Madrid architect: Antonio Palacios

In view of the complexity that the telecommunications networks were reaching and the increase of users, in 1904 the State called a competition for the construction of a new building that would house the postal and telegraph services in a plot belonging to the disappeared Jardines del Buen Retiro. Of all the participating projects, the winner was the one presented by Antonio Palacios and Joaquín Otamendi, two young architects who did not exceed 30 years of age. His proposal stood out for knowing how to combine the monumentality and the symbolic character that should characterize an institutional building with the functional and rationalist distribution of spaces. With the laying of the first stone the 12 of September of 1907 the works were inaugurated, that would not finish until 1918.

The building impresses by its dimensions, which cover a surface of XNUMX mXNUMX, and by its imposing external formalization that combines historicist influences, especially of the Neoplateresque, with stylistic references of the Modernism, the North American architecture and the Secession Viennese Palacios succeeds to rework and integrate creating a homogeneous set. Its main limestone facade stands out, which adapts to the circular layout of the square by means of the set of volumes it obtains with the two pentagonal towers flanking it and with the two lateral wings projecting, one towards Calle de Alcalá and another towards the Paseo del Prado, where a porch with columns opens. The building is crowned by an octagonal dome with a clock that, like the rest of the vertical bodies, ends in a cresting with pinnacles.

Inside Palacios displays a program based on spatial organization and modern structural design. It divides the dependencies into two bodies, one oriented towards the Plaza de Cibeles, destined to house the functions of management and operations, and another one located at the back, intended for management and administration. Both are separated by the denominated passage of Alarcón, a corridor that communicates the street of Alcalá with Montalbán whose entrances are decorated with carpaneles arcs. In one of its ends the passage opens forming a wide patio that was destined to lodge the mobile park of distribution.

One of the most interesting spaces is the main lobby, which is accessed from the outside by a grand staircase. With a cruciform plan, three levels of half-point arches and a glazed roof, its design is inspired by the Palacio de Cristal del Retiro, the work of Antonio Palacios's master, Ricardo Velázquez Bosco. In this space the Post, Telegraph and Telephone services were located; while in the so-called Battle Room the distribution of correspondence was organized.
Since its inauguration, the Palacio de Comunicaciones became the epicenter of "modern" Madrid, which during the following decades would rise in tone to the Gran Vía and the Recoletos-Castellana axis. Its cathedral aspect would be worth the popular nickname of Our Lady of Communications and eventually become one of the main icons of the city. The building maintained its use as the main telegraphic and postal service center in Spain until the beginning of the 21st century. During this period of time, some reforms were made to optimize the space and update facilities that had to meet the demands of a greater number of users that would begin to decrease with the appearance of new forms of interpersonal communication.

In the 2003 year the property was acquired by the Madrid City Council and from 2007 it is the current headquarters of the mayor's office. To adapt it to its new uses, an ambitious remodeling process was carried out that included the creation of new spaces for public use, such as several exhibition halls and an auditorium, and the placement of a glass cover over the Alarcón passageway and the old valet parking. The project allowed to recover some original architectural elements, such as the iron beams, in whose design Ángel Chueca Sainz collaborated, the glazed floors of the walkways that run through the main hall or the skylight and the volumes of the old Battle Room, now transformed into Plenary Hall. It has also allowed to value a good part of its decoration, such as the tiles of the Manuel Ramos Rejano house or the sculptural motives that Ángel García Díaz made for both the interior and the facade. 

Antonio Palacios is commissioned to project the building of the Spanish Bank of the River Plate in 1910, at which time, together with his friend and partner Joaquin Otamendi, he was immersed in the construction of two of his most emblematic works: the Palace of Communications and the Hospital of Jornaleros de Maudes. For the construction of its Madrid branch, the Buenos Aires entity had acquired a lot located at the confluence of Calle Alcalá and Barquillo, where the palace of the Marquises of Casa-Irujo was located, also famous for having housed the Café in its basements. Cervantes. The works were started in 1911 and extended to 1918.

The building has a quadrangular plan, with four heights plus a basement, a basement and an attic topped by a glass dome that provided overhead light to the interior. The ground floor constituted the main element, in which was the great patio of operations and the boxes and counters in which the customers were attended. The upper floors were intended for offices and meeting rooms, distributed perimetrally around the corridors that surrounded the central courtyard.

The rational distribution of the interior spaces contrasts with the grandiose monumentality of the exterior; a constant in the work of Antonio Palacios that on this occasion aimed to underline the strength and power of the banking entity and at the same time not detract from an environment in which buildings such as the Palacio de Linares, the Buenavista Palace, the Bank of Spain or the same Palace of Communications.

Its façades show Palacios' interest in classical architecture, fed after his travels through Greece and Egypt, while at the same time reflecting the influences of both Juan de Villanueva, whose work was a great admirer, and his teacher Ricardo Velázquez y Bosco, responsible for the neoclassical design of the western facade of the Casón del Buen Retiro. Both are arranged in the form of a mirror from the axis that configures the chamfer, so that they have an identical layout. On a large plinth rises a series of Ionic striated columns until reaching the height of the main body, alternating with glazed bays. On the entablature rises a second body, recessed, with paired Corinthian columns forming a portico, behind which the interior glass dome is hidden. In the chamfer is the main entrance, flanked by four caryatids sculpted in stone by Ángel García Díaz, responsible also for the Viennese-inspired ornamental details that decorate the facade.

