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Casa Alcaldia en Ponce
Locality as defined as an area or neighborhood, esp. as regarded as a place occupied by certain people or as the scene of particular activities, is what drives the people in the community with their sense of pride. It defines the people as a group and at the same time individually. It gives them their identity. The locals of Ponce have a strong sense of locality and before designing anything conceptual for them it is of the upright most importance that foreigners define the local’s locality.

Tourism Infrastructure with Resort Infrastructure, how can designers combine the two with the locality of one’s community? Design with the purpose to educate what’s around and not just purchase a plot of land near the coast to construct a massive resort to isolate the locals from.  I hope through interviews with several resort managers, developers, and the architects, I will find the answer.

After some personally research, I found that designers purposely set the goal to keep the resort as isolation because of safety reasons. Puerto Rico takes precedent from the Dominican Republic in regards to this design concept of isolation as a safety precaution where armed men stand with weapons in the border lines of the resort.  I feel that is unnecessary and taking these precautions to another level when resorts are meant for relaxation.  Big armed men with heavy loaded weapons don’t give me the image of relaxation for some reason. Is this something a visit to city hall might fix?
 
- Edward L



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