In North Philly, an architect’s love letter to Puerto Rican culture has a permanent home

Have a question about Philly’s 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. 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. “Our approach is really to look at the totality of things,” Fiol-Silva said recently inside El Corazón Cultural Center, the home of Taller Puertorriqueño, a nonprofit in North Philadelphia dedicated to celebrating and preserving Puerto Rican arts and culture. Antonio Fiol-Silva founding principal of SITIO architecture + urbanism, explains the redesign he did for the Bethlehem Steel Plant in Bethlehem, Pa., honoring the plant’s history and creating a space for music performances in En Su Sitio / In Its Place, an exhibit of Fiol-Silva’s work at the El Corazón Cultural Center in Philadelphia. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)