THE WINGS OF CULEBRITA
CULEBRA NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, PUERTO RICO
PROJECT STATUS | IN PROGRESS
PROJECT BACKGROUND
This project is sponsored by Paralanaturaleza.org (PLN). It is currently stalled at the design development stage while PLN continues to search for funds to complete the design and cover construction costs. Vaccarino Associates was hired for the site planning, programming, and preliminary design of the 5-acre site, which includes a historic lighthouse and an abandoned helipad once used to access the lighthouse by air. PLN's goal is to transform this archaeological gem into an ecotourism and research center that will benefit the surrounding community. While Toro Arquitectos—the architects leading the project—were developing ideas for the historic building restoration and addressing the challenges of bringing equipment and materials uphill over a rocky pathway, we focused on making the project viable, as the island lacks potable water and electricity.
We developed a joint vision for supplying the necessary energy and infrastructure, which were completely absent at the site. The project received several prestigious awards, including the National Prize for Unbuilt Work at the 2021 XVI Bienal de Arquitectura y Arquitectura Paisajista, the Merit Award for Unbuilt Design at the 2019 AIA Honor Awards - Florida Caribbean Chapter, and an Honorable Mention for Unbuilt Project at the 2018 AIA Honor Awards - PR Chapter.
LOCATION
The island of Culebrita is completely undeveloped and is protected as part of the Culebra National Wildlife Refuge, which was designated in 1909 by an Executive Order signed by President Theodore Roosevelt. The only building on Culebrita is the lighthouse. Administration of the Culebra lands was the responsibility of the U.S. Navy, and the wildlife reserve designation was subject to naval and lighthouse purposes. Several of the small islands in the Culebra archipelago, including the Flamenco Peninsula, were used for gunnery and bombing practice by the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps until their departure in 1976.
THE SITE
Over the years, the site was affected, more than others, by human activities, including timber cutting and the lighthouse construction and management. Heavily cleared areas are now increasingly occupied by Leucaena leucocephala, a highly invasive non-native species. Roaming goats have threatened for years Culebrita’s wildlife habitats by significantly damaging vegetation and exposing soil to erosion. This in turn impacts the corals and seagrasses below. Along the path to the lighthouse and the western slopes below the project site it is still possible to admire remnants of a deciduous-semi evergreen forest that probably once was covering most of the island.
THE LIGHTHOUSE
Toro Arquitectos, with historian Aníbal Sepúlveda Rivera as a consultant, led the restoration of the building, while we led the analysis of the site and the site planning/design components of the project. For nearly 100 years, the lighthouse was a beacon of hope and security for sailors crossing the dangerous but heavily trafficked maritime passage between Culebrita and the infamous Sail Rock near Saint Thomas. The Culebrita passage was discovered in the 16th century and became one of the most heavily used routes between South America and Europe.
The initial design of the Culebrita Lighthouse is dated December 20, 1881. The need to make the structure recognizable from different directions led to a symmetrical scheme composed of a central volume containing a cylindrical tower, office space, and vertical circulation, flanked by two lateral volumes containing the living quarters. Built in neoclassical style, a vocabulary commonly used for institutional buildings around the island, the elaborated cornices, beautifully crowned tower, and tripartite organization are some of the features that characterize this structure.
THE ENERGY WINGS
The reuse of the abandoned helipad was key to our site resiliency strategy. In fact, the removal of the helipad material would be costly and reuse/recycling was for us mandatory. Inspired by astrological, nautical, and flying references very much tied to the history of the site, we “folded” the round concrete helipad in half elevating the semicircles into the air as wings. In our mind, the wings would be experienced as a regenerative landscape-thing, revealing the site’s history, collecting solar energy and rainwater, hosting perhaps rare plants on its roof or inner seam, while storing underneath freshwater and graywater in different cisterns and all the other needed infrastructure. The wings would also protect people in harsh climate events as a temporary shelter, hosting bathrooms, storage and a communal kitchen. They are hinged along the north-south axis by a stepped path leading to the spaces below.
THE HISTORIC AND THE GENERATIVE
During our collaboration with Toro Arquitectos, the restored lighthouse with the helipad as its “technological wings” became complementary elements of a sustainable design that will display an interplay of many contrasting opposites. The "LIGHTHOUSE" symbolizes the past, preservation and static maintenance, typical of historical structures. It represents gravity through its imposing masonry and solid walls. In contrast, the "WINGS" represent dynamism and acceptance of change: they emphasizes evolution and dynamic functionality and energy production, using lightweight materials like polycarbonate, and promoting transparency. Whereas the lighthouse marks its presence as an object atop a knoll, the architectural absence in the "WINGS" stems from services hidden within cavities and partial burial.
THE WILD AND THE CULTIVATED
The planting strategy builds upon the wild character of the site and the commitment to using only native and endemic species, which are more resilient in heavy wind and storm events. The aim is to foster a fine balance between restoring habitat loss and creating new plant communities that may better adapt to the current climate and soil conditions. The goal is to gradually replenish the diversity of deciduous and semi-evergreen dry forests along the path to the lighthouse, in the steeper and more wind-protected slopes, and to enrich the cactus scrub and sheared littoral scrub communities—not only with species that once existed before human and animal disturbance but also with others that might establish themselves in a new way with a little help from proper planting practices, grading, and soil design.
AFTERWARD
Our participation from the beginning in the design process was fundamental to create the award-winning site plan and to conceptualize and develop with Toro Arquitectos the design for The WINGS, which is now an integral part of both the lighthouse and the landscape experience at the site. The construction documents with hardscape, grading and bioretention details will be completed when PLN will be able to sponsor the completion of the project.
These images illustrate that the project is deeply focused on light, direction, and guidance, as it embraces contrasting elements of darkness, disorientation, and wonder. In the darkness, constellations are seen.