Ladis Place, Salinas – 1968

RESTAURANT LADI’S PLACE
PLAYA DE SALINAS
Salinas, Puerto Rico

The design program called for the reconstruction of a traditional and very popular sea food restaurant. The project was to be financed by the owners and had to be constructed by stages without interrupting its continuous use. The maximum capacity was 1,000 meals per seating, yet the restaurant use was quite cyclical – serving over two thousand meals on a Sunday noon, but only two hundred on a week-day.

Hence, the design solution is a series of independent pavilions related together by a board walk. The kitchen was built first, then destroying the old kitchen and building the first dining room and so on. The kitchen design is very specialized to serve the house specialty – fried fish, onion sauce and plantains. All serving facilities are at level to be able to flow foods in carts. This dictated the over bridge at the entrance. The service facilities are totally separated and discreet to the patrons. The waiters circulate through the tunnel that serves all pavilions, while the customers circulate parallel to the sea. The wide balcony allows for additional seating on busy days. Construction began in 1972 and finalized in 1977 without a single day interruption.

The shape and form of the building are typical to the Salinas area. The building had to remain rustic and unpretentious as not to lose its clientele – the populace.

The garden wall and the front façade block the ocean view urban tradition of the area, only to gain full view of the sea entering through the access tunnel, a lush garden in contrast to the arid surroundings.

Technical Information:

Construction is concrete structure with wood and wood beam roofs. The roofs are urethane insulated to minimize heat loads. The kitchen and service rooms are concrete and concrete block and form part of the parking wall.

The dining rooms were designed to be air conditioned but construction came in the mist of the energy crisis and glass was substituted with screens adding ceiling fans for air movement. Only the bar pavilions remained air conditioned, and here, too, sliding window were added for natural ventilation option.