The complexity of social and productive factors has changed the perspectives of urban centers. Although the first forms of territorial organization arose from human settlements and their need for subsistence near urban landmarks, such as towers in the colonial period or markets for the exchange of goods, within the special conditions offered by geography, in recent years it seems that this strategy has not been sufficient to generate the permanence of populations and their development. in front of the current urban landmarks that are visibly identified by the ruins or by a heritage that still characterizes times past. It is understood that, in this sense, physical matter allows us to establish references of time, space and form, creating affective memory from the material, for the collective construction of references of a territory, in view of its diversities of culture and appropriation of place. In many cases, this generates and remembers the values of a particular society, along with its demands and "modus operandi" of living. Girardot, located on the banks of the Magdalena River, was a reference of progress, being the second most important city in the center of the country in the first half of the twentieth century. The railway, aviation and the Madalena River consolidated the city as the epicenter of local development, with characteristics of industrial heritage, industrial for its infrastructures, functional for its materiality and referential for its architecture that, Allied to its development, it is noticeable in the city's landscape. Despite having a strategic infrastructure of services, the new social dynamics derived from the use of the river have brought with them a phenomenon of degradation, isolating the city from progress, resulting from contemporary productive logics, local needs and current advances, where the patrimonial policy has not kept up with the logistical and productive development. Leading this territory to induce us to think about all its moments, its demands and to reflect: "what time is this place?" This condition opens a perspective to reflect on new mechanisms for the development of the existing heritage, of adequate management for recovery and transformation, understanding along with its river, a key piece for the consolidation and reinterpretation of an urban center, which due to its characteristics allows the development of a national model for Colombia. It is essential that what is presented is a factor of functionality of the spaces, understood from the continuity with their heritage and memory, of induction of projects and plans in charge of government entities, which affect the connectivity of the existing architectures in this city, promoting and integrating a built heritage through the promotion of a vision of sustainable ecosystems for the current times.