Location: The corner of Presidente Errázuriz and Maipú Streets

Preservation Status: None

Yungay District was not solely conceived around housing and educational spaces, but it also welcomed the process of industrialization of the western area of Santiago at the second half of the 19th century.  The industrial process had great importance in those years and helped to envision and build the infrastructure of the new country.

A production system based on a surge in economic development, resulting in great part from the nitrate boom, would envisioned and demanded urban and territorial policies to promote industrial development in the capital. Ultimately a state development program, where society, economy and education go hand in hand was put in place.

It is in this context that the former Intendant of Santiago, Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna, established in 1873 a urban ring that connected a number of avenues and began to build up the image and functioning of the city.

We must not forget the fundamental role that railway transportation played in this whole process that allowed the operation of this development.  In 1888 the union of Matucana and Balmaceda Avenues gave life to Yungay Station, connecting the Central and Mapocho stations, supporting the important development of the population and the industrial districts of the city, as well as connecting to Chile’s port, Valparaiso.

SIMA Steel Foundry was established in 1924, in the middle of this process of economic growth, and became one of the most important factories. Its development went hand in hand with the social and economic processes of the time, as it manufactured supplies for agriculture, mining, and iron making, which the country demanded. The building, known as METALCO, is part of this development, and was built in 1930 under the Government of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo; it stopped operating at the end of the 1990s, mainly due to the decline of the industrial process that existed under the Chilean dictatorship.

Its importance lies in the significance of a period of economic and political formation of the national state. The architectural wealth of its construction is also remarkable and reflects the fundaments of modern development in the 20th century: the industrial chimney is at the center of the manufacturing process where objects were generated. Fundación METALCO is located at the corner of President Errázuriz and Maipu Streets.