Between 1944 and 1947, the year in which the merger with the Central Bank took place, various reforms were carried out inside that altered the original Palacios design, such as the closure of the patio on the main level to expand the useful surface of the first plant. At the same time, the basement was fitted out to house a security camera and the building was expanded with the acquisition of the adjoining property on Calle Barquillo.

In the decade of the nineties of the last century, after a series of movements that would lead to the creation of Banco Santander Central Hispano, the building fell into disuse, being used only for board meetings and institutional relations. In the year 2000 is acquired by the City Council of Madrid that included it in the operation of changing buildings to move the consistory to the Communications Palace and since October 2007 is the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute.

The headquarters of the Círculo de Bellas Artes de Madrid is one of the most emblematic buildings on the Gran Vía - Alcalá axis and the main setting for the hectic cultural and intellectual life that took place in the capital during the 1921th century. Its construction began in XNUMX, two years after the members of the institution voted in favor of the project presented by Antonio Palacios to the competition and that the jury had previously rejected for exceeding the permitted municipal height. This fact contributed in large part to the fact that the works took longer than expected, until the government intervened with a decree declaring it the Center for the Protection of Fine Arts and Public Utility.

The project of Palacios supposed a rupture with the conventional constructive typology of the cultural and recreational casinos that proliferated in Spain during century XX, generally organized around patios or galleries. In the Círculo de Bellas Artes opts for a vertical design, inspired in part by the large American skyscrapers, in which each floor presents different volumetry and reduces its scale as the building gains height. On a large plinth, which corresponds to the entry level, the main body rises, traversed by a series of paired columns of giant order that become triglyphs from the entablature. The attic body is set back, which provides space to place a terrace with extraordinary views of the city, while allowing you to play with the geometric shapes and introduce a semi-cylindrical volume, in a new nod to neoclassicism. The building is crowned by a prominent turret topped by a stairway.

Unlike other buildings designed by Palacios, the interior of the Círculo de Bellas Artes is not articulated around a large central patio. The access to the different levels is done by an imperial double shot staircase located at one end of the main hall, in the courtyard, which takes advantage of natural light through windows with stained glass. Each plant is intended for specific uses, as reflected in the program of needs reflected in the report. Thus, on the ground floor were the hall, an exhibition hall and a gazebo; the mezzanine was intended for small leisure spaces and a gazebo, while the main floor housed the ballroom, decorated by imposing Corinthian columns and a large central dome. In the first attic was the library and in the second the meeting room of the board of directors. At this same level is the so-called "Hall of Columns", originally dedicated to gambling; activities that while they were allowed contributed to finance the debt contracted by the institution during the construction works of the building. Finally, the kitchens, dining rooms and Fine Arts studios were located on the terrace floors. The facilities of the Circle completed some truly modern elements for the time, such as the pool with ceramic columns and triclinium-type benches that was located in the basement.

During its years of existence the building has hardly changed its external image. Particularly significant is the large statue of Minerva, goddess of the arts, who stands on the roof, sculpted in bronze by Juan Luis Vassallo at 1964. At the end of the last century various remodeling and refurbishment works were carried out to house the different activities that are usually organized in its facilities, such as exhibitions, workshops, lectures, theatrical performances or film screenings, generally open to the public. Only access to certain areas remains restricted exclusively to members.

The Day Laborer Hospital of San Francisco de Paula was born at the initiative of Dolores Romero and Arano, widow of Curiel and Blasi, who, moved by the philanthropic currents of the time and the interest to extend health among the most disadvantaged classes, orders Antonio Palacios its construction in a lot located next to the old Paseo de Ronda -in the current street of Raimundo Fernández Villaverde-. The works start in 1909 and conclude in 1916.

Palacios, which again has the collaboration of Joaquín Otamendi, designs the hospital taking as a model the traditional cruciform plan, on which it introduces the appropriate variations to adapt it to the requirements of the practice of modern medicine. The result is a set of constructions in which he focuses on functionality and the rational distribution of spaces, but without renouncing the monumentality that characterizes his work.

The central element of the building is the pavilions for patients, four naves with wide open galleries arranged diagonally and topped by two lateral bodies crowned by separate towers, which are articulated from an octagonal ambulatory courtyard. This solution not only favored the circulation between units, but also allowed to take advantage of the maximum possibilities of lighting and ventilation. The entrance was made from Maudes Street, where the administrative and general services pavilion was located, which was accessed by a staircase that led to a large patio. In one of the sides, facing Treviño Street, was located the consultation and surgery building, which communicated with the second floor of the central body through a glazed metal walkway, while at the opposite end was the isolation pavilion, only element that by its function was not connected to the general gallery.

