The Gate of Europe towers ( es, Puerta de Europa, - Door of Europe-), also known as KIO Towers (''Torres KIO''), are twin office buildings near the
Plaza de Castilla
The Plaza de Castilla ( en, "Castile Square") is a roundabout in the north of Madrid, Spain.
Location
It is located in the north of the city and is bisected by Paseo de la Castellana, one of the main thoroughfares of the capital, almost at its ...
in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
, Spain. The towers have a height of and have 26 floors. They were constructed from 1989 to
1996
File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...
. The Puerta de Europa is the second tallest
twin towers in Spain after the
Torres de Santa Cruz
The Torres de Santa Cruz is a residential complex composed of the twin towers located in the city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife ( Canary Islands, Spain). They were designed by Canarian architect Julian Valladares, and were built in the period 2004 ...
in
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife, commonly abbreviated as Santa Cruz (), is a city, the capital of the island of Tenerife, Province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and capital of the Canary Islands. Santa Cruz has a population of 206,593 (2013) within its admi ...
.
The Gate of Europe towers were designed by the American architects
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson (July 8, 1906 – January 25, 2005) was an American architect best known for his works of modern and postmodern architecture. Among his best-known designs are his modernist Glass House in New Canaan, Connecticut; the pos ...
and
John Burgee
__NOTOC__
John Burgee (born August 28, 1933) is an American architect noted for his contributions to Postmodern architecture. He was a partner of Philip Johnson from 1967 to 1991, creating together the partnership firm Johnson/Burgee Architects ...
, built by
Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas
Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (), or FCC, is a Spanish construction company based in Barcelona. Until November 2014, over 50 percent of the shares were owned by a company controlled by the daughter of its founder, Esther Koplo ...
and commissioned by the
Kuwait Investment Office (hence their initial name "''Torres KIO''" or "KIO Towers").
Leslie E. Robertson Associates, RLLP New York (LERA) provided structural engineering services. Each building is 115 m tall with an inclination of 15°, making them the first
inclined skyscrapers in the world. They are located near the
Chamartín railway station
Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...
, on the sides of the
Plaza de Castilla
The Plaza de Castilla ( en, "Castile Square") is a roundabout in the north of Madrid, Spain.
Location
It is located in the north of the city and is bisected by Paseo de la Castellana, one of the main thoroughfares of the capital, almost at its ...
bus station, north from the
Paseo de la Castellana
Paseo de la Castellana, commonly known as La Castellana, is a major thoroughfare in Madrid, Spain. Cutting across the city from South to North, it has been described as the "true structuring axis" of the city.
History and description
The street ...
and near the
Cuatro Torres Business Area
Área de negocios de Cuatro Torres (ANCA or CTBA), Spanish for "Four Towers Business Area", is a business district located in the Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid, Spain, on the former Ciudad Deportiva of Real Madrid. The area contains the fou ...
(CTBA).
After the receivership of
Grupo Torras, KIO had to sell the buildings, which are now owned by
CaixaBank
CaixaBank, S.A. (), formerly Criteria CaixaCorp, is a Spanish multinational financial services company. CaixaBank is based in Valencia, with operative offices in Madrid and Barcelona, Spain. It is Spain's third-largest lender by market value, ...
and
Realia.
The west tower has a rooftop
helicopter
A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...
pad outlined in blue; the east tower has a red one.
In popular culture
The towers played a key role in the 1995 movie ''
The Day of the Beast
''The Day of the Beast'' ( es, El día de la bestia, links=no) is a 1995 Spanish-Italian black comedy film with horror elements co-written and directed by Álex de la Iglesia and starring Álex Angulo, Armando De Razza and Santiago Segura.
The p ...
'', the climax of which took place on one of the then nearly-completed towers.
The towers were also shot in the song sequence "oru koodai sunlight" in the popular
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
* Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils
**Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia
* Tamil language, nativ ...
film ''
Sivaji
Sivaji is an Indian actor who appears in Telugu films. He won Nandi Award for Best Male Dubbing Artist for the movie '' Dil'' (voice for Nitin).
Career
Sivaji is from Narsarsopet in Guntur district. Sivaji started his stint as an editor in ...
''.
They are also seen in an episode of
Mickey and the Roadster Racers
''Mickey Mouse Mixed-Up Adventures'' is an American CGI-animated preschool television series that was broadcast on Disney Junior. Produced by Disney Television Animation, the series is the successor to ''Mickey Mouse Clubhouse''. Originally ...
. The racers must collect a flag from the top of the towers in 'Running of the Roadsters' (episode 5b).
See also
*
Inclined building
An inclined building is a building that was intentionally built at an incline. Buildings are built with an incline primarily for aesthetics, offering a unique feature to a city's skyline, as well as framing other buildings and structures between ...
References
External links
{{commons category, Puerta de Europa, Madrid, Puerta de Europa
Computer generated image of the Golden Top Crown of the Fuente de Europa''dudas''
Towers completed in 1996
Skyscraper office buildings in Madrid
Philip Johnson buildings
Inclined buildings
John Burgee buildings
Postmodern architecture
Twin towers
Buildings and structures in Tetuán District, Madrid
Buildings and structures in Chamartín District, Madrid