The Barcelona skyline is a work in progress. To a large extent, it has been built in fits and starts, and even one of its most emblematic landmarks, the Sagrada Familia, has a constantly evolving silhouette. Some of the most recognizable icons now on any tourist souvenir, such as the Glòries Tower (formerly Agbar) or the W hotel, were born in the 21st century. The case of the Tres Xemeneies of Sant Adrià, a structure destined to be integrated into this dispersed and changing skyline, is an industrial vestige of late-Francoist desarrollismo, which was built in the 70s and operated until 2011. A thermal power plant that smeared soot on clothes hung out in Sant Adrià and Badalona, that heated the nearby waters with its emissions (which attracted fish and delighted Sunday fishermen) and that had to grow from its initial 180 meters in height to 200 meters, to thus avoid the level of the thermal inversion layer on the Barcelona coast, which until then caused polluting gases to remain at the level of the surface itself.
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Despite its dire environmental effects, its brutalist ugliness and its ominous silhouette, it won the hearts of the people of Sant Adrià de Besòs, who decided in a popular consultation in 2008 by an overwhelming majority that the structure had to be preserved once it ceased to have a practical use.
After years of debates and indecisions, the Territorial Urban Planning Commission of the Barcelona Metropolitan Area finally approved this past summer the Urban Master Plan (PDU) of the Tres Xemeneies, an ambitious reordering of the metropolitan coastal front that will affect 32 hectares distributed between the municipalities of Badalona and Sant Adrià de Besòs. The emblematic Tres Xemeneies will become the icon of one of the new centrality areas of an expanding metropolis, which aspires to finally become a Great Barcelona that embraces instead of confronting its neighboring municipalities.
In conversation with The New Barcelona Post, the mayor of Sant Adrià, Joan Callau (PSC), values the approval of the PDU: "These urban transformation processes are long-term. Next year the provisional approval has to be made, then the definitive one. But we have to start walking. I don't think the general lines will be altered. We are working so that an international knowledge hub for sustainable development and peace can be implemented in the central turbine hall. The project is led by Màrius Roviralta, at the head of a group of experts."
The municipality of Sant Adrià gets 10% of the development, and the social housing projects will be promoted by the city council. Callau highlights the transparency that the entire project has followed: "A lot of work has been done and the process has been very transparent. Participatory sessions have been held, and a special session has just been held to debate the economic project. It is a complex project, but I think the proposal is very good."
"These urban transformation processes are long-term. Next year the provisional approval has to be made, then the definitive one. But we have to start walking. I don't think the general lines will be altered," explains the mayor of Sant Adrià, Joan CallauThe arrival of the Hard Rock Hotel, which will revive the activity of Port Fòrum, currently quite paralyzed, and the consolidation of the presence of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) campus are other vectors of transformationof the area. Regarding the arrival of the UPC campus, Callau states: "It has meant a boost for the area. We have granted licenses to build homes on private plots, an apart-hotel is being built, and we have granted a license for a student residence outside the strict scope of the campus. It is very positive because its arrival in the medium and long term is creating a fabric of activity with a lot of future. Things are progressing well and the area is being revitalized."
Last week it was also confirmed that Sant Adrià de Besòs will host the first digital port for high-capacity fiber optic submarine cables in Catalonia, the Barcelona Cable Landing Station (CLS), which will begin operating in 2022. A new infrastructure that will turn Catalonia into a gateway and link for cables coming from Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean with the United States.
A set of good news and promises for the future that are currently blurred by the consequences of the pandemic, and which has forced the Sant Adrià council to address immediate emergencies, which in a municipality with an unemployment rate and an income below the Catalan average are especially urgent. "We try to help maintain the activity of small businesses, self-employed workers, and combat unemployment, because unfortunately we have always had rates higher than the average. Now the priority is to prevent people from ending up suffering. But this will pass and we are optimistic about the future," says Callau.
The 32 hectares of coastal strip between the railway and the sea and from the mouth of the Besòs river to the end of the Tres Xemeneies area are the hard core of the plan, which will also impact a wider area of 98 hectares, currently occupied by warehouses and industrial areas. A process that will culminate in the creation of facilities and green areas, streets, and the future recovery of the beaches. And the creation of new homes will include the commitment to allocate 40% to social housing. The tram will be extended to the port of Badalona and road communications between municipalities will be improved, taking into account sustainability criteria. A dream that, once it becomes a reality, will transform a long-degraded area into a lung of growth and future for the future metropolitan Barcelona.
