Location: Leiria, Portugal
Architect: Raul Chorão Ramalho
Model Scale: 1:100
Year: 1978-1980
Financial civil architecture of the 20th century. In a group of three buildings, this was the first branch of Caixa Geral de Depositos designed by Chorão Ramalho, and for this reason it set the general guidelines for this program. Due to its character as a public work, architectural expression, scale and location in the city of Leiria, the project to build the new headquarters of Caixa Geral de Depositos was accompanied by a wide-ranging polemic, involving critics and architects in defense of the preservation of the old headquarters of the same banking institution. However, the decision to demolish the previous building was due to the fact that its internal compartmentalization no longer met the needs of the services, and even if an adaptation was sought, as was initially proposed, structural walls had to be knocked down to make the whole compatible with the new use project. The project was built according to the model shown and the building was inaugurated in 1984.
