Torre Latinoamericana

Look up: the 44-storey Torre Latinoamericana was the tallest building in Latin America in 1956, and one of the first skyscrapers in the world built in a zone of high seismic risk, on extremely soft ground to boot.

1A skyscraper on clay

The subsoil of the Centre is waterlogged clay, the bed of the old lake. To raise a tower here, the engineers Leonardo and Adolfo Zeevaert designed foundations of hundreds of piles driven down to firm layers, plus a box that offsets part of the building's weight, like a ship displacing water. The steel frame, designed by architect Augusto H. Álvarez, was meant to sway without breaking. Work began in 1948 and the tower opened on 30 April 1956, 166 metres to the roof and about 180 with the antenna.

2The acid test

Barely a year later, on 28 July 1957, a strong earthquake toppled the golden statue of the Angel of Independence; the tower was undamaged. In 1985, when the earthquake of 19 September destroyed hundreds of buildings in the city, it came through unscathed again, and the same happened in 2017. Its resilience made it a symbol of Mexican engineering.

For years it was the tallest building in the country, and from its observation deck the sheer size of the city hits you all at once.

Before the tower, this corner held a smaller building belonging to the insurance company La Latinoamericana, which gave it its name.

3What to look for

• The bluish glass façade and its metal grid.
• The antenna crowning the building.
• The contrast with the House of Tiles, two centuries older, right opposite.