The whole set is surrounded by gardens, to which Palacios grants a special relevance, thinking about the positive influence that they could exert in the state of mind of the patients. This same reasoning explains the location of the mortuary and the autopsy room in a place hidden from the view from the main building, next to one of the sides of the perimeter wall that delimits the site. 
Another important innovation that introduces is the location of the church. If in the hospital architectural tradition occupied the central place, Palacios decided to move it to the northern end, with direct access to Raimundo Fernández Villaverde street. The monumental aspect of its façade and the silhouette of its prominent towers are reminiscent of the Communications Palace, providing the whole with a greater sense of verticality. Inside, the stained glass windows of the Maumejean Hermanos house stand out, an ornamental detail that can be interpreted as an approach to Modernism.

The Jornaleros Hospital is possibly the most complete work of Antonio Palacios and also the one that best reflects the eclectic and contradictory spirit of its architecture. Despite its marked metropolitan nature, it shows some of the signs that will define its regionalist stage, as evidenced by the use of stone, barely untouched, in the factories and the use of ceramic materials, such as the tiles created by Daniel Zuloaga or panels made by Manuel Ramos Rejano for interior cladding.

Inaugurated in 1917, the hospital was seized in 1936 and intended to treat the wounded of the republican side during the civil war. Later it was used as a military hospital until 1970, at which time it was abandoned, initiating a process of decadence. In 1984 all the property, with the exception of the church, was acquired by the Community of Madrid to house the headquarters of the Ministry of Transport, Housing and Infrastructure. With the purpose of adapting the facilities to their new functions, important renovation and rehabilitation works were carried out that allowed to recover some original elements and to allocate the adjoining spaces to the library and exhibition hall.

The Palazuelo Commercial House is a project that Antonio Palacios carried out in 1919 on behalf of Demetrio Palazuelo, for which he had already built a residential building on Calle de Alcalá in 1911. It is one of the first commercial buildings in Madrid inspired by the architecture of Chicago and other major American cities, with which Palacios develops a compositional model that will resume shortly after on the Gran Vía. 

It was built on the site that occupied the palace of the Counts of Oñate, demolished in 1913 as a result of the damage suffered after two fires. The building has two facades, one in the number four of the main street and another in the three of Arenal, both of identical layout. It consists of three horizontal bodies, one main larger and two side, narrower, which provide a feeling of symmetry and slenderness. A first vertical section that occupies the ground floor and the mezzanine is intended to accommodate commercial premises. It ends in a balcony that occupies the entire façade but which is segmented in the lateral bodies, forming two small balconies of oval profile supported by corbels with triglyphs. The central body is divided by a series of paired Corinthian columns between which are distributed several viewpoints of iron and glass. Above this is an entablature in which pilasters alternate are corbels and glass bays decorated with two small columns of Ionic order. The building finishes in a recessed attic flanked by two towers.

The interior is accessed through a portal located in one of the lateral bodies. The main element is the central V-shaped patio, with a marble floor and glass tiles, from which an imperial staircase starts that surrounds the two elevators in an ascending way and runs through the five floors of the building. The first three have a corridor with an undulating profile around the central hole, with wrought iron railings and gilded handrails, of modernist inspiration. On the roof, a large glass window provides overhead light to the patio, creating a highly plastic ensemble.

The building was part of a large project that encompassed the entire block and, in turn, was included in the urban proposal of Antonio Palacios for the reform of the Puerta del Sol. With it he intended to create a representative space in the center of Madrid with monumental constructions based on the reworking of classic models, equipped with an innovative system of elevated pedestrian steps and glazed that could be used as terraces. However, the Matesanz House was the only property of this project that came to be built, finishing the works in 1922. Today, almost a century later it continues to perform the original function for which it was conceived, housing shops, offices and offices.

In 1908 Antonio Palacios receives the first order from industrialist Demetrio Palazuelo Maroto, in this case to build a residential building on a plot of land located at the corner of Calle Alcalá with Alfonso XI, very close to the Palacio de Comunicaciones where he was working by then. In this project he develops a compositional scheme that he would later use as a model in the series of stately homes he built in the following years.

The facades are organized according to the traditional division in base, main body and attic. The ground floor, in addition to containing the main lobby, is dedicated to commercial premises, the mezzanine to offices and other plants to residential rental, at the rate of two homes per floor. The communication was made through two staircases, one main that surrounded an elevator, and another secondary one, destined to the service.

The distribution of each one of the houses catered to the needs of the wealthy class to which they were destined, derived from their intense social and professional life. For this reason, the reception area was oriented outwards, consisting of a living room, office or cabinet, hall and dining room, all of them articulated around the hall. Towards the main interior patio the spaces dedicated to intimate and family life were ordered, which in this case included five bedrooms plus dressing rooms, boudoir, toilets and bathrooms, and finally, at the opposite end to the part destined for public life were located the service rooms, such as the kitchen, the pantry and the servants' bedrooms and bathrooms, which received light and ventilation from the secondary patio.

