Blas Silva
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Blas C. Silva Boucher (2 February 1869 - 27 January 1949) was a twentieth-century Puerto Rican
engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the limit ...
from
Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce (, , , ) is both a city and a municipality on the southern coast of Puerto Rico. The city is the seat of the municipal government. Ponce, Puerto Rico's most populated city outside the San Juan metropolitan area, was founded on 12 August 1 ...
. He is credited with the creation of the
Ponce Creole Ponce Creole is an architectural style created in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in the late 19th and early 20th century. This style of Puerto Rican buildings is found predominantly in residential homes in Ponce that developed between 1895 and 1920. Ponc ...
architectural style An architectural style is a set of characteristics and features that make a building or other structure notable or historically identifiable. It is a sub-class of style in the visual arts generally, and most styles in architecture relate closely ...
, even though he was trained as an engineer, not a designer.


Early years

Blas Cornelio Silva Boucher was born in Hormigueros,
Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
on 2 February 1869.


Schooling

Silva received his high school diploma from the Liceo de Mayaguez (''Mayaguez Liceum'') and then studied engineering in Spain through a scholarship from the ''Sociedad Protectora de la Inteligencia'' (Intelligence Protection Society). In
Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
, Silva did freelance school work in road, drainage, and ports engineering. He then entered the prestigious Spanish National Engineering School where he studied for eight years. He did his
practicum A practicum (also called work placement, especially in the UK) is an undergraduate or graduate-level course, often in a specialized field of study, that is designed to give students supervised practical application of a previously or concurrent ...
s in Aragon,
Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a '' nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the nort ...
and Valencia, Spain.


Professional life

He returned to the Island where he took an engineering position in the Puerto Rico Public Works Bureau. Three years later, he resigned to establish his own private engineering practice. When the post of City Engineer became vacant in the city of Ponce, Silva was unanimously selected, from among various applicants, as the candidate to fill the position.


Death and legacy

Silva died in San Juan on 27 January 1949. Among Silva's most distinguished works are the Font-Ubides House (1913) and the
Subira Residence ''Subira'' is a 2007 Kenyan film. Synopsis Subira, 11, is a cheeky young girl raised in an orthodox Muslim community on the remote island of Lamu, Kenya ) , national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map ...
(1910), both listed in the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...
. He also designed and built the Salazar-Candal House (1919).


Honors

He is honored at Ponce's Park of the Illustrious Ponce Citizens. Ponce's best-known bridge, ''
Puente de los Leones The Puente de los Leones (literally, Bridge of the Lions) is a historic bridge in Ponce, Puerto Rico, joining Barrio Tercero to Barrio San Antón and Barrio Machuelo Abajo. It is also the city's best known bridge. The bridge is at the western ...
'', located over Río Portugués on
PR-1 Puerto Rico Highway 1 (PR-1) is a highway in Puerto Rico that connects the city of Ponce to San Juan. Leaving Ponce, the road heads east and follows a somewhat parallel route along the southern coast of the island heading towards Salinas. At S ...
/Bulevar Miguel Pou at Calle Lolita Tizol, was named "Puente Blas Silva" before it was renamed Puente de Los Leones.


Contemporary recognition

The Puerto Rico Historical Preservation Office recently said of him, "Blas Silva was probably the most established of the 'wedding-cake architects' and was thus sought after mostly by the 'nouveau riche' of the period. Silva's houses are among the richest in Ponce, among which the ont-Ubidesstands out for its circular porches." It added that "Silva, as had other foreign-trained architects, succeeded in integrating classical education with the traditional elements of the Spanish Caribbean."Mariano G. Coronas Castro, Certifying Official; Felix Julian del Campo, State Historian; and Hector F. Santiago, State Architectural Historian, Puerto Rico Historic Preservation Office. (San Juan, Puerto Rico) August, 1987. In ''National Register of Historic Places Inventory - Nomination Form (Residencia Subira)''. United States Department of the Interior. National Park Service. (Washington, D.C.) Page 3. Listing Reference Number 87001826. 28 October 1987.


See also

* Alfredo Wiechers *
Francisco Porrata Doria Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Nicknames In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comunitatis'' (father of ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silva, Blas C. 1869 births 1949 deaths People from Hormigueros, Puerto Rico Architects from Ponce, Puerto Rico Ponce Creole architects 20th-century Puerto Rican engineers