The “Reform” of the old city, which began with the opening up of the Via Laietana, was a demanding urban planning operation for which the city council did not have a sufficient budget. They hence turned to a private company: the Banco Hispano Colonial provided the finance and Fomento de Obras y Construcciones took charge of the execution. Sagnier, as representative of the constructors, and the municipal architect Pere Falqués, representing the city, took an active part in the process, which required careful surveying, supervision of demolitions, delimitation of the new alignments and division into new plots for future buildings. On one such plot the bank that had promoted the development built its new offices.

It was the first building to be erected on the new street and in it Sagnier explored the design requirements of a building devoted to offices, one which was to set the tone of financial specialisation for the whole of the street where, a few years later towards its upper end, the architect was to erect two buildings—known as the Casal d’Estalvi and the Casal de la Previsió—for the Caja de Pensiones savings bank. In some respects, the Banco Hispano Colonial building reveals the influence of contemporary Viennese architecture at the same time as exploring the possibilities of modern constructional systems, which freed the walls from the need to support loads, allowing the facades to be pierced by large windows.