The Jose Gautier Benitez development is officially under construction on a 21-acre site in Caguas, Puerto Rico. The site will be divided into six residential blocks that includes five streets dedicated to family housing, and one reserved for elderly housing.
Designed by Álvarez-Díaz & Villalón (AD&V), the largest architecture and interior design firm in Puerto Rico, the development will feature 438 new one- and two-bedroom apartments and a five-story elderly housing facility that includes resident lounges, community rooms, fitness rooms, and game rooms. Site improvements include new landscaping, street lighting, parking, walkways, playgrounds, and community gardens.
The Jose Gautier Benitez development was designed with energy conservation and resiliency measures at the forefront. These measures include stormproof windows, environmentally conscious building materials and methods, energy efficient appliances, photovoltaic panels, emergency power generation, and universal design. “In the wake of Hurricane Maria and other recent storms, Puerto Rico has learned the hard way that it must design and construct new buildings with sustainability in mind,” said Cristina Villalón, Managing Principal and Interior Designer of AD&V. “This means not only ensuring all our structures – from affordable housing to high-end residences and hotels – are built to withstand future natural disasters, but that they also have a more limited impact on the environment.“
See Also: Mixed-use community breaks ground in Greenville, S.C.
AD&V is serving as both the architect and interior designer of the project.
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
CityCenter Takes Experience Design To New Heights
It's early June, in Las Vegas, which means it's very hot, and I am coming to the end of a hardhat tour of the $9.2 billion CityCenter development, a tour that began in the air-conditioned comfort of the project's immense sales center just off the famed Las Vegas Strip and ended on a rooftop overlooking the largest privately funded development in the U.
| Aug 11, 2010
Gold Award: Westin Book Cadillac Hotel & Condominiums Detroit, Mich.
“From eyesore to icon.” That's how Reconstruction Awards judge K. Nam Shiu so concisely described the restoration effort that turned the decimated Book Cadillac Hotel into a modern hotel and condo development. The tallest hotel in the world when it opened in 1924, the 32-story Renaissance Revival structure was revered as a jewel in the then-bustling Motor City.
| Aug 11, 2010
Silver Award: Palmer House Hilton Hotel & Shops Chicago, Ill.
Chicago's Palmer House Hilton holds the record for the longest continuously operated hotel in North America. It was originally built in 1871 by Potter Palmer, one of America's first millionaire developers. When it was rebuilt after the Great Chicago Fire it became the first hotel in the U.S. to put a telephone in every room.
| Aug 11, 2010
Gulf Coast Hotel's Stormy Road to Recovery
After his initial tour of the dilapidated 1850s-era Battle House Hotel, Ron Blount, construction manager with Retirement Systems of Alabama, said to his boss: “You need a priest more than you need a contractor.” Those words were more prescient to RSA's restoration of the historic Mobile landmark than he could have known at the time.
| Aug 11, 2010
Lifestyle Hotel Trends Around the World
When the Rocco Forte Collection opens the Verdura Golf & Spa Resort in Sicily in early 2009, the 200-room luxury property will be one of the world's newest lifestyle hotels. Lifestyle hotels cater to guests seeking a heightened travel experience, which they deliver by offering distinctive—some would say avant-garde, or even outrageous—architecture, room design, amenities, and en...
