A heritage building for culture.

After the return to democracy, under the government of President Patricio Aylwin (1990-1994), a process started in the country in order to revitalize the cultural activity lost under the dictatorship.

The realization of the stimulating idea to rescue the emblematic building of the train station from the ruin to which it was destined since the suppression of the Santiago-Valparaíso railroad, in 1987, and then install it as the main cultural centre of Chile, started in this period.

In January 1991, with the sponsorship of the Colegio de Arquitectos (Architects’ Association), the City of Santiago invited tenders to present preliminary drafts for Estación Mapocho Cultural Centre. Amongst the twenty preliminary drafts initially selected, the proposal of Montserrat Palmer, Teodoro Fernández, Ramón López, and Rodrigo Pérez de Arce was finally chosen. These professionals addressed the remodeling of the building with a minimum of interventions, revalorizing the work of the architect Emilio Jecquier and unifying its entirety. The project had a total final cost of almost twelve million dollars, funded by the Government of Chile after the relevant approval of the Parliament, and it was executed in four stages.

Parallel to the works, the Estación Mapocho Cultural Corporation was also founded. Its first Board was chaired by the Minister of Education, Ricardo Lagos, vice-presided by the Mayor of Santiago, Jaime Ravinet, and composed by other five personalities of the cultural world.

Once the remodeling was finished, the Estación Mapocho Cultural Centre is inaugurated in March 3rd, 1994, conceived as a heritage area aimed to the cultural promotion of the country, receiving around one million visitors to the most diverse artistic and cultural expressions every year. Besides, it is a meeting point in connection with international fairs, congresses and conferences. Its privileged history and location in the heart of the city become the former train station into a cultural benchmark for Chilean and foreign visitors.

Its mission of promoting and preserving the heritage has been acknowledged with the 2008 Reina Sofía International Award for Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage, and with the City Heritage Award in 2005, on the occasion of the Estación Mapocho one hundred year celebration, and the fifteen years of management as cultural centre.

However, its main achievement without any doubt is the fact of self-financing its operation as from the beginning, which has turn this Centre in an outstanding example of management, recognized world wide.