First Tate Modern, now Herzog & de Meuron convert power station in Madrid

Spain’s largest savings bank, La Caixa, is to open a gallery for its collection of contemporary art in Madrid by the end of the year. The bank, one of Spain’s largest patrons of the arts, already has a gallery in Barcelona which opened in 2002. A power station near the Prado Museum is to be converted into a 10,000 sq. m space at a cost of E60m by Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron whose other projects include the conversion of a former power station in London into Tate Modern. José Francisco de Conrado, the director of La Caixa Foundation, has announced a budget of E1m to purchase works of contemporary art in 2006.