Gran Torre Costanera, previously known as Costanera Center Torre 2, and also known as El Costanera (The Costanera) by the locals, and previously known as Torre Gran Costanera, is a 62-story

skyscraper A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ris ...

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile as well as one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is the center of Chile's most densely populated region, the Santiago Metropolitan Region, whose ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

. It is the tallest building in

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

, the second tallest building in

Latin America Latin America or * french: Amérique Latine, link=no * ht, Amerik Latin, link=no * pt, América Latina, link=no, name=a, sometimes referred to as LatAm is a large cultural region in the Americas where Romance languages — languages derived f ...

(behind Mexico's T.Op Torre 1) and the fifth tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere (behind Indonesia's

Autograph Tower Thamrin Nine is a mixed-use development complex in Jakarta, Indonesia. It covers an area of approximately 570,000 square metres with office, retail, residential, hotels, sports and entertainment facilities. Its centrepiece, the Autograph Tower (38 ...

and Luminary Tower, and Australia's

Q1 Tower Q1 Tower (an abbreviation of Queensland Number One) is a supertall skyscraper in Queensland, Australia. The residential tower on the Gold Coast was the world's tallest residential building from 2005 to 2011. As of September 2022, it is the 1 ...

and

Australia 108 Australia 108 (previously 70 Southbank Boulevard) is a residential Supertall structure, supertall skyscraper in the Southbank, Victoria, Southbank precinct of Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. Having officially topping out, ...

). The tower was designed by Chilean architects Alemparte Barreda & Asociados, the Argentine architect

César Pelli César Pelli (October 12, 1926 – July 19, 2019) was an Argentine-American architect who designed some of the world's tallest buildings and other major urban landmarks. Two of his most notable buildings are the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur a ...

and the Canadian company Watt International.

Details

Gran Torre Santiago is part of the

Costanera Center The Costanera Center is a business and commercial complex that includes a six-floor shopping mall, the Gran Torre Santiago and three other skyscrapers – two high-end hotels and an office building. The complex is located in the commune of Provid ...

complex, which includes the largest shopping mall in Latin America, two hotels and two additional office towers. Gran Torre Santiago is tall and 64 storeys high plus 6 basement floors, with a floor pitch of and in area. The tower has nearly 700,000 square meters of building space available built on 47,000 square meters of land. Planners estimated that there would be some 240,000 people going to and from the site each day. The tower was designed by Chilean architects Alemparte Barreda & Asociados, the Argentine architect

Cesar Pelli Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol * ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt * César Award, a French film award Places * Cesar, Portugal * C ...

of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, and by the Canadian company Watt International.

Structural engineering Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and muscles' that create the form and shape of man-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and cal ...

is performed by the Chilean company René Lagos y Asociados Ing. Civiles Ltda. Salfa Corp. was responsible for its construction. Pelli would use a similar design in the San Francisco's

Salesforce Tower Salesforce Tower, formerly known as Transbay Tower, is a 61-story skyscraper at 415 Mission Street, between First and Fremont Street, in the South of Market district of downtown San Francisco. Its main tenant is Salesforce, a cloud-based softwar ...

Construction

Construction of the building began in June 2006 and was expected to be completed in 2010, but was put on hold in January 2009 due to the

global financial crisis of 2008–2009 Global means of or referring to a globe and may also refer to: Entertainment * Global (Paul van Dyk album), ''Global'' (Paul van Dyk album), 2003 * Global (Bunji Garlin album), ''Global'' (Bunji Garlin album), 2007 * Global (Humanoid album), ''Gl ...

. Construction on the project resumed on 17 December 2009. In early November 2010, standing tall, it overtook the neighboring

Titanium La Portada Titanium La Portada is an office building in Santiago, Chile. Located in the capital's high-end financial district of El Golf, it is the second tallest skyscraper in the country. Construction began in January 2007, and was completed in January 201 ...

to become the tallest building in Chile. In February 2011, ''

La Segunda ''La Segunda'' ( es, The second one) is a Chilean afternoon daily newspaper, owned by El Mercurio SAP. Their tendency is conservative, is the first Chilean newspaper to disclose information that occurred in the morning because it is evening. Its ...

'' daily reported that, at tall, the tower had overtaken

Caracas Caracas (, ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas, abbreviated as CCS, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the ...

's Twin Towers to become the tallest building in South America, while ''

La Tercera ''La Tercera'' ( es, The Third One), formerly known as ''La Tercera de la Hora'' ('the third of the hour'), is a daily newspaper published in Santiago, Chile and owned by Copesa. It is ''El Mercurio''s closest competitor. ''La Tercera'' is part o ...

'' newspaper reported in February 2012 that it had achieved that feat on 12 April 2011. Structural work on the tower was completed in July 2011 and the maximum height of was achieved on 14 February 2012, becoming the tallest building in Latin America. In 2013, the tower was completed.

Observation deck

On 11 August 2015 an observation deck, called "Sky Costanera," was opened to the public in floors 61 and 62, offering 360° views of Santiago.

Gallery

File:Costanera Center en construcción (09-2006).jpg, September 2006 File:Costanera Center dec 24 2007.JPG, December 2007 File:Torre Gran Costanera Junio 2010.JPG, June 2010 File:Torre Gran Costanera septiembre 2010.jpg, September 2010 File:Torre Gran Costanera en construcción, enero 2011.jpg, January 2011 File:Torre Gran Costanera - Marzo 2011 - 2.jpg, March 2011 File:Costanera Center.jpg, March 2012 Costanera Center Sep. 13.jpg, September 2013 File:Gran Torre Santiago am Abend.jpg, December 2013 File:Gran Santiago Tower, Views from San Critóbal Hill - Santiago - Chile 08.jpg, January 2014

References

External links

Costanera Center website

Sky Costanera
– Observation deck website
Brochure with technical specifications
{{Supertall skyscrapers Skyscrapers in Chile Buildings and structures in Santiago Office buildings in Chile Office buildings completed in 2013 César Pelli buildings Architecture in Chile