Militarized Modernism in a Roosevelt Caribbean

Puerto Rico, a small United States territory located in the Caribbean, witnessed a surge in construction of Naval infrastructure during World War Two (WWII). The bases constructed outside of the United States during this period were called Advance Bases. They were offshore nodes positioned to defend the mainland from enemy attacks. The keystone in this defense formation was Puerto Rico. Modernist architecture, an aesthetic that was foreign to the island’s Spanish colonial architecture, was extensively used in this project. This thesis explores how this Modernist program of naval infrastructure occurred.