The Municipal Palace of Guayaquil

The Municipal Palace of Guayaquil was completed in 1929 on the site of the original Colonial Town Hall in the city of Guayaquil in present day Ecuador. The Declaration of the Free Province of Guayaquil was signed 9 October 1820 in the original Old Town Hall. This was a first step in creation of a territory independent of Spanish rule; ultimately becoming Ecuador in 1830. The Municipal Palace replaced the Old Town Hall, demolished in 1906, and represents one of the earliest applications of emerging European geotechnical engineering and foundation design

Italian architect Francesco Simeone Maccaferri Colli (1897 – 1973) was selected to design a structure worthy of the political importance of the site. His design incorporated a reinforced concrete and steel structure. Floors and masonry walls were covered in decorative imported Italian marble. It included neoclassical and baroque features such as domes, skylights, Greek-style columns, pediments, bas reliefs, and Italian marble sculptures. At the time, the four-story structure dominated traditional surrounding structures and incorporated elevators. A very noticeable feature is the Eduardo Arosemena Meriono Passage was the imported Italian glass skylights through the center passage of the structure allowing public foot traffic to travel between two avenues flanking the site.

Italian engineer Giovanni Lignarolo of the Italy Construction Company oversaw construction of the Palace and employed his geotechnical knowledge in constructing a wood piling deep foundation system to support the palace on the soft underlying clay soils; an early application of such a technique in Ecuador. The Municipal building was inaugurated on 27 February 1929 and was recognized by the Ecuadorian National Institute of Cultural Heritage.