The exterior is characterized by its refined language, with classicist resonances, in which the influence of Viennese secessionism can be appreciated. The facades are decorated with Catalan stucco, on a cement trim, in imitation of limestone and among the ornamental motifs, the equilateral shapes of the moldings and the pinnacles of the cornices stand out. The meeting between the streets of Alcalá and Alfonso XI is resolved with a chamfer on which there are groups of three viewpoints per floor, crowned by an octagonal tower that reinforces the verticality of the complex. It is especially striking that this tower is covered by a slate mansard, an element typical of French eclecticism, very different from the Neoplateresque style that characterizes the towers of the Palace of Communications and that it will also use in the house of the Count of Bugallal.

In view of the complexity that the telecommunications networks were reaching and the increase of users, in 1904 the State called a competition for the construction of a new building that would house the postal and telegraph services in a plot belonging to the disappeared Jardines del Buen Retiro. Of all the participating projects, the winner was the one presented by Antonio Palacios and Joaquín Otamendi, two young architects who did not exceed 30 years of age. His proposal stood out for knowing how to combine the monumentality and the symbolic character that should characterize an institutional building with the functional and rationalist distribution of spaces. With the laying of the first stone the 12 of September of 1907 the works were inaugurated, that would not finish until 1918.

The building impresses by its dimensions, which cover a surface of XNUMX mXNUMX, and by its imposing external formalization that combines historicist influences, especially of the Neoplateresque, with stylistic references of the Modernism, the North American architecture and the Secession Viennese Palacios succeeds to rework and integrate creating a homogeneous set. Its main limestone facade stands out, which adapts to the circular layout of the square by means of the set of volumes it obtains with the two pentagonal towers flanking it and with the two lateral wings projecting, one towards Calle de Alcalá and another towards the Paseo del Prado, where a porch with columns opens. The building is crowned by an octagonal dome with a clock that, like the rest of the vertical bodies, ends in a cresting with pinnacles.

Inside Palacios displays a program based on spatial organization and modern structural design. It divides the dependencies into two bodies, one oriented towards the Plaza de Cibeles, destined to house the functions of management and operations, and another one located at the back, intended for management and administration. Both are separated by the denominated passage of Alarcón, a corridor that communicates the street of Alcalá with Montalbán whose entrances are decorated with carpaneles arcs. In one of its ends the passage opens forming a wide patio that was destined to lodge the mobile park of distribution.

One of the most interesting spaces is the main lobby, which is accessed from the outside by a grand staircase. With a cruciform plan, three levels of half-point arches and a glazed roof, its design is inspired by the Palacio de Cristal del Retiro, the work of Antonio Palacios's master, Ricardo Velázquez Bosco. In this space the Post, Telegraph and Telephone services were located; while in the so-called Battle Room the distribution of correspondence was organized.
Since its inauguration, the Palacio de Comunicaciones became the epicenter of "modern" Madrid, which during the following decades would rise in tone to the Gran Vía and the Recoletos-Castellana axis. Its cathedral aspect would be worth the popular nickname of Our Lady of Communications and eventually become one of the main icons of the city. The building maintained its use as the main telegraphic and postal service center in Spain until the beginning of the 21st century. During this period of time, some reforms were made to optimize the space and update facilities that had to meet the demands of a greater number of users that would begin to decrease with the appearance of new forms of interpersonal communication.

In the 2003 year the property was acquired by the Madrid City Council and from 2007 it is the current headquarters of the mayor's office. To adapt it to its new uses, an ambitious remodeling process was carried out that included the creation of new spaces for public use, such as several exhibition halls and an auditorium, and the placement of a glass cover over the Alarcón passageway and the old valet parking. The project allowed to recover some original architectural elements, such as the iron beams, in whose design Ángel Chueca Sainz collaborated, the glazed floors of the walkways that run through the main hall or the skylight and the volumes of the old Battle Room, now transformed into Plenary Hall. It has also allowed to value a good part of its decoration, such as the tiles of the Manuel Ramos Rejano house or the sculptural motives that Ángel García Díaz made for both the interior and the facade. 

Antonio Palacios is commissioned to project the building of the Spanish Bank of the River Plate in 1910, at which time, together with his friend and partner Joaquin Otamendi, he was immersed in the construction of two of his most emblematic works: the Palace of Communications and the Hospital of Jornaleros de Maudes. For the construction of its Madrid branch, the Buenos Aires entity had acquired a lot located at the confluence of Calle Alcalá and Barquillo, where the palace of the Marquises of Casa-Irujo was located, also famous for having housed the Café in its basements. Cervantes. The works were started in 1911 and extended to 1918.

The building has a quadrangular plan, with four heights plus a basement, a basement and an attic topped by a glass dome that provided overhead light to the interior. The ground floor constituted the main element, in which was the great patio of operations and the boxes and counters in which the customers were attended. The upper floors were intended for offices and meeting rooms, distributed perimetrally around the corridors that surrounded the central courtyard.

The rational distribution of the interior spaces contrasts with the grandiose monumentality of the exterior; a constant in the work of Antonio Palacios that on this occasion aimed to underline the strength and power of the banking entity and at the same time not detract from an environment in which buildings such as the Palacio de Linares, the Buenavista Palace, the Bank of Spain or the same Palace of Communications.

