What you can change in a historic house: windows, colours, balconies and the storey that is allowed

It is Rule 10.2.5 of Chapter 10.2 of Joint Regulation No. 9473, titled General Intervention Standards. It sets the policies for intervening on properties designated as historic sites or zones, and extends to the centros fundacionales of all municipalities: the plazas de recreo and their surrounding blocks. It covers the standards by construction period, the standards for negatively transformed properties, the standards for new construction and non-eligible properties, exterior and interior façades, the five intervention levels, ruins and the conservation and maintenance obligation. The permits to obtain are in the guide to Rules 10.2.1 to 10.2.3, and demolitions in the guide to Rule 10.2.4; both were written from the same reading of the complete chapter.

The standards apply to properties designated as historic sites or zones and extend to the centros fundacionales of all municipalities. Within them, the standards are nuanced according to each property’s fixed valuation, if any, its period of construction and its architectural style. There are specific sections for historic sites and eligible properties, for negatively transformed properties, and for new construction and alterations of non-eligible properties. And the chapter’s general warning applies throughout: where Normas Especiales de Ordenamiento exist that are more precise than or contradict this general section, the Special Rules’ provisions apply.

• Conserving every original constructive and finishing element that exists, and rebuilding with the same constructive technique any part presenting collapse risk from structural instability, with the competent professional’s certification.Verified against the official source
• Repairing every deteriorated historic element rather than replacing it, and where the deterioration’s severity requires replacement, using an element compatible in material, design, colour, texture and other visual characteristics.Verified against the official source
• Not altering the original dimensions or proportions of door and window openings on façades, galleries and balconies, nor the typology or original material.Verified against the official source
• Not blocking or walling up original openings and not opening new ones in the façade’s solid masses: opening is authorised only to re-establish original closed openings.Verified against the official source
• Keeping galleries or balconies open, without altering the integrity of their architectural or ornamental elements.Verified against the official source
• Applying façade paint to the whole façade in a solid colour, with sober colours of low or medium intensity, and no mural painting of any kind on exterior façades or interior courtyards.Verified against the official source
• Not using chemical or physical treatments, such as pressurised sand-blasting, that damage historic materials: cleaning is done by the gentlest possible methods.Verified against the official source
• For a new storey: a minimum setback of ten feet from the façade towards the main street, five feet minimum on the side and rear façades, a design harmonious with the existing typology and doors and windows in the same material as those on the existing storey.Verified against the official source

• The competent professional’s certification where a part of the property presenting collapse risk must be rebuilt using the same constructive technique.
• The documented, material or graphic evidence on which the recreation of absent elements is based.
• To declare a ruin: the certification of competent licensed professionals on the impossibility of the building’s static permanence, including the corresponding structural report, and the ICP’s recommendation.
• In case of fire, the certified report of the Fire Bureau, the Police Bureau or an independent expert to show there was no criminal hand, intentional action or gross negligence.

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   Step 1: First: what period your property belongs to

   The standards are applied nuanced by each property’s fixed valuation, its period of construction and its architectural style, and the chapter distinguishes two groups. Properties built before the 20th century represent the Spanish colonial techniques that kept influencing the early 20th century: masonry walls in limestone, sandstone and later brick, and the use of wood in beam-and-joist roofs with brick covering, plus doors, windows, grilles and balustered railings. Properties built from the 20th century on have reinforced concrete as their common element, with wood and metal, and their styles include Eclectic, Victorian, Bungalow, Mission Style, Hispano-Mediterranean, Spanish Renaissance, Art Deco and Modernist. Knowing which your house falls into comes first, because several concrete rules follow from it.

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   Step 2: Windows: wood on brick, metal on concrete

   In pre-20th-century properties, the intervention and replacement of doors and windows — especially in brick masonry properties — uses wood as the material, except where the original application was in a different material. In reinforced concrete properties, metal doors and windows may be used whose design is the same as or similar to the original used on the property. And for properties built from the 20th century on, the same applies as to the earlier ones, except for doors and windows, which may be metal provided the design is the same as or similar to the original. In floor finishes, vinyl is not used, except in storage areas with no original floor finish.

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   Step 3: Façade colours, and what falls outside the evaluation

   The colour scheme for the façades depends on its period and style. Brick masonry properties take white on the relief elements, and green, dark brown, blue or white for their doors, windows, woodwork and balustered railings in wood or ornamental metal; the latter may be painted black. Properties with a relief base may take a colour mitigating the impact of the various activities around the property while harmonising with the scheme. And good news for the owner: interior paint and decoration criteria are not part of the evaluation, provided they do not negatively impact the property’s integrity.

