The building, which was immersed in a controversy in recent years in which its sale was intended to develop housing, is currently structurally in very good condition, despite the constant alterations suffered, the most striking, those carried out on the roof of the ramp, partially covered, or the attacks on the extraordinary mural by Germán Calvo (1951) that call for
urgent, careful and intensive rehabilitation-restoration.
The PME is inserted in the urban complex, conceived as a small self-sufficient city with its own sports, commercial, school, recreational and religious facilities. The PME complex is made up of 3 volumes: A main building that face to Cea Bermúdez Street (with five floors, a roof and a basement), composed of a volume of offices to the West and the ramp to the East, and another two larger developed perpendicular to its rear. The one to the west is a large open-plan warehouse dedicated to a single-floor spare parts workshop and the second building, with three floors plus covered, is dedicated to parking (for 1,000 cars), and connected to the ramp of main building. In addition, under the entire complex and below the basement there is a shelter or bunker.
Particularly noteworthy architectural pieces are, the two-way ramp (the only one in our country), its currently transformed roof, the mural entitled "Automobile trades", the concrete structure of the parking lot, or the workshop; a large open-plan floor of10,000 square meters, the largest of these characteristics in Spain, with a very interesting shape saw roof.
Inside the PME workshops there is an impressive mural, already mentioned, entitled "The Trades of the Automobile" that Germán Calvo painted in 1951 (in an alarming state of conservation), following the line marked by those painted during the 1920s and early 1930s, by Mexican muralists, especially Diego Rivera at the Ford and General Motors factories in Detroit. The mural is 26 meters long by 1.6 high, it is impressive to see it inside the workshops, although unfortunately it is not very well preserved.
Finally, a curious part is the part enabled in one of the workshop areas where we can contemplate old objects, tools and machinery, spaces that recreate part of the park's rooms in its beginnings, such as a doctor's office, a barber shop or a corner for drivers to rest and, for car lovers, a vehicle exhibition.
Detail of the ramp. Parque Movil del Estado by Ambrosio Arroyo Alonso. Image from the Revista Nacional de Arquitectura, 1951 (no. 113, p.10).
Description by
Ambrosio Arroyo Alonso(2):
"The program carried out, for which the collaboration of the engineers Messrs. Prieto Rincón and F. Arroyo has been counted on at all times, is a garage with an approximate capacity for a thousand cars: and those that may eventually be found in this capital, as well as possible expansion for future needs; a general repair, painting, bodywork and trim workshop, which not only cover the needs of this garage, but also serve to centralize the major repairs of the provincial services and the Administration and Management services, as well as those of teaching and cultural preparation of the personnel and those of refueling and provisioning of the vehicles. This program is divided into three main groups: garage, workshop and general services.
Circulation.- It has two completely different facets, but essential in this type of building: the circulation itself and the control and surveillance. Therefore, except in exceptional cases, all access, both for vehicles and for workers, employees, visitors, etc., is unique, just as the normal exit of vehicles is unique.
The most common car access is that of vehicles that are parked or locked in the garage. If it is on the ground floor, the access is direct and without crossing of any species, and if it is on the upper floors, they go up to the corresponding one by the ramp dedicated solely and exclusively to access.
Once the vehicle is in its garage floor, the circulation inside it is always in one direction only, and its parking, which is arranged with an inclination of 75 °, is verified by a simple reversing maneuver, each vehicle being tracked laterally by curbs that compartmentalize the garage and that act as a stop at the rear.
The exit of the vehicles, always in one direction, does not present any problem; on the ground floor it is equally direct and on the remaining floors you just have to take the special downward ramp and you will find yourself directly at the exit door where the control is available. If the vehicle arrives damaged and goes to the workshop, it only has to be located in the intermediate street that forms between the workshop and the garage. If the vehicle is to be greased or washed, it will go to the ground floor, where there are washing tunnels and greasers for this purpose, so that its circulation is directly resolved.
The workshop, with its characteristics and function, is developed on a single floor.
Foundation. By reinforced concrete footings, in the part corresponding to the structure of this material, and running from brick factory to workshop and semi-basement and by stepped pillars in straight feet, made of iron.
Structure. Of reinforced concrete in general services, ramp and garage, and mixed brick and metal in workshop and ramp cover.
Masonry. Uncovered, in facades and walls of garage and workshop enclosure, in the latter, solid throughout its thickness, and in the rest, with an air chamber and partitions. In the central courtyard and dividing walls, the walls are plastered.
Framework floor. Made of ribbed concrete slab in semi-basements and workshop: the floor is placed directly on a concrete slab."
NOTES.-
(1). An independent article is necessary on the San Cristobal housing complex, given the unquestionable heritage values of the complex, its urban, historical, social, cultural and architectural values, as a self-sufficient residential complex, inserted in the central city. The initial phase of the 142-home project was carried out by José Fonseca Llamedo, Manuel Ruiz de la Prada, Muñoz Baena, Jose María Rodríguez Cano and José Gómez Mesa. The second phase is from 1945 and will be in charge of Ambrosio Arroyo Alonso, building a commissary and 353 homes out of a total of 720 planned homes. The third phase began in 1946 with a project, also by Ambrosio Arroyo Alonso, of 284 homes, six stores, a dispensary, a school group, a church, and a conservation and administration building.
(2). Ambrosio Arroyo. “Parque Móvil Ministerios, Madrid”. Madrid: Revista Nacional de Arquitectura, 1951 (núm. 113, pp. 5-10).
BIBLIOGRAPHY.-
- Ambrosio Arroyo. “Parque Móvil Ministerios, Madrid”. Madrid: Revista Nacional de Arquitectura, núm. 113, 1951.
- Dolores Henar González Chico, Manuel Pons Carlos-Roca. «EL PARQUE MÓVILDEL ESTADO. 80 años de servicio público a través de la movilidad.» Madrid: Ministerio de Hacienda y Administraciones Públicas. Parque Móvil del Estado, 2015.
- Pedro Navascués Palacio. Report of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, requesting the opening of the BIC file, signed by Pedro Navascués Palacio, June, 2018.
- AAVV. Base report to request the BIC declaration for PMM Madrid. AAVV, December 2018.