Its façades show Palacios' interest in classical architecture, fed after his travels through Greece and Egypt, while at the same time reflecting the influences of both Juan de Villanueva, whose work was a great admirer, and his teacher Ricardo Velázquez y Bosco, responsible for the neoclassical design of the western facade of the Casón del Buen Retiro. Both are arranged in the form of a mirror from the axis that configures the chamfer, so that they have an identical layout. On a large plinth rises a series of Ionic striated columns until reaching the height of the main body, alternating with glazed bays. On the entablature rises a second body, recessed, with paired Corinthian columns forming a portico, behind which the interior glass dome is hidden. In the chamfer is the main entrance, flanked by four caryatids sculpted in stone by Ángel García Díaz, responsible also for the Viennese-inspired ornamental details that decorate the facade.

Between 1944 and 1947, the year in which the merger with the Central Bank took place, various reforms were carried out inside that altered the original Palacios design, such as the closure of the patio on the main level to expand the useful surface of the first plant. At the same time, the basement was fitted out to house a security camera and the building was expanded with the acquisition of the adjoining property on Calle Barquillo.

In the decade of the nineties of the last century, after a series of movements that would lead to the creation of Banco Santander Central Hispano, the building fell into disuse, being used only for board meetings and institutional relations. In the year 2000 is acquired by the City Council of Madrid that included it in the operation of changing buildings to move the consistory to the Communications Palace and since October 2007 is the headquarters of the Cervantes Institute.

The Palazuelo Commercial House is a project that Antonio Palacios carried out in 1919 on behalf of Demetrio Palazuelo, for which he had already built a residential building on Calle de Alcalá in 1911. It is one of the first commercial buildings in Madrid inspired by the architecture of Chicago and other major American cities, with which Palacios develops a compositional model that will resume shortly after on the Gran Vía. 

It was built on the site that occupied the palace of the Counts of Oñate, demolished in 1913 as a result of the damage suffered after two fires. The building has two facades, one in the number four of the main street and another in the three of Arenal, both of identical layout. It consists of three horizontal bodies, one main larger and two side, narrower, which provide a feeling of symmetry and slenderness. A first vertical section that occupies the ground floor and the mezzanine is intended to accommodate commercial premises. It ends in a balcony that occupies the entire façade but which is segmented in the lateral bodies, forming two small balconies of oval profile supported by corbels with triglyphs. The central body is divided by a series of paired Corinthian columns between which are distributed several viewpoints of iron and glass. Above this is an entablature in which pilasters alternate are corbels and glass bays decorated with two small columns of Ionic order. The building finishes in a recessed attic flanked by two towers.

The interior is accessed through a portal located in one of the lateral bodies. The main element is the central V-shaped patio, with a marble floor and glass tiles, from which an imperial staircase starts that surrounds the two elevators in an ascending way and runs through the five floors of the building. The first three have a corridor with an undulating profile around the central hole, with wrought iron railings and gilded handrails, of modernist inspiration. On the roof, a large glass window provides overhead light to the patio, creating a highly plastic ensemble.

The building was part of a large project that encompassed the entire block and, in turn, was included in the urban proposal of Antonio Palacios for the reform of the Puerta del Sol. With it he intended to create a representative space in the center of Madrid with monumental constructions based on the reworking of classic models, equipped with an innovative system of elevated pedestrian steps and glazed that could be used as terraces. However, the Matesanz House was the only property of this project that came to be built, finishing the works in 1922. Today, almost a century later it continues to perform the original function for which it was conceived, housing shops, offices and offices.

The Banco Mercantil e Industrial building is the last great work carried out by Antonio Palacios in Madrid. The origins of this entity date back to 1931, when a group of industrialists led by Rafael Salgado Cuesta decided to create an organization that would help finance Madrid's industrial activities, which at that time were beginning to experience a notable increase. A few years later they decide to move their office from Gran Vía to Calle Alcalá, where the headquarters of the main Spanish financial institutions were located.

In 1933 Palacios began to work on the project, which underwent some variations until the works began definitively in 1942 and ended in 1945, the year of his death. Considered by many the first great postwar building in Madrid, it shows the evolution of its architecture. Although he does not renounce the use of classical orders, he practically abandons the ornamental motifs that decorated the facades of his previous works and incorporates new materials, such as paving stones and stainless steel.

The building has two facades, one very simple and discreet on Calle Caballero de Gracia, 32 and the other much more monumental at Alcalá 31. In the latter it repeats the tripartite elevation scheme, with a first section in which two gigantic pilasters rise crowned by an arch in the second body, while in the third it repeats the scheme used in the Banco Español de Río de la Plata, with an attic porticoed with columns that protects the central vault. The feeling that Palacios gives to the building is that of a great triumphal arch, from which a large stainless steel and glass gazebo stands out, arranged as a platform over the main entrance.

