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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | July 2007 
Mexico City's New Tower Still Shy of Sears Tower Height
 Associated Press
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| | Reforma Avenue's Torre Mayor was inaugurated in 2003 as Latin America's tallest building at 738 feet and 55 floors. |
Mexico City - Mexico City, already home to Latin America's tallest building, will see that title move a few blocks away to a new skyscraper set to be completed as the nation celebrates its bicentennial, officials said Monday.
Crews will break ground on the 984-foot tall Torre Bicentenario later this year and the building is scheduled to be inaugurated in 2010, the year Mexico celebrates 200 years since the start of its battle for independence from Spain, the Mexican capital's government said.
The privately funded, 85-floor collection of offices, restaurants and a convention center will cost an estimated $600 million. It will surpass Reforma Avenue's Torre Mayor, which was inaugurated in 2003 as Latin America's tallest building at 738 feet and 55 floors.
The Torre Bicentenario will be located just down the road from Torre Mayor, in Mexico City's exclusive Lomas de Chapultepec neighborhood.
Much of Mexico City is built on a silty, former lake bed, and officials have long shied away from tall buildings, especially after the devastating 1985 earthquake, which killed thousands. But a recent real estate boom and better building codes have sparked a construction frenzy, and skyscrapers are rising across the capital.
The Mexican buildings, however, are still far shorter than the world's tallest.
Developers of a 1,680-foot skyscraper still under construction in oil-rich Dubai claimed that it has become the world's tallest building, surpassing Taiwan's Taipei 101 which has dominated the global skyline at 1,667 feet since 2004. The Burj Dubai is expected to be finished by the end of 2008 and its planned final height has been kept secret.
Previous skyscraper record-holders include New York's Empire State Building at 1,250 feet; Shanghai's Jin Mao Building at 1,381 feet; Chicago's Sears Tower at 1,451 feet; and Malaysia's Petronas Towers at 1,483 feet. |
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