2018 MCHAP
BBVA Bancomer Tower
LegoRogers (LEGORRETA and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners)
Mexico City, Mexico
February 2016
PRIMARY AUTHOR
LEGORRETA; Ricardo Legorreta, Víctor Legorreta, Miguel Almaraz, Adriana Ciklik, Carlos Vargas and Miguel Alatriste Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; Richard Rogers, Graham Stirk, Ivan Harbour, Mike Davies, Lennart Grut, Andrew Morris, Richard Paul, Ian Birtles, Simon Smithson, Tracy Meller, John McElgunn, Stephen Barrett, Andrew Tyley and Stephen Light
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
LEGORRETA; Ricardo Legorreta, Víctor Legorreta, Miguel Almaraz, Adriana Ciklik, Carlos Vargas and Miguel Alatriste (Interior Design) SOM (SKIDMORE, OWINGS AND MERRIL LLP) (INTERIOR DESIGN ) ARUP (Structural Engineer / MEP) Colinas de Buen (Structural Engineer) Espacios Verdes S.A. de C.V. (Landscape Architect) Garza Maldonado y Asociados (Plumbing / Public Health Installations ) Diseños Eléctricos Complejos S.C. (Electrical Engineering) DYPRO (Calefacción y ventilación, Diseños y Proyectos, S.A.) (Air Conditioning / Thermal analysis facade consultant)
CLIENT
Grupo Financiero BBVA Bancomer
PHOTOGRAPHER
Roland Halbe Fotografie
OBJECTIVE
The brief asked for a landmark building which would become a symbol for the BBVA Bancomer bank in Mexico, whilst bringing all the different banking functions together within one structure. Thus, the client aimed to improve communication and increase collaboration between functions and promote a sense of community across the organization. The 50 story tower provides approximately 78,800m2 of prime office space and can accommodate approximately 4,500 employees. The tower is linked to the adjacent, separate parking building at sky lobby level. The internal spatial arrangement responds to the geometry and placement of the building on the site; the structural and service core runs diagonally across the floor plate with flexible office spaces organized on either side. Every nine floors sky gardens create external space which provides a focal point for groups of bank communities. The sky lobby at the heart of the building acts as a window to the city and the park, connecting all the spaces together. At this level the bank’s main restaurant brings staff together in a common amenity space, with external terraces, an auditorium and an exhibition. Together these interventions help to bring a human scale to a large building.
CONTEXT
The BBVA Bancomer tower is the result of a collaboration between Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners and LEGORRETA. In bringing together their different architectural languages yet common values, they have created a building that is both contextual and distinctive. Located on a prominent site in Mexico City, the tower marks a gateway to Chapultepec Park with sky gardens overlooking the city and the park. On the ground floor, the triple-height lobby links the daily operations of the Bank branch with executive –level commercial businesses at higher levels. In the lobby, glass elevators face the park and transport visitors arriving by foot, as well as employees, up to the sky lobby at level 12 where they can connect to the office space via the main lift core, garden terraces, exhibition space and restaurant. Opened by the President of Mexico, the tower is seen as an economic symbol of contemporary Mexico. Located in a seismic zone, the design required an innovative engineering approach to ensure the resilience of the building – and therefore the bank – in the event of a major tremor. A “fuse” was incorporated into each of the externally expressed structural beams, the design of which focuses the impact of an earthquake by absorbing the shock to protect the rest of the structure. The shading screen follows the structural frame modulation and is articulated to allow similar movement and flexibility. This structural solutions make the tower uniquely safe for a building of its height.
PERFORMANCE
Mexico City’s new headquarters for BBVA Bancomer is a celebration of the 21st Century workplace as a multi-layered, collaborative community. The building’s distinctive sky gardens speak to the city and the park, on either side of the building and give views far beyond. The building expresses its functions to the outside world; its fluid and flexible interior space, its external structure and its environmental controls together form a legible, holistic, architecture that is globally distinctive and a unique response to its place. The facade design is inspired by Mexican traditions and architectural heritage. The geometry of the diagonal structure is used to create a lattice frame to protect the facade from direct light and heat from the sun. Modeled respond to the orientation and yearly paths of the sun, different degrees of shading on different facades protect the building where the need is greatest, whilst maintaining views across the city and park and allowing plenty of daylight to enter. As a result of this, and other environmental initiatives, including recycling of 100% rainwater and other building water residuals, use of filtered external cold air in place of traditional air conditioning and LED lighting throughout the building, the building has been awarded a Gold LEED energy standard.
