Following the success achieved at the end of last year with the Vive el Patrimonio UIS series of short videos on the monuments, sculptures, murals, and other artistic and technological elements that are now part of the Industrial University of Santander, a new season begins: the architectural heritage of our University.
Following the enactment of Resolution 0322 of 2016 by the Mayor’s Office of Bucaramanga, which declared the UIS Central Campus a site of cultural interest at the municipal level, and the approval of the Special Management and Protection Plan, which analyzed the historical, aesthetic, and symbolic values of each building and determined the levels of intervention and conservation allowed, we turned to renowned architectural professionals in the city, who have guided us on the architectural value of the fifteen buildings with the greatest heritage value, as determined by Single National Decree 1080 of 2015.
Of these heritage buildings, seven correspond to intervention level 1, which requires comprehensive conservation. These buildings, which must be preserved in their entirety because they are irreplaceable, obtained the highest scores, in order: Mechanical Engineering Lecture Hall, Mechanical Engineering Building, Main Gatehouse, Administration 1, Library, Science Lecture Hall, and University Residences. All of these buildings will have their own capsule.
Of the second group, eleven correspond to Level 2 intervention, and are buildings that require architectural conservation, i.e., volumes, spatial organization, facades, and ornamental elements that must be preserved. Of these, we have chosen seven others to feature in Vive el Patrimonio UIS: the Camilo Torres building complex (Classroom Building, Postgraduate Laboratories, and Light Laboratories), the Federico Mamitza Bayer Building, the Luis A. Calvo Auditorium, the La Perla mansion, the UISALUD Building, the Jorge Bautista Vesga Building, and the Daniel Casas Building.
We have added to these, due to its great historical and heritage value at the national level, the building that today houses the UIS Bucarica headquarters, whose original construction corresponded to the well-known Hotel Bucarica in Bucaramanga.
Renowned architects, urban planners, historians, teachers, members of the Departmental Heritage Council, and the Colombian Society of Architects have guided us with their knowledge and experience on construction, design, historical, and contextual aspects of architecture and its significance in terms of heritage value, which go beyond the scope of the university and become part of the community’s heritage.
The objective of both the Special Management and Protection Plan and this season of Vive el Patrimonio UIS is to promote the community’s knowledge and appropriation of these buildings so that together we can protect and project the historical and cultural values of the UIS central campus and, therefore, ensure its conservation and sustainability.
We invite you to see and enjoy this new season, the architectural one, of the Vive el Patrimonio UIS series, about these buildings that have shaped the history of the department’s first center of higher education and scientific research and promoter of regional and national culture.
