Mexico is the only country in the world to commemorate in the same year (2010) the bicentennial of its Independence and the centennial of its Revolution. To celebrate this milestone, a tower was to be erected in the area surrounding Chapultepec Park in Mexico City. It was meant to become an icon, the tallest building in Latin America, offering the city and the nation a symbol to remember the bicentennial celebrations and an important new element in the city’s urban life. Rem Koolhaas was chosen to design this icon and we were invited to act as the local partners, engaged in the design process as well. The Torre Bicentenario was to provide top-class office space for Mexico City together with public amenities—a sky lobby, convention center, shops, and restaurants—for the surrounding communities and visitors to Chapultepec Park. In terms of concept, the building is formed by stacking two pyramidal forms resembling those typical of Mexican pre-Hispanic temples, forms familiar and unexpected, historic but also visionary. The office programs were dispersed throughout the tower’s several levels, while the public programs were located where the two pyramids meet. An atrium was created to bring light to the inner spaces of the office plans, exploiting the vistas toward park and city.
The project acquired a certain notoriety due in part to its controversial location, becoming, for a time, the focus of the city’s political discourse, agenda, and debate.
YEAR
2007
STATUS
PROPOSAL
SCALE
204,480 m² /
2,201,010 ft²
LOCATION
Mexico City, Mexico
PROJECT PARTNER
OMA, Rem Koolhaas
PROJECT CREDITS
Arup
Van Deusen & Associates
ibo
Vincent de Rijk
Frans Parthesius
CONTEXT
The site of the Torre Bicentenario lies at the northeastern corner of Chapultepec Park, adjacent to the interchange of two major highways. Located at the edge of the park, a major infrastructure and the city, the project has the potential to benefit all three. A chain of high-rises runs along the Reforma and continues around the park. The Torre Bicentenario will extend this line of buildings around the park. The two districts adjacent to the Torre Bicentenario, Las Lomas and Polanco, are separated by two major highways and their interchange. To provide a link between them, a new pedestrian bridge extends from the Torre Bicentenario to the east, crossing over the Periferico highway, establishing a shortcut that reconnects formerly disengaged sections of the park and the city.
TEAM
OMA: Rem Koolhaas, Shohei Shigematsu, Christin Svensson, Gabriela Bojalil, Noah Shepherd, Natalia Busch, Leonie Wenz, Jan Kroman, Leo Ferretto, Max Wittkopp, Jason Long, Margaret Arbanas, Jonah Gamblin, Amparo Casani, Jin Hong Jeon, Jane Mulvey, Michela Tonus, Matthew Seidel, Nobuki Ogasahara, Justin Huxol, David Jaubert, Mark Balzar, Charles Berman, James Davies, Jesse Seegers
FR-EE: Fernando Romero, Dolores Robles-MartÃnez, Julio González, Rodolfo Rueda, Max Betancourt, Diego Eumir Jasso, Susana Hernández, Pablo Valera.
Gallery
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Forbes, March 2020