image Ruiz-Tagle Palace in the late nineties, when its destruction seemed imminent. Image courtesy Alan Bruna.
The current case of the beautiful palace that was the Ruiz-Tagle at the junction of Cathedral Street with Amunátegui, within walking distance of the Santa Ana Church, is quite an exception in the history of contemporary architecture, rarely gives the predatory instincts of the "modern -by-the-modern and many times opt for less conservation of old structures that gave identity urban Santiago, now severely threatened by this war low-level commercial and avant-garde architecture old architecture or heritage.
The result left everyone satisfied, We know, from a distance, the palace and its central tower may resemble a cat's feet crushed by a Jurassic monster. But it is certainly a more worthy end to the demolition for this beautiful palace of Santiago.
The original building was founded in 1924, and was born from the plans of architect Santiago Cruz Guzman. It has a stately style Republican and pro-European (French or English, I would not say with certainty because I find mixed opinions about it) with some neoclassical, endowed with abundant balcony balustrades and a high terrace to overlook in his tower. Inside were rooms and stairs marble. Despite the bulkiness of its lines and walls, internally good lighting had sought him fairly well distributed windows.
Ruiz-Tagle Palace has never been declared a National Historic Landmark. In the eighties was rented occasionally and from there a long time remained virtually abandoned, always closed. His first stories were used for shops with no aesthetic curtains at some point, were down forever. The last of the thick layers of paint was a blue-gray, very dull, which increased the sense of pitiful waste of the building.
The central tower of the palace before the construction of the adjacent building. Image courtesy of Alan Brenner, who also tells us the internal aspect was the site after visiting him in his youth: "I remember the entrance was round the house, the parquet floor all interlocked, toward the back crossing a solid framework is could see other environments, perhaps the inner rooms of the house, on both sides had marble staircase and brass railings round in shape along the lines of the entry, they ended up in an interior balcony overlooking the hall, which was connected with the main hallway, then I suppose I started, what were the inputs the bedrooms and services, but did not get up there, could be seen from this balcony a spider hanging lamp, guess bronze and aged for years, that their lights were just at that point. "
The palace after processing.
View of the building and the palace under construction. Source: magazine "Centro Santiago" by the Municipality of Santiago, No. 3 June 2006.
View from the opposite corner to Cathedral Street (West).
Hall access to the new building, just under the old.
Miraculously, however, the Max Real Estate Group decided to treat it as if it were a protected monument, when it acquired the land and began, in 2004, the construction of Grand Capital Building .
The project was designed by the architect Paul Gellona Vial, who reused the facade and the main structures of the palace, in the direction of Cathedral 1402. To this end, had to leave the assembly with reinforcing beams and scaffolding anchor behind the walls special of the facade, a state in this structure that was hit with an earthquake of this year, luckily for his longevity. Then he proceeded to seek some form of integration of two such different styles on the block: that of the old house and the new building of 25 floors and 320 apartments. The spacious hall after access to the condo is in what corresponded to the atrium lounge of the old palace, for example.
The appeal of keeping historic facades for new buildings that grow on their backs, is a longstanding procedure in Europe and more recently in America. Here in Chile there are many examples of this, although they tend increasingly appear: one is the Hotel Diego de Almagro, the Alameda Bernardo O'Higgins, one is the former General Public Prison Mackenna or the courts that are found there too, on Calle San MartÃn. As did the Majestic Hotel, near the palace that distracts us. The former offices of El Mercurio of Santiago on Calle Company, however, until recently still hoping someone will take pity and finally decided to use the same procedure of building investors Max Real Estate Group and Engineering and Construction Ingevec Ruiz-Tagle Palace.
And although it is clear that many were unhappy with this solution, we insist that it is a lesser evil to the main option: the tragedy of the great architectural works of Santiago is that in the absence of any radical policy of subsidy or provision of heritage preservation will always be more expensive cast down and build on top.
worth remembering that private companies seek profit, and no historic preservation is not a business for anyone, so we are obviously facing a precarious state and the current policy of preserving the national heritage from some point of view of profitability or sustainability. It is valuable to make this kind of considerations in an environment hostile to the ancient architectural conservation, therefore. Proof of this is that there is now discussion about the famous and historic building of the Confederation of Workers in Alameda, where the owners are promoting their destruction tempted with the same thirst for profit against saying this fight so fervently union body.
The Capital Grand building was opened in 2006. The facade of the Palacio Ruiz-Tagle, who is now the principal of the condominium, was repaired and restored beautifully with all the interventions described and more delicate and artistic in his forehead, entrusted to the teachers masonry.
Except for some small details in the coating and the bloody bombings of aspiring graffiti generally keeps its good appearance and elegance, surprising for better or for worse to visitors, at least, you can still contemplating without having to jump-start the memory to try to remember what he had earlier in the same corner.
