Four Seasons Hotel Madrid (Centro Canalejas)

Four Seasons Hotel Madrid in the former Palacio de la Equitativa at dusk, the floodlit stone prow at the corner of Calle de Alcalá and Calle de Sevilla rising to a clock and a copper-domed turret, lit balconies running along both wings above a planted traffic island
Location: Madrid, SpainType: HotelYear: 2020Architect: Estudio Lamela + José Grases Riera + Eduardo Adaro + BAMO + BG ArquitecturaPhotographer: C messier, Zarateman

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Javier Perez Montes, Daniel Dionne, Enric, ajay_suresh

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Four Seasons Hotel Madrid by Estudio Lamela in Madrid, Spain

Four Seasons Hotel Madrid is a hotel at the heart of Centro Canalejas in Madrid, Spain, a block of seven historic buildings between Calle de Alcalá, Calle de Sevilla, Plaza de Canalejas and Carrera de San Jerónimo. Its flagship is the Palacio de la Equitativa, designed by José Grases Riera and completed in 1891, joined by Eduardo Adaro’s former Banco Hispano Americano. Estudio Lamela led the conversion, which opened in September 2020, with interiors conceived by BAMO and developed by BG Arquitectura.

Corner turret of the Palacio de la Equitativa against a deep blue sky, a copper onion dome on an iron-railed lantern above a white clock face flanked by two gilded seated figures and garlands

From La Equitativa and Banesto to Centro Canalejas

The Equitable Life Assurance Society of the United States, whose Spanish branch traded as La Equitativa, bought the wedge-shaped corner plot in 1886, one of the sites created when the city widened Calle de Sevilla, and held a competition that the Barcelona-born Grases Riera, a fellow student of Gaudí, won against six other architects. Completed in 1891, the building combined the insurer’s offices with shops, flats and, for a time, the Casino de Madrid. In 1920 the Banco Español de Crédito (Banesto) bought it, and King Alfonso XIII inaugurated the bank’s new headquarters there on 6 May 1922. Next door, Adaro’s Banco Hispano Americano was built between 1902 and 1906, its balustrade continuing the line of La Equitativa’s. Successive bank mergers connected these and five neighbouring buildings internally; Banco Santander moved its banking services out in 2004 and sold the whole block to the OHL group in 2012.

Night view of Four Seasons Hotel Madrid from Calle de Alcalá, the illuminated stone corner rising through balconies and the hotel crest to the lit clock and turret against a dark blue sky, with pedestrians and street lamps below

Elephant corbels, a copper turret and the Equitativa clock

Grases’s facades, more than 120 metres long, are among the most accomplished works of academic eclecticism in Madrid: a two-storey base of round and segmental arches, a balustraded principal floor carried on corbels carved as elephant heads — a motif he used here for the first time — and wrought-iron lamps and grilles of virtuoso detail. The sharp prow where Alcalá meets Sevilla rises to a copper and wrought-iron turret with a lookout and a slender bulbous dome, above a clock flanked by gilded bronze figures of the Past and the Future. A bronze group by the Austrian sculptor Viktor Tilgner once filled the corner niche; Banesto removed it during its 1920–22 works and gave it to the city, and in 1954–55 the crown and turret were dismantled and rebuilt a storey higher to insert an extra floor. Adaro’s sandstone front on Plaza de Canalejas, with allegories of Calculation and Economy by the sculptor José Alcoverro beside the door, is now the main entrance to Galería Canalejas.

Close-up of the clock on the Equitativa turret, Roman numerals on a white face in a carved stone frame hung with gilded garlands, and a gilded bronze seated female figure beside it

Teller counters, a stained-glass skylight and the oval staircase

Inside, the hotel’s lobby lounge, El Patio, sits beneath a stained-glass skylight ringed by dark green marble columns with gilded capitals restored from the old banks, and BAMO turned the former teller counters into curving tufted velvet banquettes. More than 16,000 historic pieces were removed, catalogued and restored during the works and over 3,700 original features were reinstated, from stone floors, carved shutters and ironwork to the fireplaces and ceiling mouldings of the suites; the Royal Suite, more than 400 square metres, occupies the bank’s former boardroom and chairman’s office. A new oval staircase sweeps up through the floors, with Eduardo Pérez-Cabrero’s sculpture Starry Night behind it. The 200 rooms and suites, a spa over four floors with a 14-metre pool under glass, and Dani Brasserie on the roof, designed by Martin Brudnizki, complete the hotel; the lighting was conceived by Barbara Bouyea and carried out by Anoche Iluminación.

Curved sandstone front of the former Banco Hispano Americano on Plaza de Canalejas, now an entrance to Galería Canalejas, its pilasters, balconies and carved pediments lit by sun under a blue sky

Conversion by Estudio Lamela, BAMO and BG Arquitectura, 2020

Estudio Lamela’s project for Centro Canalejas Madrid (OHL Desarrollos) covers some 76,000 square metres: the 200-room hotel, a 15,000-square-metre shopping gallery, 22 private residences and 400 parking spaces. The guiding rule was to respect everything of historic or artistic value: the facades and first bays of the two oldest buildings were preserved and restored, together with skylights, ironwork and timber joinery, while the interiors behind were rebuilt on a radial plan whose axis bisects the corner at Alcalá 14, around a large courtyard bringing daylight to every floor and a smaller one serving the spa. Three set-back storeys replaced the old attics, their facades following the composition of each building below, and the roof was treated as a fifth facade with planted terraces. The interior demolitions, begun in September 2014, were opposed by heritage groups and by the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, which objected to the “facadism” allowed after the protection of the Banco Hispano Americano was limited to its front and first bay in 2013. BAMO of San Francisco conceived the interiors and spa and BG Arquitectura of Madrid developed them over eight years across the seven buildings, with AvroKO designing the Isa gastro lounge and Luis Bustamante the private residences. The hotel, the first Four Seasons in Spain, opened in September 2020, the year Galería Canalejas opened its first boutique.

