Departures of note

César Ortiz-Echagüe was born in Madrid in 1927, the son of José Ortiz-Echagüe, founder of the CASA and SEAT companies. He studied architecture in Madrid, graduating in 1952, and that year won the annual prize of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando for his final project. He worked for twelve years with the architect Rafael Echaide, together producing some of the most representative works of Spanish modern architecture. His best-known project was the employee dining hall of the SEAT factory in Barcelona, which earned the 1957 Reynolds Memorial Award from the American Institute of Architects, making him the first Spaniard to win it. Known as the "Spanish Mies van der Rohe" for his rationalist steel-and-glass architecture, he also designed SEAT facilities in Barcelona, Seville and Madrid, branches of the Banco Popular Español, and the Tajamar and Retamar schools in Madrid. In the 1960s he became an ambassador for Spanish architecture in Europe through lectures and publications. A member of Opus Dei from 1945, he helped launch the School of Architecture at the University of Navarra in 1967 and the Torreciudad sanctuary in 1975, and in 1974 was named an academic of architecture by the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts. He retired from architecture in 1966 to pursue a religious vocation, was ordained a priest in Rome by John Paul II in 1983, and served his ministry in Germany, Italy and Spain. He died in Madrid on 27 September 2026 at the age of 99.