Barriada Morales Redevelopment
Location: Barriada Morales, Caguas PRClient: Municipio Autónomo de CaguasStatus: 1998 - 2001 Underway
Architect: Moya + Lluch Associated ArchitectsDesign: Frank X. Moya AIA LEED
Milton R. Lluch AIA
Type: URBAN DESIGN
BACKGROUNDBarriada Morales encompasses a small urban community, one that in essence is a small city with its own sense of identity and function. Its development as an organic growth community (without the benefits of any professional planning) underscores the intuitive character of its urban discipline with the unconscious creation of a hierarchy of building types, streets and infrastructure, organized around natural elements.
At 160 acres the project area encompassed by a cluster of smaller, older residential neighborhoods is endemic of Latin-American urban trends. Within that tradition, the growth of surrounding “suburbs” is generated by the population shift of needy peasants from the countryside to the cities. Historically, these squatter communities or colonies surrounded wealthier urban cores, usually in abandoned farms close to a water source. These unplanned, improvised communities seem to mimic an ingrained pattern of human habitation in the design of settlements with its street layouts, open space and impromptu plazas. Settled between two creek canyons, and defined by two densely populated cemeteries, Barriada Morales developed as an autonomous community on the periphery of the city and valley of Caguas. Its Kasbah-like narrow alleyways reveal its pre-automobile, ox cart settlement by poor rural families. Official action for a plan was spurred by the need of the City to establish and enforce a sense of order and community norms in a situation which had over the years degenerated into a political no-man’s land controlled by drug lords and their gangs. The reality of a corrupted community, incapable of working together, managing and building their own assets or being aware of the available opportunities and alternatives to their well being, required officials to circumvent community residents’ participation. And more pressing still was the realization that this was still a growing community spilling over its natural boundaries and threatening the adjacent urban core. REDEVELOPMENTThe Master Plan study began with a close look at the existing conditions in the area. Streets were found to be narrow and inadequate, with access to some of the houses limited to alleyways. This created limited and uncertain traffic patterns with little room for maneuvering let alone parking. Utilities were lacking or deficient throughout. Barriada Morales residents had adopted a “band-aid” approach, borrowing power from existing sources in a haphazard way whenever possible. Drainage was deficient, and there were sections prone to flooding. The houses themselves were small and inadequate. The original structures were at times overwhelmed by flimsy additions.
The framework for new development at Barriada Morales began with a new street infrastructure. The central feature of this new infrastructure is a boulevard that provides the primary access through the redesigned Barriada from a guarded entrance point on the highway. This 70 foot wide passageway provides easy access to all points in the neighborhood, and boasts a pedestrian walk, shade trees, plants, pavers and ornamental site lighting. Other streets were selected for widening, and a new traffic plan developed.
Two new community nodes now serve as focal points for community activity. One is at the heart of Barriada Morales, another serves Brooklyn, Bunker and Campito. The node at Barriada Morales contains facilities for a new Community Center, a Senior Center and other social services. In addition, new school facilities and commercial spaces are planned as part of this node. All these facilities surround a new open passive recreation space modeled on the typical Puerto Rican plaza, with shade trees, benches, and ornamental site lighting and pavers. The new boulevard intersects the new plaza, making it a visual as well as a functional center for the neighborhood. The proposed community node at Brooklyn, Bunker and Campito is suburban in nature, and includes new facilities for a Senior Center as well as open space. Residential typologies for the project’s total of 479 new homes were developed with consideration for ideal densities at the different areas. For example, in order to improve the quality of life in the Barriada Morales and to make room for wider streets, many structures will have to be torn down, resulting in a desirable lower population density. The total loss of residential and commercial property due to removal accounts for approximately 50% of the total structures, a reduction with a significant positive impact to the infrastructure. Indeed, a total of 267 new homes are planned in the Barriada sector alone, a mix of attached properties and two and three-story walk-ups. The construction of new homes creates an opportunity to improve housing standards and to provide much needed senior housing in this area. At Extension El Campito, a mix of 150 attached duplexes and single family houses are planned as new construction. The design for Extension Brooklyn calls for 62 new houses with similar characteristics. PROGRESSThe plan’s objectives sought to improve an enhanced sense of community by opening linkages through open space with the surrounding communities, diminishing the population density created by natural barriers, increasing the opportunities for decent, affordable housing organized around community focal parks, and proactively designing against the natural and man-made advantages that allowed the drug trade to flourish unabated for years. Because of its focused attention by City officials and ample federally subsidized resources, the plan is presently being implemented with some measure of success in its elimination of blight and greatly diminished drug trade. Together with new housing, these measures bring optimism and hope to the people who live there.
