Location: Barcelona, Spain
Date: 1992
Category: Hospitality

About this Project:

• Design Architect: Frank Gehry and Associates

• Project Architect: Douglas Hanson, FAIA

This 41-story waterfront apartment and hotel tower adjacent to the Olympic Port was completed for the 1992 Olympics held in Barcelona. 33 floors of the tower are dedicated to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, while the upper eight floors are luxury apartments. The five-star hotel includes restaurants, nightclubs, retail stores, a health club and meeting rooms.

Douglas Hanson, FAIA, was instrumental in the design and construction of this forty-one story mixed-use building that defined the Olympic Village in Barcelona. The tower housed a hotel, residential units, and retail space. The project had a rigid deadline for completion aligning with the opening of the 1992 Olympics and included complexity at many levels. Certain elements, including the exposed steel structure and prefabricated toilets, challenged local building codes and had to be seamlessly coordinated to successfully complete the building. Hanson’s work on the exposed steel structure influenced the future design of El Peix, gaining knowledge that was key to developing systems to complete the complex structure.