St. Augustine’s Foundation: Spanish Colonial Architecture
Walk down St. George Street on a humid August afternoon and you will feel it. The air cools as you pass beneath a second-story balcony. Your hand brushes against a coquina wall, rough with compressed shells, still holding the morning’s coolness despite the blazing sun. Wooden shutters filter light through barred windows, casting patterned shadows across worn stone floors. Even without knowing the history, your body understands that these buildings were designed to respond to their environment.
This is St. Augustine, America’s oldest city, and these structures have been doing their job for...