This past week from the windows looking onto Plaça de Jaume Sabartés we had the chance to watch an excellent display of ‘juggling’.
The crane used to put up the Museu Picasso annex building was dismantled and taken away in what can only be described as a marvel of mobility.
It took 12 hours of work on the part of the construction company. Once carrer Princesa had been closed to traffic, the crane was moved piece by piece from the middle of the square and a shuttle truck took it out onto carrer Princesa. You can imagine what was involved!
It wasn’t easy. Manolo, the site manager, was fuming. Each piece of the crane first had to be lifted out by another mobile crane onto the shuttle truck and then another crane on carrer Princesa placed the pieces on the big trucks that were to take it all away.
The works for the new building of Museu Picasso in pl. Sabartés. Photo: Josep M Llobet
Construction cranes are made up of lots of pieces, but above all they have weights, concrete slabs that keep them anchored to the ground so that they can work safely, and they’re heavy…
Well, despite the difficulties, by the evening the new building was already free of the metal structure that had enabled it to be built and now more than ever we are starting to see what the Museu Picasso’s Centre for Knowledge and Research will look like.
The first glass panels on the main façade have already been mounted, and in a few days it will be completely covered. And the side façades, one on the Noguera courtyard and the other on carrer Flassaders, are now practically finished. These are white and give an incredible luminosity that is much needed in these narrow streets!
In fact the work is now in the final phase and is expected to be inaugurated in the middle of January. As you know, it’s always difficult to say when a construction project will be completed, but we think that Santa Eulàlia, on February, looks to be a very opportune time to show the city the long-awaited extension to the Museu Picasso.
Let’s hope we meet the deadline!
Núria Fradera
Manager
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