The elevation to Caballero de Gracia receives a different, more expressionist treatment, which organizes the floor plan around an exterior patio. The façade is made up of two symmetrical and convex bodies between which there is a façade with characteristics very similar to those of the next Oratory of the Knight of Grace, with which it seems to want to dialogue.
The interior is organized on a long and narrow warehouse like a fish market, about 60 meters long and 14 meters high, which served as an operations yard. It consists of three sections, one central and two lateral and is covered by a large paved vault that provided abundant daytime overhead light. Marble vaults and arches with bronze elements and two large chandeliers are the highlight of the interior finishes and decoration.

The Mercantile and Industrial Bank was absorbed in 1977 by the Banco de Santander, which carried out some actions to condition the facilities in 1986. However, the most important intervention was carried out at 2002, in which the communication nuclei were modified and a gangway was built between the lateral bodies of Caballero de Gracia, as part of the reforms undertaken to house various administrative offices and the space Sala Alcalá 31 exhibition, belonging to the Community of Madrid, current owner of the property.

Located at number 27 of the Gran Vía, the Matesanz building was a direct order made by 1919 brothers Antolín and Jacinto Matesanz to Antonio Palacios for the construction of a commercial house that would house stores, offices and rental offices. It was built on the same site where it had been located in the sixteenth century the house that Juan de Herrera built for the Italian sculptor Giacomo Trezzo, known in Spain as Jacome Trezzo and who gave name to one of the streets on part of whose layout the second section of the Gran Vía was built.

The commission coincides with the construction of the Palazuelo Commercial House, a work of similar characteristics that Antonio Palacios was executing between the Mayor and Arenal streets. Due to the fact that some elements contravened the municipal ordinances in matters of urban planning, he was forced to make some modifications to the original project, which delayed the start of the works until the 1921 year, ending the 1 of October of 1923.

For its design, it is inspired by similar buildings in North America and makes a vertical distribution in which the sub-basement is used to house the general heating, machinery and warehouse services; the basement for two commercial premises; six open-plan floors for the occupants to adapt to their needs, and the last two levels are divided into fourteen offices with their respective waiting rooms and two common toilets. The central hall, a circus-shaped courtyard with a metal structure that extends in height to the seventh floor stands out, where it ends in a false glass roof. In the background there is an imperial staircase with an oval design and two free-standing elevators on the sides.

The exterior presents the typical elevation of three bodies. The first one connects the ground floor with the second mezzanine through a set of granite pilasters finished in brackets with triglyphs that support a balcony that runs along the three facades of the building. The second body is articulated in slender Ionic pilasters that culminate in large semicircular arches and between which look out some steel and glass viewpoints. Finally, the last section begins with a new balcony on which there are two recessed floors, in the last of which two towers emerge. The rounded corners, the use of materials such as glass and steel in the viewpoints, or ceramics in the ornamental motifs, are some of the modern details that Palacios introduces into the Matesanz building.

Throughout its history the building has undergone various remodeling and refurbishment works to house various types of activities that were altering its original appearance, mainly the base and the pilasters. Its commercial plants were occupied by popular tenants, such as the Mata Hermanos tailor shop, the Spiedum Café, an English-inspired establishment famous for its billiards, its chicken steakhouse and summer terraces, and the Quirós Warehouses, a knitting and clothing firm that included with several branches in Madrid. More recently, at 1995, director Alex de la Iglesia shot some scenes from the movie The Day of the Beast in the central foyer.

In 1913 Gabino Bugallal y Araujo, Count of Bugallal, Antonio Palacios commissioned the construction of his main residence on a plot of land located in a corner of the Plaza de Cánovas del Castillo. Palacios projects a building according to the social projection of its owner, renowned figure in the Madrid political scene, combining a functional distribution that responds to the new domestic needs, with a formal design that harmonizes with the aristocratic and monumental environment in which it is located .

Outside, it displays a variety of resources and forms taken from the architectural tradition that is reworked by the incorporation of new materials. It uses natural stone for the baseboards, which grow from the mezzanine to the main body, built with thick brick walls that alternate with vertical lines of glazed bay windows. In the meeting between Cervantes street and Cánovas del Castillo square, the façade softens forming a convex profile chamfer, adapting a new line of viewpoints with curved glass, supported by perforated pilasters. On the main body is located the attic, decorated with various ornamental motifs of artificial stone and with a semicircular balustrade balcony in the corner.

When designing the building, Palacios paid special attention to ensuring that the general height of the cornice does not exceed that of the immediate building, the Palace hotel, “because he believes that in the large monumental squares in a rotunda it is necessary more than in any other complex urban establish a perfect harmony in the heights, by the deplorable effect that otherwise would produce the set of buildings without any correlation. However, he chose to crown the building with an angled tower, with columns and semicircular arches, topped with pinnacles and cresting. This approach not only contributed to breaking the monotony, but also allowed him to connect with the national architectural tradition through shapes and volumes that were reminiscent of the Monterrey Palace, in clear harmony with the Neoplateresque with which he had already experimented in the nearby Palace of Communications. .

Regarding the interior distribution, all the floors had two houses that were destined for rent, except the main one that was entirely occupied by the private residence of the Count of Bugallal. Each house was structured following the same pattern that placed first the reception areas (hall, living room, dining room), then the private rooms (bedrooms, bathroom, toilets), then the kitchen and finally the areas for service and servants . The ground floor also had a carriage entrance, a garage, several utility rooms and a storeroom. In it was the main hall and a courtyard with a monumental staircase and an elevator that led to the different floors. There was also a second patio located on the outside opposite the entrance, with another staircase and a service lift.

