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Characteristics
- Starting in 1996, the public sector, under Dr. Leonel Fernandez’s administration, undertakes an urban works program to arrange and bring order to the roads throughout the entire country. The work included construction, extension and reconstruction of streets, avenues, local roads, freeways and bridges, as well as viaducts and underpasses.
- In this period the public sector also built modern health, education and sports structures.
- New buildings were constructed to house public institutions such as the School of Diplomacy and Consular Affairs, the Supreme Court of Justice and the office of the Republic’s Attorney General, the offices of Passports and Migration, and operational headquarters of the Metropolitan Office of Buses Services (OMSA).
- In 1998, hurricane Georges whipped the country and its winds and rains destroyed hundreds of private and public structures, among them 120 bridges, of which 90 were repaired just a short time later. Humble houses, big parks and forests also succumbed to the fury of the storm.
- In order to steer the growth of Santo Domingo inward, with the construction of tall buildings, rather than the outward tendency it had followed until then, the City Council approved, in 1998, a regulation on the construction of tall buildings or towers. This applied specifically to the zone that since then has been denominated Poligono Central or the Central Polygon, located between the avenues John F. Kennedy, Ortega y Gasset, 27 de Febrero and Winston Churchill. Zoning rules regarding density, building height and areas of construction were established.
- Traditional practices, such as the use of iron and stone, were kept during this period.
- An impressive growth in real estate takes place and as a result apartment buildings, plazas, and commercial centers multiplied across the country.
- Housing towers undertake an accelerated displacement of single family homes.
- An increase in tourism propels large public and private investment in infrastructure and in modern and attractive housing and hotel complexes.
- Vanguard architecture tendency strengthens.
- Emblematic plazas emerged in the capital, with cultural, sports, health and recreational themes.
- In 2000 the Dominican Revolutionary Party assumes government under the direction of Hipólito Mejía. Under this administration, that concluded in 2004, public work investment was reduced by 70%.
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