The building includes 2,500sqm. of exhibition galleries, a 300-seat auditorium, classrooms, work spaces, an informal restaurant called El Muelle, created by two-Michelin star chef Jesús Sánchez, a shop, and a rooftop terrace offering a new vantage point overlooking the city and the bay.
Iñigo Sáenz de Miera, Director General of the Fundación Botín, said today: “Building on our work in the community over the last fifty years, our vision for Centro Botín is to be one of Spain’s leading arts centres; a lively welcoming place for people to enjoy themselves, learn and become inspired, and an engine for generating economic, social and cultural wealth for the region of Cantabria and northern Spain.”
Centro Botín is set in the historic Pereda Gardens, which, as part of the development, have been completely restored and extended, in a project led by landscape designer Fernando Caruncho in collaboration with Renzo Piano Building Workshop. The gardens are now doubled in size to an area of 9.884 acres, providing a beautiful new public space, a setting for public art, and linking the city centre with the waterfront.
Centro Botín will open with three major exhibitions, Carsten Höller, Goya and works from the permanent collection of Fundación Botín. The opening will be marked by the inauguration of a permanent sculptural intervention by Cristina Iglesias.