José Grases Riera

Who was José Grases Riera?

José Grases Riera was a Catalan architect.

Born in Barcelona, Grases graduated from the School of Architecture in Barcelona in 1878 and moved to Madrid shortly after. Through to the turn of the century he worked on residential projects, and proposed a realignment of the entire city, the Proyecto de Gran Vía Norte-Sur, which was not adapted but influenced the subsequent urban planning in the city.

In 1902 Grases won a national design competition for the Monument to Alfonso XII of Spain to be erected in the Buen Retiro Park. His design was a grand and elaborate curved colonnade, topped with a bronze equestrian statue of the king by sculptor Mariano Benlliure, and incorporating the work of 21 other artists. The monument was inaugurated on July 3, 1922, after Grases' death.

The architect also designed perhaps the most significant example of Art Nouveau in Madrid, the extraordinary 1903 Palacio Longoria, built for financier Javier González Longoria with a surface fabric seemingly sculpted out of cake frosting.