In 1929, just fifteen years after its construction, the building was acquired by the La Sud América insurance company. A reform was carried out that, while maintaining the original structure of the property, buried the formal proposals of a historicist nature conceived by Palacios. The gazebos were replaced by windows, the balustrades of the terrace disappeared, the finishes of the tower were eliminated and the facades were covered with mortar and decorated with boxed pilasters and artificial stone cornices. The building would still undergo further transformations, the last of which took place recently to house the facilities of a hotel, but none of them have served to restore its original appearance.

In 1908 Antonio Palacios receives the first order from the industrialist Demetrio Palazuelos Maroto, in this case to build a residential building on a plot of land located at the corner of Calle Alcalá with Alfonso XI, very close to the Palacio de Comunicaciones where he was working by then. In this project he develops a compositional scheme that he would later use as a model in the series of stately homes he built in the following years.

The facades are organized according to the traditional division in base, main body and attic. The ground floor, in addition to containing the main lobby, is dedicated to commercial premises, the mezzanine to offices and other plants to residential rental, at the rate of two homes per floor. The communication was made through two staircases, one main that surrounded an elevator, and another secondary one, destined to the service.

The distribution of each one of the houses catered to the needs of the wealthy class to which they were destined, derived from their intense social and professional life. For this reason, the reception area was oriented outwards, consisting of a living room, office or cabinet, hall and dining room, all of them articulated around the hall. Towards the main interior patio the spaces dedicated to intimate and family life were ordered, which in this case included five bedrooms plus dressing rooms, boudoir, toilets and bathrooms, and finally, at the opposite end to the part destined for public life were located the service rooms, such as the kitchen, the pantry and the servants' bedrooms and bathrooms, which received light and ventilation from the secondary patio.

The exterior is characterized by its refined language, with classicist resonances, in which the influence of Viennese secessionism can be appreciated. The facades are decorated with Catalan stucco, on a cement trim, in imitation of limestone and among the ornamental motifs, the equilateral shapes of the moldings and the pinnacles of the cornices stand out. The meeting between the streets of Alcalá and Alfonso XI is resolved with a chamfer on which there are groups of three viewpoints per floor, crowned by an octagonal tower that reinforces the verticality of the complex. It is especially striking that this tower is covered by a slate mansard, an element typical of French eclecticism, very different from the Neoplateresque style that characterizes the towers of the Palace of Communications and that it will also use in the house of the Count of Bugallal.

It is a project originally commissioned by Martín Lago to architect José Yarnoz Larrosa to build an office and residential building with eleven floors. After having been denied the works license and making the appropriate corrections in the plans, Yarnoz leaves the works, being replaced by Antonio Palacios, who makes new modifications to adapt the building to hotel uses.

Its interior distribution, but especially its elevation, with a large commercial plinth, giant classical columns, glass gazebos and a double set of attic set back and flanked by two towers, follow the approach adopted by Palacios in other works of the same period , like the Spanish Bank of the Río de la Plata or the more contemporary Casa Matesanz. At present, its commercial basements are occupied by a well-known clothing chain, while the rest of the floors belong to the Hotel Tryp Cibeles.

This building was built by order of Mrs. Luisa Rodríguez Arzuaga to house rental housing. The works were carried out between 1915 and 1916 but, as was usual in many Antonio Palacios projects, it could not be occupied until 1919 due to exceeding the maximum height allowed by municipal ordinances.

The façade shows a balanced combination of vertical elements, such as windows and bay windows, with the horizontality of cornices and balustrades. The interior is articulated around a circular patio that projects vertically to form a cylindrical tower with a lantern on the roof, in whose corner there is a tower with a hexagonal plan with pinnacles that adapts to the profile of the chamfer. Each floor was divided into two houses, except the main one, which occupied only one. As an anecdote, it should be noted that among the tenants who inhabited this building was Francisco Franco, who lived in it at different stages between 1926 and 1935.

One of the first works completed by Antonio Palacios and Joaquín Otamendi is this bourgeois apartment building built on the initiative of the Leonese businessman Tomás Rodríguez. In it Palacios already shows his incredible talent to solve the distribution of spaces and the composition of the elevations. On a granite plinth the central body rises, with plastered brickwork. The first floor is crossed by a balustraded balcony, which reduces its dimensions in the following levels until it becomes six individual wrought iron balconies on the third floor; all flanked by two lateral bodies with glazed viewpoints. The building is finished off in a setback attic with two towers and a Catalan-style roof terrace.

Access to the property is from a portal with an ingenious circular entrance for carriages. Each floor contains two houses arranged symmetrically, accessed from the lobby by a spiral staircase that surrounds the elevator. The ornamental elements, both on the interior and on the façade, represent Palacios' clearest approximation to the modernist aesthetic, which also combines with details inspired by the Viennese secession.

