Banco Vitalicio Building

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1956 · Authors: Enrique Rumeu de Armas, Jordi Bonet Armengol

The urbanisation of the area between Pilar street and Valentín Sanz street was a project that extended over time from 1898 until the 1940s. The perimeter of the wedge-shaped plot where the building we see today stands was defined in 1944, the year in which the developer, Juan Fernández de Oliva, commissioned the architect Enrique Rumeu to prepare a project for a six-storey building. The idea was to house twelve dwellings and the corresponding commercial premises, which were very important given the location. After the start of the works, the work was soon halted for various serious reasons (difficulty in the foundation, objections from the city council regarding the treatment of the corner, etc.). Faced with this situation, the owner decided to transfer the property to a new developer, who decided to convert the building into a hotel-residence. For this purpose, two more floors were added to the original project, proposing that each floor have eight apartments. This idea was never carried out.

In 1954 the Banco Vitalicio de España acquired the half-built property and, as expected, proposed a new solution, increasing the height of the building to nine floors. For the new reform, the Catalan architect Jordi Bonet Armengol was hired who, based on Rumeu's plans, incorporated the demands of the new owner.

The long gestation of the work, which finally ended in 1956, resulted in a complicated formal evolution of the building. Rumeu initially offered a strong expressiveness in the textures of the façade, combined with some classical solutions. It was his idea to imaginatively stylise the chamfer, which would end up marking its uniqueness. Bonet's project, for its part, barely modified the exterior, emphasising the expressionist aspect of the corner, highlighting the base, lightening the top, and opening a balcony at the junction of the two façades.

The Banco Vitalicio building is a paradigmatic construction. It is one of the best examples of the type of architecture built in the urban centres of the main Spanish cities during the mid-20th century.

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