(1943-1999)

The sober pragmatism of Estanislao Pérez Pita, who succumbed to cancer in October, has helped characterize Madrid’s architectural scene of the past 25 years. Both a Madrid native and a 1969 graduate of its architecture school, with Jerónimo Junquera in the seventies he saw the realization of some of their most key projects: the residential blocks of Yeserías, Carabanchel and Palomeras. In the eighties, the urban operation that opened up the Avenida de la Ilustración occupied the drawing boards of their studio, along with other commissions more related to heritage – in the National Library, the Ortega y Gasset Foundation or the ‘Residencia de Estudiantes’. Author of high-competition sport centers in Sierra Nevada and Gijón, he counted among his last Madrid projects the exhibition pavilions of the new trade fair precinct at the Campo de las Naciones, and a Caja Madrid branch at Las Rozas. But this clear building urge did not keep him away from active involvement in culture and education: he was editor of the journal Arquitectura from 1977 to 1981, and project design professor at the school from 1986 to shortly before his demise.