Skyscrapers in Barcelona: Diagonal 00, The New Telefonica Headquarters

It is no secret that Barcelona skyline is changing, specially near the coast. Even locals are surprised when in just a year interval they come across new skyscrapers here and there. That's precisely what happened to me today. What was just a small rhomboid base with three or four floors and a bunch of workers had turned into a magnificent jewel of modern architecture, fragile in appearance, with no pillars inside but just an exoskeleton, an external framework of beams, defying the strong winds of this esplanade in Barcelona waterfront.

Diagonal 00 located on the corner of Carrer del Taulat and the start of the Avinguda Diagonal, will hold all the administration offices and the future R + D headquarters of Spanish telecommunications company, Telefónica. The rhombus stands next to that small blue triangular building known as the Forum by Herzog and De Meuron, and the Spiraling Tower, designed by Zaha Hadid. Massip-Bosch Arquitectes Studio designed these 24 floors of glass and steel that will rise 110 metres over Barcelona city. It was supposed to be inaugurated this year and I would say they are giving it the final touches by the way it looked today.

Update: Learn more about the final result Diagonal Zero Zero today

Antoni Tapies Foundation, Arago Street 255, Barcelona

Weird places well deserve weird, psychedelic approaches. I have walked past this building a thousand times and a thousand times I haven't been able to take a decent picture. First because you have to stand on the opposite sidewalk of carrer Aragó which is a very wide street, second because it is wedged in between two awful buildings and last but not least because those wires on top, which were conceived by Antoni Tàpies himself do break all the harmony of lines with the beautiful Art Nouveau façade by architect Lluís Domènech i Montaner. So I thought, what the heck, I've got to give this a colorful touch. The result expresses not awe as in awesome, but rather as in aw...ful. I realize I am committing sacrilege here by trying to judge the artwork on the roof and the awkward appearance of an artistic sanctuary as it is Fundació Tàpies. In fact it is a magnificent building constructed between 1880 and 1885, one of the earliest samples of Art Nouveau in this part of the city, that breaks up with traditional 19th century eclecticism, introducing elements like iron and exposed brick, the latter evidencing clear Muslim influences. The place held the Montaner i Simon publishing house up to 1981, the most important in its field for decades (120 years of history) that became Antoni Tapies Foundation in 1990, acquiring category of historical monument in 1997. But what to say about Antoni Tàpies i Puig (he will be 87 next December 13, 2010), the incommensurable Catalan painter, sculptor and lithographer besides the fact I don't like the Cloud and Chair, 1990 sculpture on top of the building, well you better find out reading his biography at the official site: Antoni Tàpies Biography (Fundació Antoni Tàpies)

Hermes, Old Banesto Bank Building, Barcelona

As seen from Rambla Catalunya, one of the two Hermes sculptures on top of old Banesto and Caja Madrid building watching over Plaça Catalunya. The Greek god of commerce, eloquence, invention, travel, and theft!, messenger of the other gods, used to be a symbol of those times in which people believed in trade, markets and banks but now looks sad and doomed to abandonment. Yes, this is the same building (shown in this previous post) that recently was occupied by members of an anti new world order group. Built from 1942 to 1947 by Eusebi Bona Puig, and specially distinguished by its austerity from an architectural point of view, Banesto building or Banco Español de Crédito is no match to another building by the same architect like La Unión y el Fénix at Passeig de Gracia. I've seen both Mercury statues a thousand times and never paid much attention to them. I think I was more interested in the blues skies and a brighter future.