REAL ESTATE Time has passed, and the past is a foreign country. The evening casts a flint-blue hue over the neighbor-hood of Méndez Álvaro. Ahead, not far from the headquarters of major national and international compa-nies, there’s a unique, historical, pro-tected (structure and facades) heritage building. It’s a gem stranded here from another time: the industrial Madrid of the early 20th century. Once the engine room of a gas plant, it was designed in 1903 by Luis de Landecho Jordán, the architect responsible for Madrid’s Ritz Hotel and Ateneo. It then served successively as an electrical power plant for south Madrid, a substation, and a materials warehouse where machines and transformers were tested. Nearly 120 years of history make for a lot of sto-ries, including that of its incarnation as a war weapons factory. Do build-ings remain divorced from the uses to which they are put by their owners? Everything changed when it was acquired by ACCIONA in 2017. Looking up at the building, it’s still easy to imagine its original state. It resembles one of the country homes with high walls painted by Joan Miró, made entirely of brick with enormous windows that draw the light inside. MEMORY OF THE FUTURE This little cathedral in the heart of Madrid’s urban center was refurbished by Foster + Partners and Ortiz y León Arquitectos. Work began in April 2020, at the height of the pandemic. Remote working is impossible with construction, and the project suffered through Filomena, a cyclone that hit Madrid, and disruptions affecting the supply of materials. “They, like all men, had to live through difficult times,” as Borges said. The project blends numbers with words. The innovative office com-plex created by ACCIONA is located at no. 6 in Calle Ombú, which is where it gets its name. As regards heritage, it restores the histori-cal memory and casts it into the future of sustainable architecture, as attested by its LEED Platinum and WELL Gold environmental certi- THE BUILDING HAS EARNED TWO HIGHLY ESTEEMED ENVIRONMENTAL CERTIFICATIONS: LEED PLATINUM AND WELL GOLD