Former Catholic Church & Private School

SGA provided Technical Assistance to the Rio Piedras Development Trust in San Juan, Puerto Rico to evaluate the reuse potential of La Milagrosa – a Catholic Church and Private School site that has been vacant since 2009. The site includes multiple structures, with the main buildings being a Neo-Gothic chapel and a convent. Our team traveled to Puerto Rico to conduct field documentation of the site and meet with representatives from The Rio
Piedras Development Trust and other local stakeholders. We evaluated the adaptive reuse potential of the chapel to promote cultural and educational activities for the community, as well as the convent to have mixed used programming, including a café, retail, and transient housing. The remainder of the site will be redeveloped to provide mixed-income housing for the Rio Piedras community. Our design strives to respect the historic character of the chapel and convent, while incorporating resilient and sustainable development on this brownfield site that hopes to become a catalyst for the Rio Piedras neighborhood revitalization.