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   Step 4: The eighteen general standards that nuance everything

   On top of the period rules sit eighteen standards applied according to each property’s valuation. Every property must be used for its historic use, or if used for a new use requiring alterations, those must minimally affect the characteristics defining the building, its location and its setting. The original distinctive characteristics and features are kept and conserved. Historic materials are not extracted nor original elements or spaces altered in ways affecting historic character. Every property is recognised as a physical document of its time, place and use. No changes may create a false sense of historic development, such as adding elements based on conjecture or architectural elements from other buildings. Alterations that have acquired historic value in their own right are kept, provided they are not detrimental. Characteristic elements, finishes and construction techniques or examples of craftsmanship are conserved. Every deteriorated historic element must be repaired rather than replaced, and if it must be replaced, with an element compatible in material, design, colour and texture. And the recreation of absent elements rests on documented, material or graphic evidence.

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   Step 5: No pressurised sand, and mind what lies underground

   No chemical or physical treatments, such as pressurised sand-blasting, that damage historic materials are used: cleaning the surfaces of historic buildings must be done by the gentlest possible methods. And archaeological deposits and materials that a project may affect are protected and conserved; if such sites must be impacted, measures must be taken to carry out mitigation under current law and regulation.

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   Step 6: Adding a storey: ten feet of setback

   Building one new storey is permitted on properties allowing such vertical growth, with a minimum setback of ten feet from the façade towards the main street. Every terrace roof is equally set back. The setback is five feet minimum on the side and rear façades, or whatever is needed not to block light and views to existing legal openings on abutting properties. The new storey’s design must be harmonious with the existing typology, and the material of the new doors and windows facing the façades must be the same as that of those elements on the existing storey. Moreover, every addition and new construction is executed so that, if destroyed in future, the historic property’s form and integrity and its setting would not be affected. And no demolition of party walls or segments allowing internal connection of abutting properties or the grouping of solares is permitted.

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   Step 7: The façade: no blocking, no opening, no enclosing the balcony

   Adding or attaching to the façades elements that do not correspond to the original typological characteristics or that alter and distort the structure and architectural composition is not authorised. The original dimensions or proportions of door and window openings on façades, galleries and balconies are not altered, nor the typology or the original material. Original door and window openings are not blocked or walled up, nor is opening new ones in the façade’s solid masses permitted; opening is authorised only to re-establish original closed openings. Cornices, drip mouldings, friezes, parapets, finials or any other original or historic ornamental element crowning the façades must be conserved, on the exterior faces and on the galleries or balconies. And galleries or balconies are kept open, without altering the integrity of their elements, with no construction or installation in their space or on their covering that is not harmonious with the traditional structure type.

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   Step 8: Gutters, cables, solar panels and grilles

   New gutters, downpipes or other visible elements attached to the exterior façade that do not respect the area’s custom and tradition are not permitted; if necessary, they may be installed only on interior façades, as invisibly and neatly as possible, camouflaged with paint of the colour of the surface they run over. The infrastructure for telephone, electricity, gas, television, water and sanitary services is installed inside the structure or on the side façades, attached to the wall cleanly and neatly, painted the same colour as the façade. The location, height and siting of telecommunications installations and solar panel systems on roofs must be considered, since they can affect the façade’s reading: they should not be seen from the pavement. And grilles and gates protecting the property are generally located inside the structure, hidden from outside by doors or windows; only exterior grilles and gates harmonious with the area’s custom and tradition and installed within the opening are permitted.

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   Step 9: Façade paint and the mural ban

   The type, colour and combination of paint follow the area’s custom and tradition and the architectural style. Façade paint is applied to the whole façade in a solid colour, not only to the part corresponding to the local that is the subject of the permit. Where the property has several storeys, all are the same colour, unless the typology and style permit otherwise, as where the first storey reads as a great base. Side façades are painted white or the colour of the mouldings where the volumetry projects from the urban fabric, and the colours are sober, of low or medium intensity. And a categorical prohibition: mural painting of any kind is not permitted on exterior façades or interior courtyards, whether applied directly to the surface or by any other medium.

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    Step 10: Building new next to the old

    For new constructions and alterations of non-eligible properties inside historic zones and in the centros fundacionales, the regulation sets fifteen compatibility criteria, all measured against the eligible properties with similar structures on the street or sector where the property sits. They are: consolidation of the traditional urban fabric; total height including bases or raised pavements; the width-to-height proportion of the main façades; the rhythm of structures and the space between them; roof form, respecting predominant inclination angles and materials; the rhythm of balconies and elements marking entrances; the main façade’s directional expression, vertical, horizontal or neutral; the relation of solids and openings; the proportion, size and relative location of openings; the relation of materials, texture and colour; the secondary walls such as hedges, fences, gates and tapias; the main façade’s alignment; parcel rhythm; occupation area, maximum and minimum; and volumetry. Where no similar structures exist to guide it, the new one follows the positive characteristics of the eligible properties in its immediate setting. And a general standard worth remembering: new construction is distinguished from the existing while being compatible in volume, size, scale, proportions and architectural elements.

