Following its rehabilitation process, the building is today an innovative space that integrates administrative, institutional and cultural functions and is part and parcel of Madrid’s Art Walk.

 

The refurbishment work was carried out in two phases. The first intervention took place between 2005 and 2007. This phase adapted the administrative offices to house approximately 500 civil servants in the building’s east wing (the offices of the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor). This rehabilitation of this 25,475 m2 space was led by municipal architects from the Directorate General for Historical Heritage, who restored some of the most representative institutional spaces within the building, such as the staircase of honour, the assembly hall, the hall of stained glass windows or the institutional hall, in an exercise that proposed a return to the original project.

For the second phase of action which focused on spaces set aside for more public uses (the front of the building), an International Architecture Ideas Competition was held in 2004, in collaboration with the College of Architects of Madrid. The proposed intervention affected a space of 44,613 m2, of which approximately 30,000 m2 involved refurbishment and the rest brand new, below-ground construction.

Arquimática, with its submission entitled The Heart of the City, won the competition and the Joint Venture between Cibeles Dragados and FCC won the tender to carry out the construction work.