Nice Picture! I sure hope it was taken about a year ago or so, and not this month.
Also, I bet those big through openings in the lower floors of the “U” are to ease wind pressure/resistance in the event of another hurricane. They look more functional than ornamental to me.
Those openings along with the distal ends of the “U” being capped with buildings that are placed perpendicular to their respective end segments (which are also at alternating 45 degree angles from the coast line), suggests that this structure was designed to allow the weak, long side of each segment to be buttressed by the strong short side of the adjacent segment in the event of a large wind force arising from the coast.
Very clever and a big aesthetic improvement from the pre-existing hurricane resistant structures in the area -- like that boat-shaped building seen on the left side of the new construction in the photo – that survived the last hurricane primarily by having its strong, short side positioned directly into the wind, but also forced the majority of views from that building to be perpendicular to the coast.
I’m just surprised that SVO allowed all of that usable & potentially sellable villa space to be “wasted” like that. Maybe their insurer required it. Thanks insurance industry!
-nodge
