The La Unión y el Fénix Español building, destined to be the headquarters of the former insurance company "La Unión y el Fénix Español", was one of the first skyscrapers in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

. Since 2006 it has housed the "Petit Palace Alcalá Torre" hotel, which belongs to a hi-tech company. It is located on the corner of

Alcalá street Alcalá, Alcalà or Alcala may refer to: People *Alcalá (surname), includes a list of people with that name Places Bolivia * Alcalá (Tomina), a town in Bolivia Colombia * Alcalá, Valle del Cauca, Colombia Philippines * Alcala, Cagayan, a mu ...

and Virgen de los Peligros street. It was built between 1928 and 1931, based on the project of the Spanish architect

Modesto López Otero Modesto López Otero (24 February 1883 – 23 December 1962) was a Spanish architect. He taught for many years in the Superior Technical School of Architecture of Madrid. He directed construction of the Madrid University City, much of which was da ...

, with the collaboration of Miguel de los Santos. Valentín Vallhonrat company carried the works out. The authorship of the sculpture that pinnacles the building refers to «sculptor Camps», whose identity is doubtful, it is unknown whether it is related to Vicente Camps Bru or Josep Maria Camps i Arnau. The building site was acquired for two millions of '' pesetas'' in 1928. One of the keys of the project was the integration of the new skyscraper in a harmonic way with the adjacent church of Las Calatravas, both have shaped an urban entity. It is one of the more notorious works of López Otero and its design involves an evolution from López Otero's "regionalist eclecticism" of his first works to a more «mature» style, after traveling to United States or

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

. A 12-story skyscraper, it has a roof height of 173 feet (53 m). The nearest

Metro station A metro station or subway station is a train station for a rapid transit system, which as a whole is usually called a "metro" or "subway". A station provides a means for passengers to purchase tickets, board trains, and evacuate the syste ...

Sevilla Seville ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Seville ...

, on line 2.

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Union y el Fenix Espanol building Buildings and structures in Cortes neighborhood, Madrid Hotels in Madrid Architecture in Spain Office buildings completed in 1931