Fronting the Paseo de la Reforma, Mexico City’s grand boulevard, is a dense mixed-use complex that is already under construction. The 1.29 million-square-foot development, designed by New York–based Richard Meier & Partners Architects with local firm Diametro Arquitectos, juxtaposes a 40-story office tower with a 27-story hotel. Responding to the angular boundaries of its site, the design places the office tower along Reforma and aligns the hotel with the quieter street on the other end of the through-block parcel.
The two towers rise from a single base structure that covers the entire site, which accommodates parking for both primary functions, plus retail, restaurants, and a fitness center. Topping this podium, at the 11th floor, is an elevated plaza that the architects characterize as “an urban courtyard in the sky.” This public platform, with views extending over and beyond neighboring mid-rise structures, links the upper-floor lobbies of both towers and provide access to shared amenities.
The rectangular form of the office tower has been incised with a vertical void through the core, which links to cutouts that visibly penetrate to the exterior. Stairs and elevator lobbies serving the office floors overlook this central atrium, providing occupants with exceptional natural ventilation, daylight, and views. A generous notch cut into the upper section of the office tower opens onto the atrium and provides a “sky terrace” with outdoor gathering space.
Echoes of historic Mexican building traditions can be seen both in the contemporary, elevated version of the public plaza atop the base and in the void that pierces the larger tower, an adaptation of the private inner courtyard so prevalent in colonial architecture to today’s high-rise construction.
Project Credits
Project: Reforma Towers, Mexico City
Client/Owner: Diametro Arquitectos
Architect: Richard Meier & Partners Architects, New York . Richard Meier, FAIA, Bernhard Karpf, AIA (partners); Ringo Offermann, AIA (project manager); David Ricardo Davila (project architect); Techan Abe, Kevin Browning, Amy DeDonato, John Jourden, Aung Thu Kyaw, Chris Layda, Christopher Lewis, Ian Lotto, Sharon Oh, Giorgio Villa (project team)
Associate Architect: Diametro Arquitectos, Mexico City
Mechanical Engineer: DYPRO
Structural Engineer: WSP Group
Electrical Engineer: COESA/MR Soluciones
Plumbing Engineer: Garza Maldonado y Asociados
Lighting Consultant: Artec3 Studio
Code Consultant: Enrique Muñoz Caceres
Size: 1.29 million gross square feet (120,000 square meters)
Cost: Withheld
You’ll find all of the other winners of this year’s Progressive Architecture Awards here.