After six years of rehabilitation and spent EUR 124.5 million (figures omitted City Council bilingual newspaper distributed free to visitors) Cibeles Palace, former palace of Communications has reopened its doors to the public as future living space new City "," innovative cultural center, " Information Center XXI century" and " forum dedicated to collective thinking and social disclosure on the life and urban dynamics . "
moved more by curiosity than as pedantic verbiage, I decide to turn a visit to the centenary abrileña building this morning, taking advantage of the invitation to the citizens in the "Days Open " 1
the visit, up the monumental staircase, the former banking hall, renamed" attention span and cultural information "and still" battling "a small army of guards, cleaners, informants and various personal and unclassified. Noteworthy is the presence of visitors, mostly retirees, alone, in pairs or in flocks, especially abundant in the queue forming at the counter where they hand out the tickets to enter the tower .
The rehabilitation, carried out by the team of architects that won the contest, has kept and clean, thankfully, the huge space of the former banking hall getting more light. Have also retained the old desks. Immediately raise his eyes to the magnificent glass roof covering the central hall which allows to appreciate the size, clearness and neatness of this great space.
In this court, the most important unit of the building, has mounted an exhibit, curated by the study Arquimática "on the history of the Palace and is, along with the panoramic view from the tower, what most interested me. After completing the visit, I have consulted other sources, with the help and information panels that facilitate the exposure light, this brief outline history of the building :
Polentinos Account Count (1946) 2 that where now stands the Palace of Cybele, was in the late nineteenth century, gardens, " place of recreation and fun in the neighborhood of Madrid with trellis and iron gates and brick walls ." Held in the gardens and floral displays, anecdotally it is said that they were housed for an entire winter in their curious rooms, a tribe of Eskimos and other African savages who were often visited by the public. There was also inside a slide or roller coaster "highly gifted youth."
a law in 1904 authorized the reversion to the state of these lands, which until then was leased to the City, in order to construct a building for the central government Direction and Post and Telegraph. Called the competitions, the winner (1905) the project presented by young people Machimbarrena Ochamendi architects Joaquín and Antonio Palacios Ramilo, the second being submitted for another couple of architects Jesus Carrasco Encina and Joaquín López Saldaña .
The day September 12, 1907 he laid the first stone of the building whose works were completed in 1918. Palacios, with the help of Otamendi, attempt to reconcile the actual functionality of a commercial establishment with severe aspect of public buildings. The result, according to some, was a large mole " curd and meringue tower " 3 in calling the English Renaissance style, which the people of Madrid, with his usual wit baptized soon as Our Lady of Communications.
With more than literary grace, not good intentions, the writer Ramón Gómez de la Serna and greeted the new cathedral in Madrid: "This building Madrid officially reach unprecedented architectures, or for God or for pure aristocracy before, but a little to communism and noting the height of democracy. It is this architecture of hybrid and reasonable and at the same time, the modern thing bizarre, however, characterizes Madrid and most of all the characterized in the future " 4 .
the work is used in large amounts of iron, stone, glass and slate. Palacios first used in the construction of the plant the metallic structure which had the cooperation of the industrial engineer, a specialist in steel construction, Angel Chueca, father of the architect Fernando Chueca Goitia, a great admirer of the work of Palacios. In the sculpture, of a historicist, very rich, had the assistance of the sculptor, Angel Garcia, a regular in the works of Palacios.
Communications Palace had and still has supporters and detractors, but today, whatever their aesthetic value, is an essential building that is part of Madrid's urban scenery, and this is one of the most viewed and monuments photographed Madrid .
The historical exhibition is complemented by photographs and a video of "Postmen in Action small screen projected that almost no one is looking.
The second part of the exhibition deals with the "Cibeles reinvented." In 2000 the City acquired the building (no financial details of the operation) and carries out a first phase of rehabilitation through the Directorate General of Heritage (grand staircase, auditorium, windows ...). For the second phase is called an international contest of who wins the project " The heart of the city " presented by " Arquimática ," the study of Francisco Rodriguez Partearroyo. The proposed new cultural center CentroCentro (weird name) has allowed the recovery of emblematic buildings such as the banking hall, the plenary hall, the old tower, the room battles giving them a new cultural use.
We left
the second floor, but first take a look and try out the furniture in the rest areas, right and left of the entrance. The free newspaper we are told that this furniture is " of a lightweight, structurally sober and brilliant chromaticism", designed by architect and interior designer Peter Feduchi. Furniture seem more typical of a child's room and poverty and extreme discomfort.
ascend to the tower by the stairs, but not before stopping in plants third, fourth and fifth, where there is mounted another exhibition of large photographs of Javier Campano and Ana Muller on the rehabilitation process the building. The most interesting of these plant is to observe the internal metal frame and watch from the height of the runway in sight of the hall, down, and glass, up .
Finally we reached the sixth floor E, where an elevator leads to the lookout tower. The effort is worthwhile. The panoramic view on a clear day is breathtaking. They are the four cardinal points of Madrid, the great buildings, the hill of Los Angeles, Casa de Campo. Ahead of the Gran Via and the foot of the goddess Cibeles fountain. A treat for fans to see and photograph Madrid from above.
The decline, careful not to slip! I can admire a side stairs, baseboards, or pieces of tile from Seville. They are, for those who like trivia, Ramos Rejano house established in the Triana district that had offices in Madrid Zorrilla street # 4, near the studio of architect Palacios.
visit, finally, the first floor with an appetizer of what will be ( Deo Volente ) this CentroCentro, has installed the exhibition "Residents and passers ," a video work, no doubt interesting, Juan Manuel Castro Prieto and Manuel Vázquez. There is, however, no grace, like a fairground attraction parochial cheap, video boxes bully historical figures whose features can be altered by capturing the features of the user. A joke.
the background of this plant, the new work is the auditorium, all in wood can generate a strange sense of claustrophobia and secrecy.
The visit, a little tired of going up and down stairs, I bittersweet. On the one hand, the work seems to me splendid rehabilitation, apart from some minor details. In another, I arise serious doubts about the profitability of the operation, the work "pharaonic" paid by the locals, the cost is hidden, and as for future use "intercultural" in both space recovered. The time and the Selectmen will have the word .
© Manuel Martínez Bargueño
April, 2011
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NOTES
1. Palacio de Cibeles. Open Days. From 27 March to 27 July. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 to 20 hours. Free admission.
2. Conde de Polentinos " The solar Communications Palace" in "Post and Telecommunications " n º 26, July 1946, pp. 16-7.
3. Federico Romero. " On the Calle de Alcala. voice evocations flies. Madrid. Successors Rivadeneyra, 1953, pg. 209.
4. Ramón Gómez de la Serna. "The house Post " . Elucidatory Madrid, 1931.
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