Agbar Tower

The magnificent capital of Catalonia and a popular tourist destination welcomes toddlers, teens and adults alike, if not with bread and salt, but with an excellent entertainment infrastructure. You can also take your children out and about and check out the many attractions. One of the most notable landmarks in the city is the Agbar Tower.

Although the Agbar Tower in Barcelona is not a historical building, most tourists associate it and its name with oriental legends of treasure, greedy sheikhs, black-haired beauties and galloping about recklessly in the desert in search of the magic lamp.

It is more straightforward but no less attractive. The water and sewage company's offices were to be located in the tower when it was commissioned. The official client was the Agbar Group holding company. The name Agbar combines two words — "aguas" and "de Barcelona", which translates as "Barcelona Waterworks".

The original structure, towering over Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes and the business districts of Barcelona, looks more like a cigar or an enormous rocket about to fly into space than a public service building. The Catalans themselves call the tower the "Barcelona Cucumber".

Many visitors to the Catalan capital are surprised by such a creative solution. The surprise sharply turns into amazement, and sometimes bewilderment, when they learn that the architect was Jean Nouvel himself. This Pritzker Prize winner is equal in importance to the Nobel Prize.

Even more incomprehensible is how an ordinary water utility could afford the luxury of hiring such a venerable contractor. Read on to find out. By the way, some experts argue that the tower in Barcelona is nothing more than a copy of the Mary Axe 30 skyscraper, built by architect Norman Foster in London. The two buildings are very similar.

Water prices in Barcelona are exorbitant, so the revenues of this utility run into hundreds of thousands of dollars. Of course, the company can not be modest and involve any geniuses in projects. That is what it did when it approached Jean Nouvel.

The architect was famous for his ability to build a piece of modern and even futuristic architecture that perfectly fit the urban architectural ensemble, even if it was replete with historic buildings of a bygone era.

This project was carried out with the Spanish companies b720 Arquitectos and Dragados. While working on the project, Nouvel was guided by the bell towers of Antoni Gaudi's immortal Sagrada Familia creation and the unrealised Hotel Attraction project sketches.

The concept of the Agbar Tower also has allusions to the peaks of the Montserrat mountain range, stretching 50 km from Barcelona. In addition, as a symbol of the water source for all city inhabitants, the tower was to resemble a geyser.

When the project was approved in 1999, a team of builders and architects got to work. In 2005 the grand opening of the tower took place. King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia attended the ceremony.

In 2013 the building was sold for €150,000,000 to Grand Hyatt (USA), which owns a chain of luxury hotels with the same name worldwide. An additional investment of €35,000,000 was made in the redevelopment of the interior of the building.

Since 2017, the Spanish real estate investment company Merlin Properties has owned the architectural masterpiece bought from the Americans for €142,000,000. Since then, the skyscraper has often been called Torre Glories (Tower of Glory).

What makes this architectural masterpiece so attractive to tourists? Here are the main features of the building.

• The Torre Agbar has a double façade: its first layer is made of concrete lined with bright metal sheets, while the second is made of coloured panels, which will be discussed below.
• The skyscraper is covered with coloured metal panels that close and open automatically. This technology allows proper ventilation and energy saving in all rooms.
• The structure's height is just over 142 metres, making it the third tallest building in Barcelona.
• There are 38 floors in the building, 4 of which are underground.
• The number of windows is 4,500, all located somewhat chaotic, as free planning is provided inside.
• The total floor area is 50,000 m2, of which 3,210 m2 are technical floors with equipment.
• The tower ranks 14th among the tallest buildings in the country.
• The cost of the project and construction was €132,000,000.
• The lighting consists of 4,500 LED lights that generate up to 16,000,000 colours.
• Stepping back from the tower, you get the impression that the surface of the building is a single whole, without any parts. All the elements of the structure merge.

It is worth noting that the most impressive photos of the tower are taken at night when it shimmers with multi-coloured lights. A state-of-the-art computer system controls the changes, creating a natural light show. However, the primary colours of the former waterworks building are a bright blue and a garnet shade of red. This choice is not accidental, as these are the colours of the Barcelona football club.

Remarkably, the tower is sometimes painted in blue, gold and pink, which is a symbol of the Catalan national separatists who advocate the region's independence from Spain and who also dream of taking over Valencia, part of France, and the Balearic Islands (these were the lands that made up the free Catalonia of the Middle Ages).

Agbar attracts not only tourists but also fans of extreme sports. One such adventurer is the French climber Alain Robert, known as "Spider-Man". He climbed a skyscraper and descended from it without any safety net in just 1 hour and 40 minutes.

Another amusing story (but only for outside observers) took place with the Hyatt, an American company that, as already mentioned, wanted to turn the skyscraper into the city's best hotel. Indeed, the figures involved in this business epic were not amused.

Immediately after all the renovation work had been carried out, there was a change of government in Barcelona. The new rulers imposed a moratorium on opening new hotels in Barcelona for two years.

The company already had everything ready to launch the project, but at the last moment, it turned out that Grand Hyatt lacked some forms and certificates according to the new regulations. Thus, due to political disputes, the city was left without the hotel it desperately needed due to the dramatically increased number of tourists and also without the money, it could have been received in taxes.

If you look at the Agbar Tower on a map of Barcelona, you will see that it is very easy to reach it by any public transport that is convenient for you — by metro, bus or tram. If you are walking with children in front of the Sagrada Familia, you can reach the tower on foot in just 10 minutes.

You can visit the temporary exhibitions in the tower lobby, and the floors have restaurants, cafes, and offices. The entrance to the building is free of charge. There is a gift shop on the ground floor of the tower. It is open Monday to Friday from 8.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. with a break from 1 to 2 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. with a break from 3 to 4 p.m.

Today, 30,000 m² of the Agbar Tower is used for offices, while the rest is occupied by a cinema, outbuildings and warehouses, and a car park with 256 parking spaces. The tower has an observation deck at the top, which is accessible to all visitors to Barcelona. It has an amazing view of the city and the Mediterranean Sea.

An evening stroll to the Agbar Tower with the kids is an excellent idea for a fun-filled holiday. Toddlers and school children will love the sparkling lights of the skyscraper and the panoramic views of the vast expanse of sea that they can enjoy from the top of the Torre Glories. The Avinguda Diagonal is also home to chic shopping malls for shopping and children's entertainment.

Although the Agbar Tower often lends itself to criticism from architects and ordinary residents, the building always attracts thousands of glances, forcing one to recognise that it is still a unique and even fantastic building.