Barcelona halts project to build a library in historic International Exposition building

BarcelonaThe future of the Casa de la Prensa in Barcelona is once again uncertain. When everything was on track for it to house the renovated Francesc Boix Library in Poble-sec and a neighbourhood space, the City Council of the Catalan capital has halted the project. According to several sources who spoke to the ARA, the council has ordered the initial project, which the architects were already working on, to be stopped and is studying other uses for this emblematic building from the 1929 International Exposition. For now, it is not known what the fate of this building, which has been empty for decades, will be.

When consulted by the ARA, City Council sources limit themselves to saying that "all possibilities are being analysed to ensure that the renovation of the building and the neighbourhood space are completed within the planned timetable, in 2029, when the centenary of the Barcelona Universal Exposition will be celebrated." However, several sources familiar with the project confirmed to this newspaper that last summer it was decided to stop the initiative to build a library and that since then everything has been on hold while the council redefines its plans for the Casa de la Prensa.

The Casa de la Prensa association –which oversees the recovery of the space and is made up of neighbourhood organisations in Poble-sec and journalist organisations– explains that the council also informed them a few months ago that the project was being halted because they were looking for "a better solution for the future of the Francesc Boix library in an alternative location". The problem, several sources point out, is that the new municipal government was not sure about locating this library at one end of the Poble-sec neighbourhood and is looking for more central plots.

Until now, the City Council's plans were for a neighbourhood space and the library to share the space of the Casa de la Prensa. Its opening was to give air to the current library in Poble-sec –which has become too small, but which would continue to have an open part–, and to offer first-class facilities to the residents of Font de la Guatlla and those of the new neighborhood which will be built in the area following the compaction of the spaces currently occupied by the Fira. Now, however, the plans have changed.

The Museum of Performing Arts

Although the City Council refuses to give details about the project until "they are completely defined", several sources explain to ARA that there is the possibility of recovering a project that was once kept in a drawer on the table: that the Press House will host the Museum of Performing Arts. In 2011, during Jordi Hereu's last year as mayor, Barcelona City Council and Provincial Council signed an agreement to build this museum in the Casa de la Prensa, but the idea was ultimately abandoned.

While waiting to finally define what the space will be used for, the change in the project adds doubts to the schedule for the Casa de la Prensa's renovation. The City Council maintains the 2029 horizon – coinciding with the centenary of the Universal Exhibition – but the timing is very tight. Even if the project were to continue in the hands of the ONL Arquitectura studio, which won the competition for the renovation in 2018, the need to redo it to accommodate a different library project would greatly compress the schedule. Normally, a new competition would have to be opened.

A never ending story

The restoration of the Casa de la Prensa has been a long time coming. Forty years have passed since the Guardia Urbana headquarters left and, since then, the building – the work of Pere Domènech i Roura, son of Lluís Domènech i Montaner – has remained closed and fenced. Only the Guardia Urbana and the Casa de la Prensa Association make residual use of two spaces on the ground floor. The rest of the building is in a state of neglect. There are parts of the ceilings that have fallen, areas protected by landslides and pigeons roam the rooms.

Before the municipal elections in 2023, the Casa de la Prensa Association obtained a unanimous commitment from the municipal groups that established 2027 as the deadline for completing its rehabilitation. However, a year ago the new municipal government cooled that promise and set a new deadline for having the building rehabilitated in 2029. The decision to stop the library and look for alternatives now adds doubts to this schedule.