Álvarez Building

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1936 · Authors: Pelayo López y Martín Romero

This building was designed in 1930 by the architect Pelayo López for the landowner Catalina Álvarez, after the City Council encouraged construction in the empty spaces remaining on Castillo street. The works were delayed six years due to bureaucratic and administrative problems, with the building being fully completed in February 1936. 

The five-storey building, intended to house flats and commercial premises, features, as was common in Pelayo López's projects, a characteristic horizontal body on the first floor with a cantilevered balcony,  balustrade and column. From there, it gives way to another upper vertical body with the rest of the floors.

The left panel of this upper body is defined between two pilasters with vertical fluting, with a square window per level. On the other side there are glazed bay windows that stand out from the rest of the façade. 

Although the ground floor has been extensively remodelled to house different businesses, the ensemble maintains its tone of almost bare eclecticism, with slight expressionist touches.

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