Olympo Building

Santa Cruz de Tenerife · Category: Architecture · Subcategory: Civil architecture · Year: 1975 · Authors: José Miguel Molowny

The Olympo, with its 19 floors and 57 metres in height, located at one end of Plaza de la Candelaria and facing Plaza de España, is one of the most significant images of the lower part of the city.

It was designed in the early 1970s by architect José Miguel Molowny and completed in 1975. The construction stands on an urban block of great importance, the site where the old Hotel Orotava building and some adjoining constructions once stood. 

The Olympo Building stands out for a very interesting formal concept in which we can distinguish three well-differentiated parts. One below ground level housing storage for goods and garages; an intermediate one, where three floors of commercial galleries and offices are articulated by means of a large plinth at street level; and finally, the upper part, where  the volume is minimised and blurred through a sinuous and undulating modelling that houses residential use. The façades are resolved by means of prefabricated concrete panels with exposed coloured mortar and marble grain.

Despite its height and volume, the building fits adequately into the important urban area in which it is located. Both Plaza de la Candelaria and Plaza de España naturally accommodate the figure of the Olympo. Its measured balance line today forms an important part of the Santa Cruz landscape.

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