{"id":319413,"date":"2026-11-02T10:58:23","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T10:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/319413\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T10:58:23","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T10:58:23","slug":"taller-puertorriqueno-celebrates-philly-architects-legacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/319413\/","title":{"rendered":"Taller Puertorrique\u00f1o celebrates Philly architect’s legacy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have a question about Philly\u2019s neighborhoods or the systems that shape them? PlanPhilly reporters want to hear from you! Ask us a question or send us a story idea you think we should cover.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

For architect Antonio Fiol-Silva, a building should do more than serve the people who use it. It should reflect the community around it and be rooted in true collaboration with the client.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur approach is really to look at the totality of things,\u201d Fiol-Silva said recently inside El Coraz\u00f3n Cultural Center, the home of Taller Puertorrique\u00f1o, a nonprofit in North Philadelphia dedicated to celebrating and preserving Puerto Rican arts and culture.
\n\"AntonioAntonio Fiol-Silva founding principal of SITIO architecture + urbanism, explains the redesign he did for the Bethlehem Steel Plant in Bethlehem, Pa., honoring the plant\u2019s history and creating a space for music performances in En Su Sitio \/ In Its Place, an exhibit of Fiol-Silva\u2019s work at the El Coraz\u00f3n Cultural Center in Philadelphia. (Kimberly Paynter\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

A native of Puerto Rico, Fiol-Silva considers the modern building on North Fifth Street\u00a0 \u2014 Taller\u2019s permanent home for the last decade \u2014 his most heartfelt expression of that principle, making it a fitting location for a retrospective exhibit of his venerable career.\n <\/p>\n

\u201cEn Su Sitio\u201d<\/a> highlights a variety of projects that SITIO architecture + urbanism, Fiol-Silva\u2019s Philadelphia-based firm, shaped in the city and around the country, including several residential towers<\/a>, an outdoor music venue<\/a> and a pair of high-profile recreation centers<\/a>.
\n\"anEn Su Sitio \/ In Its Place, an exhibit of architect Antonio Fiol-Silva\u2019s work at the El Coraz\u00f3n Cultural Center in Philadelphia. (Kimberly Paynter\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the building housing the exhibit, however, that gets the greatest focus. From a pair of elevated arches in El Coraz\u00f3n\u2019s lobby, photos and architectural models help visitors trace Taller\u2019s move from a basement to a space it views as a gateway to the city\u2019s Puerto Rican community \u2014 a community the organization wants to preserve as private development and the threat of gentrification creeps toward its doors.\n<\/p>\n

The center is located in the Fairhill section of North Philadelphia, a high-poverty neighborhood about a mile from Norris Square<\/a> and East Kensington<\/a>, and a short ride from Fishtown \u2014 communities that have experienced swift gentrification since El Coraz\u00f3n opened.\n<\/p>\n

In nearby Kensington, property values continue to rise<\/a> \u2014 sharply \u2014 as residents in parts of eastern North Philadelphia, which includes Fairhill, see less severe but nonetheless significant increases.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re having a lot of conversations in the world about visibility, and who has a voice and who doesn\u2019t. And the fact that we\u2019re amplifying the voices of Puerto Rican artists and culture bearers, I think, is a critical piece of that push back,\u201d Taller\u2019s executive director, Erikka Goslin, said.
\n\"TallerTaller Puertorrique\u00f1o Executive Director and CEO Erikka Goslin in the organization\u2019s auditorium which can host about 350 people and can be split into 3 separate classrooms for arts learning. (Kimberly Paynter\/WHYY)\n<\/p>\n

Owned by Taller, the center opened in 2016 after a relentless planning and fundraising effort spearheaded by Dr. Carmen Febo San Miguel, the nonprofit\u2019s longtime executive director. She retired in 2021 after spending 22 years at the helm.\n<\/p>\n

In 2007, early on in her tenure, the Commerce Department awarded Taller with a $1.5 million grant for the project \u2014 seed money the organization used to bring in more funding ahead of construction. The city later gifted Taller a large vacant hospital parking lot near Lehigh Avenue for the organization\u2019s new home.\n<\/p>\n

By then, the organization was operating out of two modest buildings and bursting at the seams.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019ve done miracles with the space we have, but it\u2019s time to have a vision and a dream for what could be. And that is what this building represents for us,\u201d Febo San Miguel said in 2014.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have a question about Philly\u2019s neighborhoods or the systems that shape them? PlanPhilly reporters want to hear from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":319414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[221,17916,69,71,70,2312],"class_list":["post-319413","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-north-philadelphia","tag-north-philly","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-planphilly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319413","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=319413"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/319413\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/319414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=319413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=319413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=319413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}