In the last decades, the processes of metropolization and accelerated growth in San José, Costa Rica have generated imbalances with respect to the most central areas, which have been affected by the deterioration in their built stock and public spaces. The Ciudad Gobierno project – which seeks to house the buildings of the national government agencies on large areas of land – adds new challenges in the southern area of ​​the historic center of San José. The

development program is located in a planning area between the main train station Pacifico and González Víquez Plaza – an urban regeneration area with new opportunities. The project uses innovative tools that integrate people as protagonists within the socio-spatial transformations in the city center. The area has been identified as a focus point to promote a new sub-centrality that integrates and values ​​traditional neighborhoods, such as San Cayetano and La Dolorosa, and guides urban development on a human scale and its mobility possibilities. In this context, Urban Design Lab has proposed participatory urban design methodologies, focused on the opportunities provided by open spaces and the possibilities of neighborhood revitalization with mixed residential development for the sustained improvement in the quality of local urban life. This project was developed between 2016 and 2017 as part of the Emerging and Sustainable Cities Initiative of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).