Modernist route: 07. The architecture along calle Perojo

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria · Category: Routes · Subcategory: Modernist route · Year: 1904-1931 · Authors: Laureano Arroyo, Fernando Navarro, Rafael Massanet y Faus, Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre, Facundo Fierro

The initial widening plans, away from the Gateway, would be conditioned by the need to establish a common urbanization policy to cater for the new middle classes, and to provide rental accommodation for the working middle class. Up until the 1908 Municipal Decree, in which the Town Hall prohibited its construction, the first type of building along the extension were single floor bungalow style houses, that would be later replaced by other buildings on two or three floors, quite common in the rest of the inner city. This decision coincided with the start of construction of calle Perojo, so its architectural styles, and those in its immediate vicinity, also reflect the city’s new modern situation; it was land with no previous buildings on it, which was laid out in plots and built on, with its corresponding architectural styles set out all at the same time.

So calle Perojo became a model for extension and building work, with high quality architectural styles, with an academist theme in the first decade, through to romanticism in the 1930’s, taking in a varied eclectical style along the way. This all seemed to tie in as a unit, something not easy to do in the new city, even more so in the 1960s and 70s when even calle Perojo was subject to building renewal projects. This street is indeed a worthy site of cultural interest for the city, precisely due to all its varied architectural values that make up this built up area.

Contrary to what might be normally expected, the early building projects were not established at the start of the street, but on the four corners on calle Cebrián between 1904 and 1907. Arroyo put up several models, one of the fundamental types characterized by square plots distributed upon circular layouts around courtyards. One of the finest examples is the two house building at nº 20, made for Messers Galván and Marrero. On all the corner houses, the lower floors were designed for storage and local shops. Later on, in 1915,  Navarro drew up a project for Don Santiago Peñate at nº 45, this being the finest example of its kind, with the central courtyard completely surrounded by glass galleries. Another of the best models are the ones built on the lower plots, between dividers, set along the layout of a central corridor with buildings on either side.

Between all of these, the most striking houses are those designed by Navarro between 1909 and 1914 along the western side of the street, where we come to a subtype which is characterized by the appearance of a double hallway separating the entrances to each property. The existence of the back courtyards, sometimes with gardens, as in the case of Don Alejandro Hidalgo, defines a second façade with a doorway, bannister and gallery. The urban importance of this project made it essential for these houses to have high quality architectural fronts. For this, Arroyo made up its elevations in line with the compositive capacity of its ordered recesses, which are given doorjambs and horizontal lintels, moulded out of cement with “modernist” finishings, accompanied by ballustrades, balconies, cast iron and cornice tops with quite basic décor. Navarro meanwhile usually rounded off his façades with more ornamentally decorated pilasters.

On one of the final projects along this street with the seal of Navarro, dating from 1921, the intervention of Masanet can be clearly seen. He had already been collaborating from his own studio, providing novel solutions to new façades, in which each floor has its own diverse stylings and shapes, put together along vertical lines as part of a complex eclectic operation.  This is precisely the style we see in his buildings from 1925, one of them at the end of the street and another for D. Enrique Wiot at nº 35, where Masanet brought together a series of functional solutions typical of Navarro, with an L-shape structure. The façade, which opens into the front room, alcoba y el gabinete on each floor, follows an eclectic scheme, with a whole host of recesses, viewpoints, balconies and ornamental stonework displaying a rich compositive splendour, standing over a parapet lined with ceramic glasswork.

Finally, projects by Miguel Martín from 1931 are at the plots on the two corners of calle Murga, and are wholly rationalist in style. In both cases, this rational language resolves the volumetries, ledges, recesses, as well as the décor on the façades. At the end of  2000 and the beginning of 2001, Facundo Fierro carried out chromatic restoration works on the whole structure.

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