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 Puerto Vallarta Real Estate | November 2007 
Arup Joins Latin America’s Tallest Tower Project
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Arup has been appointed to work with Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) on the design of Torre Bicentenario in the center of Mexico City.
Commissioned by Groupo Danhos, one of the largest real estate developers in Mexico, it will be the tallest building in Latin America, at 300m (984ft).
Conceived as a symbol of Bicentenario 2010, the 200th anniversary of Mexico’s independence and the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution, the tower will include 160,000 square meters (1.7 million sf) of office space, a convention center, site museum, gym, retail and restaurants. A 170,000 square meter (1.8 million sq ft) public parking garage is also part of the project.
The design is based on the stacking of two pyramidal forms. Where the pyramids meet, a sky lobby will act as transfer point between express and local elevators and provide expansive views of adjacent Chapultepec Park and the city beyond.
The building’s asymmetrical shape creates a substantial projection outside the bottom square footprint. To resist the large wind and seismic loads and minimize the permanent gravity overturning effect, Arup conceived a core and outrigger truss scheme with the core located at the corner of the bottom square, close to the center of gravity.
In seismically-active Mexico City, the building is sited on a hill with good soil properties. Arup’s seismic design will be performance-evaluated using non-linear response time-history analysis and will also consider supplemental viscous damping to reduce wind and seismic load without increasing the size of structural members.
Sustainable design
Arup’s proposed building systems design seeks to dramatically reduce energy and water use and constructed volume, with the goal to minimize the building's “carbon footprint” and the embodied energy used in the materials to construct it. Arup has proposed an active chilled beam system that circulates chilled water through coils in ceiling panels as the primary source of cooling on the office floors. Energy savings up to 30 percent are expected compared to a conventional all-air system.
Also proposed are a thermal energy storage system (TES) to reduce peak electricity consumption, a grey water system, stormwater retention to conserve water, and energy-efficient building standards to reduce internal demand. The building will track the USGBC’s LEED™ rating system with the objective of gaining a Gold level of certification. When completed, the building will be a benchmark for sustainable design in Mexico and will be the largest certified project in Latin America.
David Scott in New York is Arup's project director, with structural design led by Ricardo Pittella in New York as overall project manager. Bruce McKinlay of Arup’s Los Angeles office is leading building services and sustainability design. Arup’s Advanced Technology Group in London will oversee seismic analysis and the design of the tower’s unique damping system.
The executive architect for the project is Fernando Romero of Laboratory of Architecture in Mexico City.
For three decades, Groupo DANHOS has developed residential, corporate and shopping center projects. It is currently concluding a mixed-use development that is the largest and most visible project in Mexico City.
OMA is a leading international partnership practicing contemporary architecture, urbanism and cultural analysis. Its work on the Bicentenario project is led by partner Rem Koolhaas and Shohei Shigematsu who is the director of OMA New York. OMA and Arup have collaborated on projects including the Seattle Public Library and the China Central Television Headquarters in Beijing. |
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