-
Architects: CMS+GMP, Entorno AID
- Area: 17650 m²
- Year: 2013
-
Photographs:Llano Fotografía
Text description provided by the architects. At the edge of Bogota’s historic downtown, where the summit of the mountains of Monserrate and Guadalupe collide, at the edge of the pedestrian promenade of the Jimenez Ave. and in front the Periodistas Square, The Bicentennial Tower rises. Forerunner of the urban renovation of the spoiled city center The Tower hopes to revitalize the area by incorporating a shopping area, a business hotel and 40 residential units. Integrated to the city by Transmilenio (Bus Rapid Transit), next to an urban promenade and to a public square, right in the middle of a lively public space.
Having a tower next to the historical colonial town, and in an area where mayor buildings from the past 200 years, and with great examples of Bogotá modernist architecture, the tower draws design elements from this heritage, like the simplicity in the volumes and a sober aesthetics, which generates a minimalistic sequence of 4 interlocked boxes.
The main entrance is dominated by a terrace which gives a sense of connection to the nearby square and allows the public space to extend within the tower, once you enter the double height lobby, which houses separate access to the 3 different uses by means of 8 elevators.
On the ground floor there is a food court surrounded by an inner courtyard filled with tropical vegetation, meant to give this space a sense of permanence and a public nature which enriches the neighborhood. The shopping arcades, typical of the historic downtown have been reinterpreted with the next 3 floors of enclosed retail.
When the hotel elevators reach the 4th floor they open right into the lobby bar and greet the traveler into a 53 suites business hotel which spans to the 7th floor.
In the main façade, a break in the windows emphasizes a change in the use of the tower, and marks the beginning of the dwelling portion of the tower which spans until the top of the tower on the 17th floor 40, one and two bedroom apartments with magnificent views of the city, some towards the historical neighborhood of La Candelaria, other to the mountains nearby, but all of them offer unique panoramas of the city.
