La Vela

The new giant of Madrid

La Vela is the most innovate building of the financial centre of the Bank BBVA
(Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria). The location of the building is in the north of
Madrid, in the neighborhood of Las Tablas. The idea of this building is to innovate
the organizational structure developing an inclusive workplace environment with an
open concept which makes easier the communication between managers and
workers. Three hundred workers are able to work in the esthetically attractive
building.
Scope
The team was in charge of following the procurement process of the project
and they also had direct contact with the engineer in charge of supervising the
construction of La Vela, as well as with the architecture firm Hezog & De Meuron.
Objectives
The objective was to build an environmental friendly space for workers which
will increase their performance taking into consideration all the facilities that the
building includes. The open spaces will also contribute to the interrelation between
workers which will make easier the decision making. At the same time, considering
that the BBVA is among one of the most important banks of Europe, is very
important to have a building that will empower the image of this financial
institution.
Governance
Executive Manager: Francisco Gonzalez Rodriguez
Architecture firm: Hezog & De Meuron
Structural engineer: Arup
Contractor: Acciona
Schedule: six years (2009-2015)
Budget: 600 million of euros
Constraints, assumptions, risks and dependencies:
Constraints: the bureaucracy of the procurement process delayed the construction
of the building.
Assumptions: the contractor was very effective in the construction of La Vela, as
well as the other buildings that are part of the Ciudad BBVA complex.

Risks and Dependencies: the budget was not enough and that involved another
procurement process in order to increase the budget aimed to the inversion.