The renovation of the Auditorium will be equally handled by Calatrava and the contractor.

The expense for the restoration of the infrastructure exceeds 24 million euros

Efe

Santa Cruz de Tenerife 15 JAN 2025 18:29

The president of the Cabildo of Tenerife, Rosa Dávila, declared this Wednesday that the renovation work on the Tenerife Auditorium will be shared equally between the architect Santiago Calatrava and the contractor responsible for the project.

In an interview with Televisión Canaria, Dávila stated that there exists “a controversy” between the two parties about whether the design of the project was flawed or poorly executed.

She went on to say: “we have managed to ensure that they share the responsibility for the works and that the architect will oversee the restoration, the refurbishment of the structure.

Sources from the island corporation consulted by EFE pointed out that a legal procedure has been ongoing since 2019, and the Cabildo has been negotiating with the architect and contractor to determine “the best possible solution.”

Dávila’s announcement follows a day after Pedro Martín, the president of the Socialist group in the Tenerife Cabildo, insisted that architect Santiago Calatrava should cover the cost of repairing this infrastructure, which is over 24 million euros, attributing it to “concealed defects in the building.”

The PSOE leader recalls that the infrastructure’s total cost amounted to 74 million euros, despite being initially budgeted at 26.7 million, and was delivered with “significant damages attributable to defects in its design and construction“, all occurring “under the administrations of the Canarian Coalition in the Cabildo of Tenerife”.

In May 2022, the governmental group led by Martín agreed to demand that the architect create the plan for the repairs, in addition to financing its cost, with a timeframe of 19 months, extending until January 2024.

“However, without any justification for this decision, the governing group (CC and PP, with external backing from Vox) opted in November 2023 to grant Santiago Calatrava an additional timeframe to prepare the repair project”, a decision that was contested by Calatrava and subsequently lost, as the PSOE highlighted yesterday Tuesday.

As a result of this, the Council would bear the expense of the optional management and the works on a supplementary basis.