Mitikah Office Tower, Mexico City

Mexico City has always been among the most important cultural and commercial centres in Latin America. Mitikah Office Tower is inspired by the character of its unique setting and the broader importance of its position in Mexico City at the confluence of Coyoacan and the Rio Churubusco Avenue. The iconic form of the tower is evocative of the modern Mexican architecture and Aztec forms from the pre-Hispanic era.

The project will be part of a mixed use master plan designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and developed by IDEURBAN/IDCity from Mexico. The scheme consists of commercial space, low-rise residential buildings, and a hotel and residential tower. Located at the southwest corner of the master plan, the tower offers an extraordinary opportunity to develop an architecture that mediates between the commercial core and the nearby residential community. Mitikah Office Tower will be the visual transition between the Av. Rio Churubusco, an elevated highway, and the pedestrian boulevard of the retail plaza.

The architectural massing of the new building combines a slender and elegant 34-story tower that rises above a transparent and translucent building base. The building lobby has been carefully positioned to be visible from all approaches to the site, and it anchors the building to the exposed retail plaza and to the adjacent commercial space. A six-story underground garage provides joint parking not only for the building but for the other components of the master plan. The design of the office tower with its refined formal vocabulary reflects the distinct orientation of the site while addressing requirements of sustainability, maximum efficiency and flexibility. The South and East facades of the tower are composed of a continuous high-performance curtain wall modulated by subtle folds and reveals that create a memorable sculptural expression. The North and West elevations are composed by a curtain wall system with modular and orthogonal expressions that reference the proportions of the surrounding context. A sky garden with an integrated conference pavilion on the 19th floor, and a restaurant and sky-bar on the 34th floor provide unique destinations for the mix-use development.

All facades of the building boast floor-to-ceiling glass walls with unparalleled views of downtown Mexico City, the surrounding mountains and the central valley. The selection of an efficient curtain wall system with clear and fritted Low-E glass maximizes the use of natural daylight throughout the office building while reducing the solar energy intake. The interplay of natural light and shadow animates the interior office space giving its occupants a quality that changes throughout the day. Mitikah Office Tower is expected to be LEED-certified and to be completed in 2014.