Gasolinera Porto Pí -now Gesa-, Madrid (Casto Fernández-Shaw, 1927)

This is not an item from any collection, but something I promised Manikin I would post about after commenting on her picture of an amazing gas station in Dassel, Minnesotta (http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/104519-old-gas-station-and-visable-pump-on-way?in=user)

This gas station, or gasolinera in Spanish, was designed by the Spanish architect Casto Fernández-Shaw in 1927 and it is considered one of the first buildings in the Modernist style (what is here known as Estilo Racionalista) in Spain. It is located in Alberto Alcocer street, which is a quite central street (As you can see in the modern picture, is now surrounded by buildings, although in the old pictures it doesn't look like it is in the center of the city).

The tower was demolished in 1977 although the gas station went on working... luckily, under the complaints of madrileños and institutions such as the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Madrid, the gas station underwent a restoration and the tower was erected just like it was in 1927.

I never personally saw the original tower (I was 9 years at the time it was demolished) but remember the gas station before the hotel behind it was built... it really looks like what you see on the old pics, with a big nothing behind. It really was a strange view inside the city.