A Home for the AEC
The search for offices in which to establish its headquarters has for many years been a real challenge for the Spanish Association of the Highway. Up to eight different addresses, all of them in the city of Madrid, have marked its history. In 1994 he settled permanently on Goya Street. Here it currently occupies an area of more than 500 square meters. However, the beginnings were somewhat more difficult ...
Miguel Montabes house to the street Atocha
During its first years of life, the AEC headquarters was located between the house of its founder, Miguel Montabes, and an office, located in Atocha, owned by Marcelino Ahijón, at the time, a contributor to the magazine Carreteras.
The clear lack of space made the boss and employees share it, without even any separation between their tables. Secretarial duties were carried out by Montabes's own sister in an almost altruistic way. Furthermore, when it was necessary to write letters in English - to the International Federation of Roads, for example - the work was entrusted to an official of the then Ministry of Public Works.
In the Banco de Vizcaya
In 1951, the Association finally managed to have a real headquarters thanks to its treasurer, Rafael Pérez Salvador, who gave one of the rooms-offices that he had rented at the headquarters of the Banco de Vizcaya, at 45 Calle de Alcalá.
A ground floor in Nuevos Ministerios
During the presidencies of Manuel María Arrillaga and Mario Álvarez Garcillán (between 1959 and 1968), the Association achieved great prestige throughout the country. And thanks to this, the Ministry of Public Works gave him offices on the ground floor of the Nuevos Ministerios with direct entrance from the street. Quite an achievement in those times.
More than a decade on Serrano street
In May 1969, the headquarters of the Spanish Highway Association moved to a flat belonging to the family of the newly inaugurated President, Juan de Arespacochaga. It was located in the central Serrano street and the AEC stayed there for more than a decade.
Orense, 12
At the beginning of the 80s, the headquarters of the Association changed headquarters again, temporarily located in another central Madrid street, specifically at number 12 in Orense.
Back to School
The AEC's stay in Calle Orense was brief, since in 1982 it moved its headquarters to the Higher Technical School of Civil Engineers, Canals and Ports of the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
For a decade he developed his activities to promote and defend the road from the facilities of this institution, extraordinarily linked to infrastructures and from which many of the engineers working in the Association had come.
Two more years at Juan Ramón Jiménez
After ten years at the Escuela de Caminos, the Association begins a new change of location. This time he moved to 28 Calle Juan Ramón Jiménez, where he will stay for only two years.
Way home
In 1994, the AEC was packing again. On this occasion, the destination was an area well known to the oldest members of the Association, the Salamanca neighborhood, where Calle Serrano is also located. Specifically, the AEC is installed in an apartment that it had just acquired at number 23 Goya Street. And it is precisely here, in this last venue, where it meets its period of greatest development and public projection.