This building has been designed according to the following notions:

1. This design relies in the recycling and renovation of an existing structure in Rio Piedras, a distressed urban center in the San Juan metropolitan area.
2. The architects took a primordial role in the selection of the existing building and location. The existing building is a 1940’s structure in great need of repair. The architects saw a potential for its re-use as an office building, because its proximity to the urban train station and because of its centralized location (the building is flanked on a side by a narrow pedestrian walkway that connects to downtown Rio Piedras).
3. A significant aspect of this proposal is to demonstrate the feasibility in the use of green technologies in local urban settings. There is a prevailing misleading presumption in Puerto Rico that tends to exclusively link the use of sustainable technologies to rural areas. The renovation will include green-technology such as photovoltaic panels, wind turbines, the use of energy efficient lighting and appliances, and the recycling of components.
4. The primary use of the building will bring new job opportunities to the neighborhood.
5. The design takes over the basic modernist lines of the existing structure, to create a distinctive vocabulary.
6. The façade is defined in part by plasma cut metal panels that have a baluster shaped motive. The balusters are typical elements present in the balconies of many vernacular urban houses in Rio Piedras.
7. An exterior space in form of a patio has been integrated into the scheme (on its fourth level) in order to be used as a gathering area. Such space will be partially covered with photovoltaic panels that will double as sun-breaking devices.

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