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AN ENVIRONMENT IN TRANSFORMATION
Outside the strict area of expansion of the Tres Xemeneies PDU, things are also changing. Three projects already in operation or under construction will contribute to revitalizing the area at a point of new centrality. The construction of the new Hard Rock hotel, the Antares luxury apartment tower, and the UPC Besòs campus are three milestones that are changing the physiognomy of the area.
Hard Rock Hotel
Works are already underway, and if all goes as planned, the Hard Rock Hotel Barcelona, with 504 rooms and an investment of 200 million euros, will open its doors in early 2022.
This is a joint project by HardRock International and the venture capital investment manager ASG, which is being built right in front of Port Fòrum, a complex that will surely see its activity revived with this dynamic element, and which can also absorb the leisure demand that will be orphaned with the closure of the restaurant and leisure offerings of Port Olímpic in Barcelona.
The dimensions of the new hotel and its seafront location position it as a new future competitor for the city's other large luxury maritime hotels, such as the Arts and the W. The new complex will include a spectacular terrace with a pool, specialized restaurants, and rooms will feature balconies overlooking the Mediterranean. Very well connected to the city center by metro and tram, its location near Parc del Fòrum and Parc de la Pau, a regular venue for major music festivals, will make this hotel the favorite accommodation spot for high-spending music tourists. The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the hotel's construction and opening plans, a crisis that is particularly directly affecting the tourism industry, are still uncertain. The company has refused to comment on the matter, so it must be assumed that everything is moving forward without alterations.
Antares Tower
Another building candidate to become an icon of the new Barcelona is Antares, the spectacular luxury apartment tower designed by the prestigious French architect Odile Decq. It is the first major architectural project by a female super-architect in the city, after the frustration of a project designed by Zaha Hadid, a spiral tower in the same area that never materialized. The project has converted the skeleton of one of the Diagonal Mar towers initially intended for offices into a very exclusive residential complex. With a height of 28 floors and 89 homes, the icing on the cake is a spectacular penthouse acquired by a Russian industrialist for almost nine million euros. The most economical apartment costs 850,000 euros.
This is the first residential project by the French architect, promoted by Shaftesbury Asset Management Group. The building offers a wide collection of services for residents: a communal terrace with an infinity pool, a floor with a gym, yoga room, indoor pool and sauna, relaxation areas and massage rooms, a large private garden, and parking spaces.
"Red for me is representative of Barcelona, and of its architectural passion and energy," explains architect Odile DecqThe most characteristic feature of the building is its undulating balconies that combine white and red. A striking but elegant chromatic choice. "Red for me is representative of Barcelona, and of its architectural passion and energy," explains Decq. The building narrows in width on each floor using the entasis technique, widely used in the columns of Greek temples, which implies an optical illusion that enhances the slenderness of the construction. "The Greeks used entasis in their columns, while I have applied it to the entire building," she adds. The apartments have areas between 98 square meters (m²) and 386 m², and their private terraces range from 16 m² to 160 m². Bamboo floors and state-of-the-art home automation. A whole exhibition of luxury and elegance a few hundred meters from one of the most economically depressed areas of the city, the La Mina neighborhood,a contrast that highlights the challenges the city still faces.
UPC Diagonal-Besòs Campus
The Barcelona East School of Engineering (EEBE) is the main driver of the Diagonal-Besòs Campus, a space for innovation and knowledge, located between Barcelona and Sant Adrià de Besòs. In operation since 2016, and located at the intersection of Sant Ramon de Penyafort and Eduard Maristany streets, the EEBE is the main core of the new Diagonal-Besòs Campus and is proving to be a very powerful vector of revitalization for the area. A project that involved an investment of almost 100 million euros. The Catalan Land Institute (Incasòl) announced in August the creation of a new building dedicated to research within the campus. A new facility with an investment of 20 million that aims to host research centers and groups, on an area of more than 10,000 m², and which will be the sixth building in operation of the complex.