Window To The Sea

ven­tana-al-mar

Puer­to Rico is an Island.  By now you should know that.  So, why would you need a Win­dow to the Sea?  Isn’t an Island, by def­i­n­i­tion, sup­posed to be sur­round­ed by water? Well, yeah! But, like many oth­er things in Puer­to Rico, things aren’t always what they’re sup­posed to be.

Many beach­es in Puer­to Rico are hid­den by urban sprawl­ing.  The Con­da­do area in San Juan is a per­fect exam­ple.  You can walk Ash­ford Ave. from point to point and you’ll only see the ocean twice. Dur­ing the last admin­is­tra­tion of gov­er­nor Pedro Rossel­ló there were sev­er­al build­ings in this area that were sched­uled for demo­li­tion.  These were the Con­da­do Van­der­bilt Hotel, the old Con­ven­tion Cen­ter and La Con­cha Hotel.

This deci­sion caused pub­lic uproar because many peo­ple in Puer­to Rico felt that La Con­cha and the Con­da­do Van­der­bilt were part of the Island’s archi­tec­tur­al her­itage and they should­n’t be sacrificed.

The con­tro­ver­sy went on for months, and many say that it was one of the many rea­sons that led to Rossel­lo’s defeat in 2004.

Incom­ing gov­er­nor Sila María Calderón rebuilt La Con­cha and the Con­da­do Van­der­bilt and demol­ished the old Con­ven­tion Cen­ter, which actu­al­ly was­n’t that old, since accord­ing to my rec­ol­lec­tion it was built some­time dur­ing the 1970’s.

In any case, gov­er­nor Calderón decid­ed to con­vert the plot of land between both Hotels into the “Win­dow to the Sea”, a beau­ti­ful square look­ing out to the ocean where you can peo­ple watch, rest and even enjoy occa­sion­al street con­certs.  Oh yeah, and it’s also 100% free.

The place is gor­geous, well kept and secure. Two thumbs up for gov­er­nor Calderón. Great idea!

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