On Viriato Street, 20 is one of the few approaches to modern architecture made by Antonio Palacios. Online, in a way, with the ideas put forward by Van der Rohe and Gropius to create asylum blocks, in which each dwelling enjoys equal hygienic conditions, Palacios builds an exempt building formed by two blocks joined by the commercial plinth and the first plant in which the interior courtyard disappears as an articulating element.

On the facade disappears any hint of ornamentation, betting on a new expressive language based on the strength of the volumes. It masterfully combines the horizontality of balustrades and balustrades of the balconies with the ascending line drawn by the viewpoints. Especially original is the location of the body of elevators in the open patio that form both blocks, patio that allows to take advantage of direct light and ventilation.

On the adjacent property, at number 22, another building designed by Palacios rises, with a different scheme from the previous one, but with similar approaches to simplicity and rationality. The façade is moved to the block patio, placing a landscaped patio at the front of the street. The only dividing wall is located in one of the back corners of the adjoining block, which allows taking advantage of direct light and dispensing with interior patios. Access to the floors is via the stairs located in the octagonal body that rises from the main façade until it ends in a tower.

In 1917 Antonio Palacios was appointed architect of the recently created Compañía Metropolitano Alfonso XII, developing an important work in which he not only turned to the construction of several architectural elements that would become the external image of Madrid's metro -like the mouths of Metro or the Sol and Gran Vía temples, but also defined the decorative line of its interiors.

In the stations, he opted for very simple functional solutions that would facilitate travel and organization. One of his main concerns was to alleviate the claustrophobic sensation that travelers could have in an underground transport. For this reason he chose the white tile to cover halls and corridors, since they provided a greater luminosity when reflecting the light. The tiles were decorated with ceramic curbs that combined ocher with cobalt blue and also served to frame advertising posters, also made with ceramic tile.

Due to the successive enlargements and the constant need to update the facilities, most of Palacios' contributions to the Madrid Metro were lost, with few exceptions such as the old Chamberí station. Included in the itinerary of the first Metro line that was inaugurated in 1919 and that covered the path of Cuatro Caminos a Sol, it was closed in 1966 and it has kept practically intact its original decoration, including advertising signs and signage. It has been restored and refurbished and from 2008 it can be visited by the public as part of the Interpretation Center of Metro de Madrid ANDÉN 0.

The Progreso station was inaugurated in December of 1921 within the stretch of extension of the 1 Line that joined Sol with the station of Mediodía, today called Atocha. In 1939, with the change of name of the square in which it is located, it was renamed Tirso de Molina.

Like the other stations located in open squares or monumental spaces, its access point had an announcing post that was erected on a solid granite balustrade, still preserved today. Inside it still maintains part of the original design and decoration, such as the vaulted ceiling covered with white tiles and decorated borders or the ceramic glazed shield with gold and copper reflections located on the entrance to the platform.

The Pacífico power station is the most complex of the auxiliary constructions that Antonio Palacios makes for the Metropolitan Company Alfonso XIII between 1922 and 1931, in which, despite its functional nature, it does not neglect the formal architectural aspects. Thus he conceives a set of buildings in which he plays with different scales and elevations, depending on the independent use to which they are intended, but achieving a unitary result.

The main and largest building is the warehouse that housed the three groups of diesel engines, responsible for providing a certain energy autonomy to the Metro. Its structure is of an industrial type, very diaphanous and with large openings to achieve greater lighting and ventilation. On the contrary, the bodies intended for offices present an aspect closer to an urban building, their smaller scale and their smaller windows. The complex was completed with a third building that was demolished and replaced by a more current one that is not related to the previous ones. In addition to brick and stone on the facades, inside Palacios incorporates the same tiles used in Metro stations, which reinforces the company's corporate identity.

The Pacific electric station stopped supplying power to the Metropolitan in 1972 and was definitively closed in 1987. At the beginning of the 21st century a process began to recover its original appearance and since 2008 it is open to the public as an interpretation center of Metro de Madrid.

In 1917 Antonio Palacios began working for the newly created Compañía Metropolitana Alfonso XIII, contributing with the design of the decorative line of its stations and the architectural identity of its buildings. Between 1922 and 1931, he planned the construction of a series of facilities designed to guarantee the electric supply of the service, such as the Pacific Power Plant and the Quevedo and Salamanca Substations.

While the first two respond to the type of factory construction, the building on Castelló Street blends in with the neighboring buildings, acquiring the appearance of a residential block of flats on its façade.

In 1917 Antonio Palacios began working for the newly created Compañía Metropolitana Alfonso XIII, contributing with the design of the decorative line of its stations and the architectural identity of its buildings. Between 1922 and 1931, he planned the construction of a series of facilities designed to guarantee the electric supply of the service, such as the Pacific Power Plant and the Quevedo and Salamanca Substations.

Antonio Palacios built the Quevedo Substation in 1925, attending only to rational and functional criteria. After the expansion carried out in 1929, the complex is made up of two attached buildings with a façade facing opposite streets. They respond to the type of industrial building, with large openings and little ornamentation. For the façade factory, it combines stone, brick and plaster.