Architecturally, Casa Vives retains all seven aspects of integrity: location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association.

[8] Casa Vives is a two-story, L-shaped brick and masonry building located at 88 Paseo Atocha, corner of Castillo Street, two blocks north from the town's main plaza in the traditional urban center in the municipality of Ponce.

[9] Casa Vives sits in a very prominent corner lot, with its residential entrance facing Atocha Street, the main commercial artery within the traditional urban core.

[10] During the second half of the 19th century, the construction period of Casa Vives, the city's well-to-do citizens shaped the urban center in many ways, one of these being through its architecture, one of the most enduring means.

Sociologist Angel Quintero Rivera has suggested that the elaboration of Ponce's residential urban center facades manifest a cultural character associated to a Manorial worldview, where the patrician families, upon their "generosity", perceived their residence as a gift to the public and a way to embellish and dignify their city.

The pilasters are crowned by an unadorned, flat architrave that runs along the entire facade, clearly dividing the commercial first floor from the residential upper level.

As a corner lot, the first floor L-elevation has one square-shaped volume facing west towards Paseo Atocha, while the other two commercial spaces occupy the longitudinal axis that runs east-to-west along Castillo Street.

The 12-foot high ceiling in the square-shaped section is covered with pressed tin panels, a decorative addition very frequently used during the 1920s among the upper class' residences and social/civic buildings in different cities in Puerto Rico.

Meanwhile, the 17-foot high ceiling in the other two commercial areas have kept the original exposed ausubo (manilkara bidentata tree) beams, sustaining the pichipen[15] rafters, which support three layers of thin bricks that make-up the foundation for the upper-level floor.

The 110'-5" long longitudinal elevation that faces Castillo Street has a very public exposure with four large clear glass windows and an equal number of clear-glass-metal-framed doors.

Beyond the entrance, an imposing zaguan (hallway), with a 17-foot high ceiling with exposed beams and rafters, and richly stenciled decorated walls, surprised the visitor.

At the gate's upper portion that faces the zaguan, within a golden painted circle, the metal is curved to form the letters CV, the initials of Carlos Vives, the 1860s owner of the house.

A northerly left turn at the landing guides the visitor into an impressive marble straight staircase with bronze handrails, up to the second floor.

Adorned ventilation holes are strategically located at the four corners of every room's ceiling, allowing for the heat to exit through the roof and letting the cool air circulate throughout the entire house.

Almost every wall is decorated with hand painted and stenciled art recreating geometric patterns and classic motifs: garlands, pilasters, columns and linear designs to accentuate the corners.

[20] The L-shaped layout of the massive building, together with adjacent constructions, and the surrounding brick and masonry fence, hides to the local transient the open and greenish interior patio of the residence.

The patio can be access through the zaguan, the carport, or directly from the upper level eastern end, using a brick and masonry half-turn with landing staircase.

Many early twentieth century Vives' family photos at the patio, using the staircase as stage, suggest the social importance of the location.

Made of thin bricks, three layers deep, as it was the practice by the 1860s, and surrounded by a three-foot high parapet, the roof contains various elements of architectural interest.

[23] Casa Vives is also significant as it exemplifies the social aspirations and class-representation of the nineteenth century upper echelons and their impact in the built landscape.

Ponce took great advantage of its location in the southern portion of the island and its most adequate port facilities, officially opened at La Playa by 1804.

Events like the Haitian Revolution (1789–1804), the Latin American Wars of Independence (1810–1824),[29] and the Spanish government immigrants policies (like the 1815 Real Cedula de Gracia) promoted the arrival of numerous well-to-do foreign citizens that made out of Ponce's fertile flatlands their new production centers (specially sugarcane) and turned Ponce's urban center into their new homes.

The slave commerce, as the sugar, coffee and other crops produced within the southern region and mostly exported through Ponce, promoted the formation of a strong commercial sector, just as dominant as the powerful landlord class.

According to Carlos A. Rubio Cancela of the Puerto Rico Historical Preservation Office, "the words used by historian Frank Moya Pons to describe the new urban centers in the Dominican Republic could be properly applied to Ponce's development by 19th century: 'new buildings were erected, light systems were installed, the streets were paved and provided with sewage and aqueducts, social clubs and literary societies were founded and theaters and plazas were built'.