Hotel Rey Juan Carlos I, the work of the architects C. Ferrater and J.M. Cartañá, won the National Prize for Architecture and Construction for 1992-1993. Inaugurated by the King and Queen shortly before the Olympic Games in 1992, the hotel is a faithful exponent el the "new frontier" of the hotel sector in Barcelona. Of spectacular and daring design, the hotel balances the beauty and elegance of classic materials like marble and wood with the sobriety and strength of concrete, steel, and glass. The lobby, dominated by a sculpture of X. Corberó, constitutes a kind of interior patio which, as a vantage point in the form of a pyramid, gives access on each floor to the salons and guest rooms through surrounding hallways. Each of the lifts become priveleged viewing sites above this monumental space, rising along the walls of the lobby, offering an unusual and bold perspective.
