Moneo Brock
Building
Hotels
Structural Design
Hotel Kimpton Las Mercedes
The Kimpton Las Mercedes Hotel, designed by Moneo Brock in the Colonial City of Santo Domingo, represents a particularly complex structural intervention due to the coexistence of historic heritage and new contemporary construction. The project is developed on a historic city block where colonial buildings from the 16th and 18th centuries are preserved, including masonry walls, interior courtyards, and protected facades. The structural strategy departs from the preservation of these pre-existing structures through consolidation and targeted reinforcement processes, allowing the original elements to be maintained while new independent volumes are inserted. This approach avoids transferring excessive loads to the historic fabric and allows the new structures to work autonomously, respecting both the stability of the ensemble and the urban scale of the historic center.
One of the most interesting aspects of the project is the way the structure spatially organizes the hotel through successive courtyards and stepped volumes. The building deliberately avoids a massive footprint, fragmenting the program into different pieces connected by galleries and open spaces. From a structural perspective, this fragmentation reduces excessive spans and facilitates adaptation to an irregular plot constrained by historic remains.
The new volumes appear to be resolved through mixed systems of reinforced concrete and lightweight steel structure, particularly suited for interventions in heritage environments and tropical climates, where optimizing cross-ventilation, solar protection, and hygrothermal control is essential. The accessible roof with a pool and common areas also adds significant live load requirements and waterproofing demands, especially critical in a Caribbean climate of high humidity and salt exposure.
