The iconic, majestic Balmes Building owes its name to its strategic location, on Carrer Balmes, one of the main arteries running through Barcelona, in the heart of the city’s business district. The Balmes Building was built in 1926 by Enric Sagnier to be the Society of Jesus’s Institut Comercial Immaculada, a business school previously located on Carrer Casp.
In 1953, the building became the Fòrum Vergés, Barcelona’s best-known cultural centre at the time, which also belonged to the Jesuits. After passing into various other hands, UPF took over and renovated the building in 1990. From 1997, it was home to the IDEC-UPF Private Foundation, which, since 2011, has been known as UPF Barcelona School of Management.