House at Breñas Point

The House at Breñas Point (Spanish: Casa de la Punta; "House at the Point"), designed by Segundo Cardona FAIA, was built in 1978 with the original purpose of serving as a week-end home for a family of six: a couple and their four children, on a site shaped like a peninsula on Breñas Beach. This small house, built with modest materials, has endured the wrath of three major hurricanes and several tropical storms and has merged with the landscape while maintaining a distinctive presence within it. Since its construction it has become a landmark and point of reference for locals. It is also considered an architectural landmark for its modern interpretation of a minimal tropical dwelling in modest traditional Puerto Rican construction materials and methods: reinforced concrete and wood.

The house has been preserved by its owners in its original state. In 2006 it received the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Test of Time Award (Puerto Rico Chapter) for withstanding the test of time for more than twenty-five years since its construction. In 2014 it was included in the architectural guidebook: La Vereda Tropical: Down Where the Trade Winds Blow, published by Benjamin Vargas FAIA, as a record of all of the buildings that have been considered for the Test of Time Award by the AIA Puerto Rico Chapter from 1990 to 2009.