Affectionately known as El Firpi, this 1953 residence by Puerto Rican architect José Firpi is located in the Miramar neighborhood of Santurce, San Juan, at the end of a calle sin salida. Modest and introverted from the street, the house is a significant example of tropical modernism in Puerto Rico, with a concrete structure shaped by shade, cross-ventilation, and strong spatial relationships to climate and landscape. Though it experienced a long period of abandonment, the building has also served as a lasting creative refuge for artists, architects, filmmakers, designers, and other cultural practitioners. Its layered history, including its recent use as both home and design studio, positions it as a site of architectural and social value within the community.

The proposal reactivates El Firpi as a cultural and civic platform while preserving the integrity of the original structure. Unsympathetic later additions are removed to recover the clarity of the 1953 design, and a new partially below-grade community theater is introduced at ground level as a public anchor for performances, talks, screenings, and neighborhood gatherings. The upper levels are reprogrammed into live-work studios, shared offices, workshops, and a fourth-level café and gallery, creating a flexible framework for collective production and exchange. A lightweight rooftop addition expands capacity with additional studios and living spaces, using passive design principles, local materials, and a terracotta brise-soleil to balance daylight, heat control, and architectural continuity. Together, these interventions frame a careful transformation that advances cultural use, community resilience, and long-term stewardship.