Edificio Herdocia

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Edificio Herdocia

Edificio Correos. Edificio Herdocia. San Jose. Costa Rica.JPG

View of Edificio Herdocia (right), next to the Edificio de Correos y Telégrafos de Costa Rica.
Address 3rd Avenue and 2nd Street
San Jose
Costa Rica
Coordinates 9°56′9″N84°4′47″W / 9.93583°N 84.07972°W / 9.93583; -84.07972
Current use Business and office.
Construction
Built 1920
Opened 1945
Reopened 2012
Architect Luis Llach Llagostera

The Edificio Herdocia is a four-story property located in San Jose, Costa Rica. It was built in 1945 by Catalan architect Luis Llach Llagostera. It is located on the corner of 2nd Street and Avenue 3 of the Central American capital, north of the Edificio Correos, with which it forms one of the most recognized architectural ensembles of the Josefino neighborhood. Its architectural style combines art deco with neoclassical. Considered to be of great beauty and historical value, was declared a Historical Architectural Heritage of Costa Rica in February 2000. Its name comes from Carmen Herdocia Rojas, who was its first owner.

San José, Costa Rica City and municipality in San José, Costa Rica

San José is the capital and largest city of Costa Rica. Located in the mid-west of the Central Valley, San José is the seat of national government, the focal point of political and economic activity, and the major transportation hub of this Central American nation. The population of San José Canton was 288,054 in 2011, and San José’s municipal land area measures 44.2 square kilometers, and an estimated 333,980 residents in 2015. The metropolitan area stretches beyond the canton limits and has an estimated population of over 2 million in 2017. The city is named in honor of Joseph of Nazareth.

Costa Rica Country in Central America

Costa Rica, officially the Republic of Costa Rica, is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, and Ecuador to the south of Cocos Island. It has a population of around 5 million in a land area of 51,060 square kilometers. An estimated 333,980 people live in the capital and largest city, San José with around 2 million people in the surrounding metropolitan area.

The Catalans are the citizens of Catalonia, an autonomous community in Spain and the inhabitants of the Roussillon historical region in southeast France, today the Pyrénées Orientales departments, also called Catalonia Nord and Pays Catalan in French.

Contents

History

The land where the Edificio Herdocia is located has had several owners since the middle of the 19th Century. In 1934, the property was inherited by Carmen Herdocia Rojas, at the time a student in London. The house that existed on the land was demolished in 1945 to make way for the beginning of construction. From the time of completion until today, it has been used commercially.

London Capital of the United Kingdom

London is the capital and largest city of both England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south-east of England, at the head of its 50-mile (80 km) estuary leading to the North Sea, London has been a major settlement for two millennia. Londinium was founded by the Romans. The City of London, London's ancient core − an area of just 1.12 square miles (2.9 km2) and colloquially known as the Square Mile − retains boundaries that follow closely its medieval limits. The City of Westminster is also an Inner London borough holding city status. Greater London is governed by the Mayor of London and the London Assembly.

On December 20, 1999, Decree 7555 was issued, whose 7th and 8th articles declared the building to be a Historical Architectural Heritage of Costa Rica, which became effective with its publication in the official newspaper La Gaceta on February 23, 2000. After several years of abandonment, vandalism, and neglect, it was restored by the Heritage Center of the Ministry of Culture at a cost of 90 million colones (about $180,000), with the aim of rescuing its historical facade.

Architecture

The building's architecture marks a transition between the neoclassical style and Catalan modernism. It stands out as uncharacteristic of the usual style of architect Luis Llach. It is his only building that has more than two floors. Its structure is primarily brick and concrete. It has four symmetrical levels, with a central tower that occupies the main corner of the building. It is best known for its facade, which is considered a simplification of the neoclassical style, with attached columns with pedestals and capitals. It has baroque features, especially in the windows, such as the helices that span them and the arches at the center of the crowning relief. Towards the north and west on the fourth floor, there are several concrete pergolas with neoclassical figureheads. The decoration shows historical embellishments such as pilasters and corbels alongside simpler, more modern elements such as the cornices and pediments.

Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century. In its purest form, it is a style principally derived from the architecture of classical antiquity, the Vitruvian principles, and the work of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio.

<i>Modernisme</i> architectural and artistic movement originating in late-19th-century Catalonia, Spain

Modernisme, also known as Catalan modernism, is the historiographic denomination given to an art and literature movement associated with the search of a new entitlement of Catalan culture, one of the most predominant cultures within Spain. Nowadays it is considered a movement based on the cultural reivindication of a catalan identity. Its main form of expression was in architecture, but many other arts were involved, and especially the design and the decorative arts, which were particularly important, especially in their role as support to architecture. Modernisme was also a literary movement.

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