Hotel Jaragua
Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 1942
Guillermo González Architect
Hotel Jaragua
(Demolished in 1985)
With aerial and ocean traffic between the two Americas at an all-time high, the modern luxury hotel is fast becoming a ubiquitous feature of Latin American capitals. The Jaragua Hotel, in Ciudad Trujillo, capital city of the Dominican Republic, is another on the growing list. These hotels occupy a unique position in comparison with hotels in this country -serving more as social centers or clubs which facilitate the meeting of local aristocracy and North American tourists and business men than as simple hostelries. This function explains the lavish ratio of public areas to rentable guest rooms in the Jaragua. (There are only 63 single guest rooms and 3 suites in the building, though an addition is planned).
Built and owned by Trujillo, the iron-fisted dictator of the little republic, the Jaragua is situated on a 50-acre plot. It faces the sea across George Washington Avenue -part of the ambitious new capital which Trujillo has been building ever since a hurricane wiped out the old city of Santo Domingo in September, 1930. The Jaragua, like most of the new construction is especially designed to resist winds of hurricane intensity and is reported to have successfully withstood the earthquakes of last month.
Architecturally, the project should be a feather in the cap of Guillermo González Sánchez, the young Yale-educated Dominican architect who designed it. Certainly, it is the equal of North American resort hotels and superior to most commercial ones. The plan gives good exposure to the public rooms and to over half the bedrooms, all of which face the sea, overlooking the swimming pool and dancing terrace. Service and traffic is confined to the north side, while bathers have a separate stairway near the pool for easy access. The pool itself is large and filled with filtered salt water. The huge, partially-covered roof terrace, which has its own bar and serving pantry, commands a fine view of the city and the sea. The entire structure is of reinforced concrete.
From an American Architectural Magazine
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