Banco de Santander Building

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1974 · Authors: Emilio de la Torriente Castro

This building, constructed to house the main headquarters of Banco de Santander in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, is located in a very significant place within the city's urban layout: at the upper part of Plaza de Candelaria.

The project for this building was developed in 1971 by the architect Emilio de la Torriente Castro and was approved by the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council some time later after lengthy discussions, given the profound urban transformation that was to take place in this very representative area of the city.

The property, which besides the bank houses a set of offices and residences, rises over Plaza de la Candelaria with 16 floors, four in a lower block and the rest in another vertical recessed block. Its characteristic volumetry and its exterior cladding in the form of a membrane or honeycomb make it a true visual landmark, given its stature. It was inaugurated on 21 April 1974.

Behind it remained, in memory, some historically important buildings that once occupied the same site. We refer, on one hand, to the old Casa Foronda, which served for a time as the Captaincy General of the Canary Islands, as well as having been the birthplace of Leopoldo O’Donell, a military figure who would become President of the Council of Ministers during the reign of Isabel II. Next to this building there was another, whose site was also occupied by Banco de Santander, where the Café La Peña was once located, a place of lively literary gatherings that remained active until the mid-1970s.

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