The Arrecife City Council has awarded the Architectural Heritage Rehabilitation Awards to five owners of different properties in the capital of Lanzarote. The awards ceremony took place on Wednesday night at the Agustín de la Hoz House of Culture, becoming "the first municipality on the island" to grant this type of award.
The properties that were distinguished in this first edition were a house on Brasil Street, the facade of the Segarra building on León y Castillo Street, a property on Fajardo Street, another on Plaza de Las Palmas and a last property on Canalejas Street, they explain from the Consistory.
“These awards that I have given are one more example of the Arrecife City Council's commitment to the rehabilitation and conservation of our historical heritage”, said the mayoress of Arrecife, Astrid Pérez, in her speech, who was accompanied by the Councilor for Urban Planning, Eduardo Placeres, and the secretary of the Municipal Heritage Council, Jaime Abdul.
“This day has rewarded the owners who have carried out works that have contributed to revaluing the architectural heritage of the city of Arrecife”, said the Councilor for Urban Planning, Eduardo Placeres, who thanked the residents for their willingness to protect their properties and thus beautify the capital of the island.
“Let's not fool ourselves, rehabilitating is much more expensive than building new, and it is admirable that these award winners did want to restore that heritage that has been with us for many years”, added the mayoress, who even pointed out that the work of the award winners “is worthy of praise”.
"Too many years of neglect"
“When I arrived at the mayor's office in 2019, I was enormously concerned about the progressive state of disappearance of heritage, the misunderstanding and the bad ways of conserving and rehabilitating”, added the mayoress, who, faced with such a scenario of absolute neglect, wanted to turn the situation around.
“Proof of this is that during these three years we have given many licenses for the rehabilitation of municipal heritage, exercising for the first time a serious and constructive policy, which would allow us to advance in the conservation and rehabilitation of our municipal heritage”, she asserted.
In this sense, Astrid Pérez recalled that at the beginning of the mandate the Municipal Heritage Council was created, to whom she thanked “the dedication and advice” of its members; as well as the commission to the public company GESPLAN to carry out a catalog of municipal heritage.
The mayoress also underlined, in her speech at the rehabilitation awards, that during these last three years she has tried to respond to several of the heritage values of the municipality.
“One of them is the Ramírez Cerdá Park, and its fountain, a place forgotten and worn out by time and far from the idea that César Manrique had in his day”, said Astrid Pérez, who assured that “she is not going to give up and will continue pushing to be able to solve that problem”.
Pérez also recalled the procedures carried out by the Arrecife City Council to request the Demarcation of Coasts to undertake restructuring works on the Puente de las Bolas, another of the island's images. However, she reiterated "what is perhaps one of the spaces that most concerns the capital Consistory: the abandonment of the Plaza de Las Palmas".
For all this, Astrid Pérez once again extended a hand to the Island Council of Lanzarote and La Graciosa “so that with the greatest possible diligence the restoration and rehabilitation projects of these protected spaces are authorized and executed”.