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    Step 11: The five intervention levels, and the table that cannot be read

    Historic sites and eligible properties in historic zones are classified in five categories, which in turn classify the type of intervention permitted on each. They are: propiedad íntegra de valor monumental, comprising the institutional, religious or civil buildings of great value forming the city’s most significant landmarks and conserving the original structure or finish or restorable to it; propiedad transformada de valor monumental, the same landmarks that have undergone transformations and retain only some original parts but merit continuity; propiedad íntegra de valor individual, the commercial or residential buildings of great architectural and historic value with great quality, age, scarcity or rarity that conserve the original; propiedad transformada de valor individual, the same that have undergone transformations and retain only some parts whole; and propiedades de valor escénico o paisajista, íntegra o transformada, which acquire value from their relation to the setting or cultural landscape rather than individually. The section closes with a table crossing these five categories with the permitted intervention types. In the official copy we read, that table is damaged: its column headings came out blank, so each row’s marks cannot be attributed to any named intervention type, and the last row carries no marks. For that reason we do not publish here which intervention is permitted in each category: you must ask OGPe or the ICP.

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    Step 12: Ruins: major or minor, voluntary or involuntary

    Ruins are the remains of a building subsisting after partial destruction. Major-degree ruin is partial destruction to a degree where the damage is irreversible; within that degree there may be buildings of great historic significance for their architecture or because some important event occurred there, which must therefore be consolidated as a ruin and whose demolition is not permitted. Minor-degree ruin is that in which, despite the destruction, part of the original structure can be recovered. As to cause, voluntary ruin is that in which, by deceptive action, negligence or carelessness of the owners or occupants, a property identified as habitable when designated a historic site is later classified as a ruin; and the regulation adds that the sale, transfer or assignment of the property does not vary or cancel this condition or encumbrance.

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    Step 13: What is not enough to declare a ruin, and the duty to rebuild

    A historic site or eligible property may be declared in ruin by competent licensed professionals certifying the impossibility of the building’s static permanence, including a structural report — but not simply by being declared a public nuisance by municipal ordinance, nor by the excessive cost of its repair, nor by the alleged impossibility of obtaining financing or insurance; and for that argument to be valid it must have received the ICP’s recommendation. And here is the section’s hardest rule: a historic site or eligible property that without a favourable report and the ICP’s recommendation is demolished or intentionally burned, or is allowed to become a voluntary ruin after designation, must be rebuilt in its original situation, using the existing documentation and the ICP technicians’ knowledge of its primitive state. In case of fire, it is considered voluntary unless evidence is presented by certified report of the Fire Bureau, the Police Bureau or an independent expert that there was no criminal hand, intentional action or gross negligence. And every unauthorised demolition is considered intentional.

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    Step 14: Conserving is an obligation, and reporting is a right

    It is the obligation of owners of immovable property of every kind to conserve them in a dignified, hygienic state free of danger to citizens, and to carry out preventive maintenance works. And it is the duty and right of every citizen to report to the municipal authorities buildings lacking hygiene, threatening ruin, or which by the poor exterior state of their elements negatively affect the setting or may be dangerous through falling balconies, cornices or marquees. Finally, no intervention implying a change to what exists in designated historic sites or in eligible properties in historic zones is carried out without the ICP’s corresponding recommendation. And if the building declared in ruin is in a historic zone, after the ICP’s recommendation the owner is obliged to demolish the ruinous area and whatever that demolition leaves affected and dangerous, within a term of not more than fifteen days of the ruin file being approved.

These standards are not filed separately: they are the standard against which OGPe, the Authorised Professional or the Autonomous Municipality’s Permit Office evaluate the permit application, always with the ICP’s recommendation. A ruin declaration is made by competent licensed professionals with a structural report, and requires the ICP’s recommendation to be valid. Reports about buildings threatening ruin or affecting the setting go to the municipal authorities.

• Enclosing the balcony or gallery to gain interior space.
• Opening a new opening in the façade, or blocking or walling up an original one.
• Changing wooden windows for aluminium on a brick masonry property.
• Washing the façade with pressurised sand or another treatment that damages historic materials.
• Painting a mural on the exterior façade or in the interior courtyard.
• Painting the façade an intense colour or leaving storeys in different colours where the typology does not permit it.
• Installing gutters, downpipes or visible cables attached to the exterior façade.
• Placing solar panels or antennas on the roof so that they are visible from the pavement.
• Adding a storey without the ten-foot setback towards the main street and five feet on the side and rear façades.
• Knocking down a party wall to connect two abutting properties.
• Replacing a deteriorated historic element instead of repairing it.
• Trusting that a municipal public-nuisance declaration or a high repair estimate is enough to declare a ruin.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Oficina de Gerencia de Permisos (OGPe)

  OGPe

  docs.pr.gov

• Permit Management Office

  ogpe

  ogpe.pr.gov

• Puerto Rican Institute of Culture

  icp

  www.icp.pr.gov