Blas C. Silva Boucher

Blas C. Silva Boucher (2 February 1869 – 27 January 1949) was a twentieth-century Puerto Rican engineer from Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Early years Blas Cornelio Silva Boucher was born in Hormigueros, Puerto Rico on 2 February 1869. In Madrid, Silva did freelance school work in road, drainage, and ports engineering. He then entered the prestigious Spanish National Engineering School where he studied for eight years. He did his practicums in Aragon, Catalonia and Valencia, Spain.

Honors He is honored at Ponce's Park of the Illustrious Ponce Citizens. Ponce's best-known bridge, Puente de los Leones, located over Río Portugués on PR-1/Bulevar Miguel Pou at Calle Lolita Tizol, was named "Puente Blas Silva" before it was renamed Puente de Los Leones.

Contemporary recognition The Puerto Rico Historical Preservation Office recently said of him, "Blas Silva was probably the most established of the 'wedding-cake architects' and was thus sought after mostly by the 'nouveau riche' of the period. Silva's houses are among the richest in Ponce, among which the [Font-Ubides] stands out for its circular porches." It added that "Silva, as had other foreign-trained architects, succeeded in integrating classical education with the traditional elements of the Spanish Caribbean."