Juan de Quesada Street

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Squares, streets & markets

Juan de Quesada Street faces the old Guiniguada ravine on its southern bank. It was planned in 1868, financed with the proceeds from the sale of plots reclaimed from the ravine. It was initially named Toril and later Progreso, before receiving its current name. The street is characterised by the presence of single-family homes of varied styles, many surrounded by gardens. In the first section of the street, there is a tall façade with a parapet or balcony, and baseboard and cornice elements with urban characteristics and Modernist style. There is also an interesting Romantic proposal for collective housing designed by Fernando Navarro in 1924, another with a Modernist lookout or turret, also by Fernando Navarro, which is covered with ceramics brought from Portugal, and other houses adopting Central European classical styles such as the project by Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre and "La Casa Machín", a 1927 work that initiated Rationalism in the Canary Islands.

Some of these houses have been acquired as headquarters for important foundations such as the Fundación MAPFRE and the University Foundation. If there is one building that stands out on the street, it is the new Rectorate of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Here was located the first Secondary Education Institute on the island, created in 1916. Later the institute moved and the premises were used as a Military Hospital. It is now a university headquarters according to a rehabilitation project by architect Luis Alemany.

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