At 160 acres the project area encompassed by a cluster of smaller, older residential neighborhoods is endemic of Latin-American urban trends. Within that tradition, the growth of surrounding “suburbs” is generated by the population shift of needy peasants from the countryside to the cities. Historically, these squatter communities or colonies surrounded wealthier urban cores, usually in abandoned farms close to a water source. These unplanned, improvised communities seem to mimic an ingrained pattern of human habitation in the design of settlements with its street layouts, open space and impromptu plazas. Settled between two creek canyons, and defined by two densely populated cemeteries, Barriada Morales developed as an autonomous community on the periphery of the city and valley of Caguas. Its Kasbah-like narrow alleyways reveal its pre-automobile, ox cart settlement by poor rural families. Official action for a plan was spurred by the need of the City to establish and enforce a sense of order and community norms in a situation which had over the years degenerated into a political no-man’s land controlled by drug lords and their gangs. The reality of a corrupted community, incapable of working together, managing and building their own assets or being aware of the available opportunities and alternatives to their well being, required officials to circumvent community residents’ participation. And more pressing still was the realization that this was still a growing community spilling over its natural boundaries and threatening the adjacent urban core. REDEVELOPMENTThe Master Plan study began with a close look at the existing conditions in the area. Streets were found to be narrow and inadequate, with access to some of the houses limited to alleyways. This created limited and uncertain traffic patterns with little room for maneuvering let alone parking. Utilities were lacking or deficient throughout. Barriada Morales residents had adopted a “band-aid” approach, borrowing power from existing sources in a haphazard way whenever possible. Drainage was deficient, and there were sections prone to flooding. The houses themselves were small and inadequate. The original structures were at times overwhelmed by flimsy additions.
The framework for new development at Barriada Morales began with a new street infrastructure. The central feature of this new infrastructure is a boulevard that provides the primary access through the redesigned Barriada from a guarded entrance point on the highway. This 70 foot wide passageway provides easy access to all points in the neighborhood, and boasts a pedestrian walk, shade trees, plants, pavers and ornamental site lighting. Other streets were selected for widening, and a new traffic plan developed.
Two new community nodes now serve as focal points for community activity. One is at the heart of Barriada Morales, another serves Brooklyn, Bunker and Campito. The node at Barriada Morales contains facilities for a new Community Center, a Senior Center and other social services. In addition, new school facilities and commercial spaces are planned as part of this node. All these facilities surround a new open passive recreation space modeled on the typical Puerto Rican plaza, with shade trees, benches, and ornamental site lighting and pavers. The new boulevard intersects the new plaza, making it a visual as well as a functional center for the neighborhood. The proposed community node at Brooklyn, Bunker and Campito is suburban in nature, and includes new facilities for a Senior Center as well as open space. Residential typologies for the project’s total of 479 new homes were developed with consideration for ideal densities at the different areas. For example, in order to improve the quality of life in the Barriada Morales and to make room for wider streets, many structures will have to be torn down, resulting in a desirable lower population density. The total loss of residential and commercial property due to removal accounts for approximately 50% of the total structures, a reduction with a significant positive impact to the infrastructure. Indeed, a total of 267 new homes are planned in the Barriada sector alone, a mix of attached properties and two and three-story walk-ups. The construction of new homes creates an opportunity to improve housing standards and to provide much needed senior housing in this area. At Extension El Campito, a mix of 150 attached duplexes and single family houses are planned as new construction. The design for Extension Brooklyn calls for 62 new houses with similar characteristics. PROGRESSThe plan’s objectives sought to improve an enhanced sense of community by opening linkages through open space with the surrounding communities, diminishing the population density created by natural barriers, increasing the opportunities for decent, affordable housing organized around community focal parks, and proactively designing against the natural and man-made advantages that allowed the drug trade to flourish unabated for years. Because of its focused attention by City officials and ample federally subsidized resources, the plan is presently being implemented with some measure of success in its elimination of blight and greatly diminished drug trade. Together with new housing, these measures bring optimism and hope to the people who live there.
