Vincete Patón

1948-2016

A leading protector of Madrid’s architectural heritage, Vicente Patón Jiménez, died on 7 June. Born in the Spanish capital in 1948, Patón studied at its school of architecture under masters like Alejandro de la Sota, Javier Carvajal, Julio Cano Lasso, and Francisco Javier Sáenz de Oíza, and traveled a long professional path centered above all on interiors and museology, in collaboration first with Rafael Pina and Dolores Artigas, then with his work and life partner, Alberto Tellería. But Patón was best known for his cultural activism: at the start as founder of the journal La luna de Madrid (a symbol of the Movida counterculture in the post-Franco transition) and contributor to the newspaper El País and magazines like Arquitectura, AV, Arquitectura Viva, or BAU; later as historian of the city’s most emblematic buildings (he authored three volumes of Arquitectura de Madrid and collaborated in Arquitectura y Desarrollo urbano, which catalogs the heritage of Greater Madrid); and always as an activist in protecting buildings of unquestionable value, such as the Beti-Jai pelota court and the romantic gardens of Alameda de Osuna.