museum (under renovation)
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Ponce with cross-shaped observation tower in background
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view of the Ponce Cathedral from above
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Calle Cacillo, Ponce, Modernist and colonial
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Photo gallery Utuado
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[/td]
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Utuado central plaza and parroquia San Miguel
[/td]| Utuado central plaza, The church and the plaza are representative of the traditional urban layout of historic Puerto Rican towns. |
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[/td]
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Lago Coinillas
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Rio Grande de Arecibo
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Mountains about 1150 ft
[/td]