The president of the Tenerife Cabildo, Rosa Dávila, declared on Wednesday that the renovation work on the Auditorium of Tenerife will be equally shared between architect Santiago Calatrava and the contractor responsible for the project.
In an interview on Televisión Canaria reported by EFE, Dávila mentioned that there is “a disagreement” between the two parties “over whether the project was inadequately designed or poorly executed.”
She further stated: “We have succeeded in making them agree to share the responsibilities of the work equally and for the architect to oversee the restoration and repair of the structure.”
Sources from the island authority consulted by EFE remind that a legal case has been ongoing since 2019, and the Cabildo has been in discussions with the architect to find “the best possible resolution.”
Dávila’s announcement follows a day after the leader of the Socialist group in the Tenerife Cabildo, Pedro Martín, called for architect Santiago Calatrava to bear the expenses of rectifying this facility, which exceeds 24 million euros, attributing it to “hidden faults in the structure.”
The PSOE leader points out that the infrastructure cost 74 million euros, despite it originally being budgeted at 26.7 million, and was delivered with “considerable damage due to defects in its design and construction,” all of which occurred “under the governments of the Canary Coalition in the Cabildo de Tenerife.”
In May 2022, the governing group led by Martín consented to compel the architect to produce the repair plan, in addition to covering its expenses, with a timeframe of 19 months allocated, ending in January 2024.
“However, without valid justification for such a choice, the governing faction (CC and PP, supported externally by Vox) decided in November 2023 to offer Santiago Calatrava additional time to draft the repair proposal,” a decision that was appealed by Calatrava and subsequently lost, as denounced by the PSOE on Tuesday.
Consequently, the Council would undertake the expenses related to the optional management and the work on a subsidiary basis.
