The America's Cup represents an opportunity for transformation for Barcelona. Hosting the world's most recognized sailing competition will give visibility and projection to the Catalan capital, and doing so with an abandoned and under-construction building as a backdrop is not an option. This is the view of the Port de Barcelona, which awarded in July the rehabilitation of the Portal de la Pau building with the aim that its exterior would be in pristine condition before the event begins in August.
Works began in early September, and have been planned with the intention that the front facade, the two side facades, and the interior structure will be ready before the competition. In fact, the completion date marked on the calendar is July 31, just before the regatta begins, which will take place between August and October of next year. Thus, it is a race against time to restore this emblematic building of the city to its splendor. The renovation of the rear facade will have to wait, and will be covered by a large canvas during the competition.
It will be after the America's Cup when work on the unique building, located a few meters from the Columbus statue, will resume. Specifically, they will restart from November, with the forecast to finish the entire renovation in 2025. Once completed, the building will house an interpretation center of the port and its relationship with Barcelona on the ground floor. On the first floor there will be a multipurpose room open to the port community and the city, which will have an additional space on the upper floor.
Also on the first floor, institutional and meeting spaces will be located for the president of the Port de Barcelona and its board of directors. The organization will reserve these facilities for unique and notable meetings, as it will maintain its usual operations at the World Trade Center. Precisely the transfer of its activity to the business park left the Portal de la Pau building unused in 2008, which has presented an appearance of abandonment ever since. This was explained in front of the building by the president of the Port de Barcelona, Lluís Salvadó, and the architect in charge of the project, Jordi Julián.
The lack of maintenance since the building became disused has led to deterioration that has affected the development of the rehabilitation. Works began in 2017 and stopped with the pandemic, when a second project was proposed because the first phase revealed a worse level of deterioration than initially expected. This halt was used to prepare the second project, which was awarded to the same temporary union of companies (UTE) that had won the first tender, formed by Dragados, Urcotex, and CRC. The amount of the current contract is 15.6 million euros, which are added to the 1.9 million euros that were allocated in the phase started in 2017.
Transformation of Port Vell
Salvadó has highlighted that this is an indispensable operation to "develop the set of actions that must be brought up to date from now until the America's Cup." In fact, the regatta has accelerated the execution of about twenty actions that will change the appearance of Port Vell. With a planned public-private investment of 120 million euros, this transformation includes actions such as the recovery of the Imax, which has reopened as an America's Cup interpretation center.
The celebration of the America's Cup in Barcelona has accelerated the execution of about twenty actions that will change the appearance of Port VellAmong the actions that will renovate this port environment of the city is also the opening of the rambla de la nueva bocana, which will run inside parallel to the new breakwater as the best grandstand from which to watch the boat traffic of Port Vell. They also include the L'Àquarium reform, with 13 million euros to remodel and expand it before the Copa América.
Luxury building and luggage
The Portal de Palau building, eclectic and with a French air, was inaugurated in 1907 as a space for ship passengers and customs control of luggage. This function was carried out from a counter and column room that will now house the dissemination center. The building was designed to be attached to warehouses, which were demolished during the Olympic transformation. Then the rear facade of the building became visible, conceived practically as a party wall, due to being juxtaposed with these warehouses.
The first floor of the building housed a luxury restaurant frequented by the bourgeoisie of the time, the Mundial Palace. Its exclusive atmosphere led even King Alfonso XIII to hold a banquet in this space during a visit to the city. Now that splendor gives way to the spaces that will house the rooms for the presidency of the port and its governing council, and the multi-purpose room, which will be presided over by a large painting by the painter Eliseu Meifrèn. The Barcelona artist, who died in 1940, is especially known for his maritime and port landscapes. The port he depicted in his works bears little resemblance to the current one, with a Port Vell evolving and transforming with the America's Cup as a catalyst.