Puertos de Tenerife, the Island Council and the Santa Cruz de Tenerife City Council have been advancing jointly, for months, in the definition of one of the integral parts of the project of Link Spring from the port of Tenerife; specifically, of the future marina building, from which an initial building proposal to be developed has already been chosen, and which, in principle, incorporates the modifications requested by the three administrations on the original project presented in 2020 and which led the Port Authority to even considering the redemption of the concession, if the requested changes were not executed.
Said administrations, with three representatives each, form a Technical Evaluation Commission whose function is, basically, to examine the adequacy of the future building project to the unique environment in which the construction will be located and to the urban concept of the Herzog & De Meuron for the area. An initiative that the Port Authority announced that it would modify as a whole to adapt it to current needs, also reducing its cost, from the original 80 million, to about 60, and that this Wednesday received the commitment of the Government of the Canary Islands and the Cabildo to help the Port and the Santa Cruz City Council in its financing.
The current concessionaire of this project, Construcciones Dique del Este SA, has prepared a proposal for the marina building, which has been accepted. The one chosen by the Commission, they point out from the Port, is based on its architectural harmony “in accordance with the emblematic space in which it will be built”, being able, likewise, to achieve the sought “integration of the building in the planning proposal of this part of the city”.
Precisely what the base project lacked, according to the Commission, was that integration with the environment, pointing out at first that the design presented was not adequate “to the actions previously planned or carried out in its area”, that of the square from Spain. Opinion seconded by the capital city council requesting that the project be reviewed in terms of its aesthetics and architectural configuration.
However, in the report prepared by said Commission and made known this Wednesday to the Board of Directors of the Port Authority, which met under the presidency of Carlos González, the concessionaire, Construcciones Dique del Este SA, is requested to draft a more detailed project with information that was lacking in the initial report presented.
For the president of Puertos de Tenerife, Carlos González, “this is a procedure in which all the administrations involved want the project to be carried out in this area to be adapted, from the point of view of coherence and landscape and architectural quality, to the emblematic around the Plaza de España, the gateway to the Island”. That is why “the building cannot be understood as something isolated but must make sense within an integrated environment, likewise, in the planning of the Link Dock itself”.
Thus, within the next three months, Construcciones Dique del Este SA must present a project to the Commission that defines in detail, among other aspects, the spaces that make up the roof and exteriors of the building; a study of the pedestrian itineraries that the construction will assume, and a description of the elements that will make up the façade, from materials to colors to be used, through finishes and textures.
Almost 25 years waiting for the long-awaited union with the sea
In 1998, Herzog & De Meuron won the winning project for the Santa Cruz Link Dock, which would restore the city’s connection to the sea at the height of the Plaza de España. 25 years have passed and we are still waiting.
