Mexico City - Mexico City, which already claims Latin America's tallest building, plans to reach greater heights with an even taller structure, the daily Reforma reported Monday. The 300-metre-tall Torre Bicentenario (Bicentennial Tower) will open in 2010 with an investment of 600 million dollars. It is set to have 64 floors and six underground car parks with space for 2,500 vehicles.
The building in the Lomas de Chapultepec neighbourhood was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize in 2000.
The new tower is expected to be taller than the Torre Mayor, a 225-metre structure on the city's Reforma Avenue and currently the tallest building in Latin America.
The Torre Bicentenario takes its name from plans to open it in September 2010 to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the beginning of Mexico's War of Independence.
"It has been a tradition for great national events to be celebrated with buildings, and we wanted to contribute to the celebration by giving the city an icon. The city needs symbols and we are sure this will be one," said Jorge Gamboa, managing director of the construction firm Danhos.
The Torre Bicentenario is designed to look like two superimposed pyramids, with the lower one upside down. The broadest area of the building will be some 100 metres above the ground and is to feature a lobby with an enclosed balcony, a gym and a convention centre. The tower will get narrower above and below that floor.
The project drew inspiration from the Pyramid of the Sun, at the archaeological site of Teotihuacan, some 50 kilometres north-east of Mexico City.