Carved stone elephant head corbel on the facade of the Palacio de la Equitativa, its trunk curling down beneath a moulded cornice beside an arched window

Photography and credits

The photographs move from the Equitativa’s prow at dusk and by night into the lobby skylight, the teller-counter banquettes, the oval staircase and the bar beneath it, then out to the clock, the elephant corbels and the neighbouring Banco Hispano Americano and former Banco Zaragozano at Alcalá 10, whose Art Deco ironwork by the Barrera family and glass-roofed atrium now belong to Galería Canalejas — interiors central enough to tag the project Interior Design as well as Commercial. The clock detail was taken in 2010, before the conversion. Credits go to C messier, Zarateman, Javier Perez Montes, Daniel Dionne, Enric and ajay_suresh under the CC licences or public-domain dedications noted on each Wikimedia Commons file.

Atrium of Galería Canalejas beneath a large geometric Art Deco glass ceiling, dark red wood-clad columns, a café bar with stools, round tables and striped chairs, and a cylindrical glass light fitting rising through the void

Four Seasons Hotel Madrid (Centro Canalejas) gallery

Four Seasons Hotel Madrid in the former Palacio de la Equitativa at dusk, the floodlit stone prow at the corner of Calle de Alcalá and Calle de Sevilla rising to a clock and a copper-domed turret, lit balconies running along both wings above a planted traffic islandLobby lounge of Four Seasons Hotel Madrid beneath a large stained-glass skylight framed in a gilded border, dark green marble columns with gilded capitals ringing a gallery level, armchairs, orchids and a bronze sculpture group on the polished floorCorner turret of the Palacio de la Equitativa against a deep blue sky, a copper onion dome on an iron-railed lantern above a white clock face flanked by two gilded seated figures and garlandsCurved tufted velvet banquette wrapped around a former bank teller counter of green marble in the lobby of Four Seasons Hotel Madrid, with dark marble columns, pink orchids and a gilded staircase in the backgroundNight view of Four Seasons Hotel Madrid from Calle de Alcalá, the illuminated stone corner rising through balconies and the hotel crest to the lit clock and turret against a dark blue sky, with pedestrians and street lamps belowOval staircase at Four Seasons Hotel Madrid sweeping up through several floors in smooth white curves with a gilded balustrade, seen across a green marble counter edged with a tufted velvet benchClose-up of the clock on the Equitativa turret, Roman numerals on a white face in a carved stone frame hung with gilded garlands, and a gilded bronze seated female figure beside itArrangement of pink orchids, red roses and pale pink hydrangeas in black vases along a green marble counter in the lobby of Four Seasons Hotel Madrid, the curved gallery and balustrades rising behindCurved sandstone front of the former Banco Hispano Americano on Plaza de Canalejas, now an entrance to Galería Canalejas, its pilasters, balconies and carved pediments lit by sun under a blue skyCircular bar with gilded panels and leaf motifs beneath the oval staircase at Four Seasons Hotel Madrid, a lantern hanging in the stairwell, upholstered bar stools and pastries on glass stands in the foregroundCarved stone elephant head corbel on the facade of the Palacio de la Equitativa, its trunk curling down beneath a moulded cornice beside an arched windowArt Deco entrance to Galería Canalejas at Calle de Alcalá 10, gilded fan-shaped grilles in dark frames lining the walls and filling the transom above polished black glazed doors in a white-lit vestibuleAtrium of Galería Canalejas beneath a large geometric Art Deco glass ceiling, dark red wood-clad columns, a café bar with stools, round tables and striped chairs, and a cylindrical glass light fitting rising through the voidSpiral staircase with gilded handrails and glass balustrades winding through the atrium of Galería Canalejas, viewed from below with the geometric glass ceiling and red columns behindDaytime view of the Palacio de la Equitativa, home of Four Seasons Hotel Madrid, its granite and white stone wings meeting at a rounded corner bay crowned by the clock turret and copper dome, street lamps along the pavementHotel entrance of Four Seasons Hotel Madrid at Calle de Sevilla 3, glass canopies over arched doorways with wrought-iron grilles, brass plaques, clipped box shrubs in planters and doormen beneath a stone balustradeMain entrance of Galería Canalejas at Plaza de Canalejas 1 in the former Banco Hispano Americano, a tall carved stone portal lettered Galería Canalejas with a decorative iron grille and a ceiling of hanging lights insideCalle de Alcalá at dusk looking towards the illuminated Four Seasons Hotel Madrid and its clock turret, with lit street lamps, an underground car park ramp and the facades of neighbouring buildings

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