The Torre Emperador Castellana, simply known as Torre Emperador and formerly named Torre Espacio (Spanish for Space Tower) is a skyscraper 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, measuring 230 metres (755 feet) tall and containing 57 floors. It is currently the fourth tallest building in Madrid.

Construction

During its construction on the night of 4 September 2006, a fire broke out on the 43rd floor of the tower. The structure of the building suffered no critical damage, as the fire had only affected some construction materials. The structure was

topped out In building construction, topping out (sometimes referred to as topping off) is a builders' rite traditionally held when the last beam (or its equivalent) is placed atop a structure during its construction. Nowadays, the ceremony is often parlaye ...

on 19 March 2007. That night, Madrid mayor

Alberto Ruiz Gallardón Alberto is the Romance version of the Latinized form (''Albertus'') of Germanic ''Albert''. It is used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The diminutive forms are ''Albertito'' in Spain or ''Albertico'' in some parts of Latin America, Albertin ...

attended a ceremony with fireworks to commemorate the event. With its 230 m, it also became the tallest structure in Spain at that time, surpassing the telecommunications tower

Torrespaña Torrespaña (literally "Spain Tower") is a steel-and-concrete television tower located in Madrid, Spain. National terrestrial television channels RTVE, Telecinco and Antena 3, as well as the autonomous channel Telemadrid, along with a few radio ...

Torre de Cristal The Torre de Cristal ( Spanish for Glass Tower) is a skyscraper in the Cuatro Torres Business Area (CTBA) in Madrid, Spain, completed in 2008. With a final height of , it surpassed Torre Emperador as the tallest building in Spain, and is the ...

, one of the neighbouring skyscrapers at 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 ...

, surpassed the height of Torre Espacio in April 2007. File:Torre Espacio (Madrid) 04a.jpg, ''Torre Emperador'' at completion File:Torre Espacio Madrid.jpg, ''Torre Emperador'' under construction File:Torre Espacio (Madrid) 08.jpg, Night view of the ''Torre Emperador'' File:Torre espacio 1.jpg, Close up of the ''Torre Emperador'' The building project was featured on the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel (known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery) is an American cable channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav. , Discovery Channe ...

's ''

Build It Bigger ''Extreme Engineering'' is a documentary television series that aired on the Discovery Channel and the Science Channel. The program featured futuristic and ongoing engineering projects. After ending of season 3 it airs under the ''Build It Bi ...

'' series due to the skyscraper's unique form and shape. It was designed by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

architect

Henry N. Cobb Henry Nichols Cobb (April 8, 1926 – March 2, 2020) was an American architect and founding partner with I.M. Pei and Eason H. Leonard of Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, an international architectural firm based in New York City. Early life Henry N. C ...

, a partner in the firm

Pei Cobb Freed Pei Cobb Freed & Partners is an American architectural firm based in New York City, founded in 1955 by I. M. Pei and other associates.

, and built by

OHL OHL or Ohl may refer to: Initialisms *Latvian Hockey Higher League, known in Latvian as the ''Optibet hokeja līga'' *Oberste Heeresleitung, the Supreme Army Command of Germany in World War I *Obrascón Huarte Lain, a Spanish construction company * ...

. In 2009, it became the new home of the British Embassy in Madrid. In 2010, the Embassy of Canada too moved to Torre Espacio. The Australian and Dutch Embassy are also located in the building. Since 2015, it has been owned by Grupo Emperador S.A.U, owned by Chinese-Filipino entrepreneur

Andrew Tan Andrew Lim Tan () is a Chinese Filipino billionaire with business interests in real estate, liquor and fast food. In 2011, ''Forbes'' magazine rated him fourth on the list of the "Philippines 40 richest" with an estimated net worth of $2 billi ...

. Six years after the acquisition by the Filipino-Spanish company, the skyscraper got its name changed to Torre Emperador (or Torre Emperador Castellana), named after the popular Filipino brand

Emperador Brandy Emperador is a brand of cut brandy and brandy produced by Emperador Inc., a 81% owned subsidiary of Alliance Global Group. The shares of Emperador Inc. are traded at the Philippine Stock Exchange with the symbol "EMP". The beverage is primaril ...

, as they announced in a Facebook post.

References

External links

*
Se retira la última dotación de bomberos tras quedar extinguido el fuego en la madrileña Torre EspacioEmporis.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Espacio, Torre Office buildings completed in 2008 Skyscraper office buildings in Madrid Buildings and structures in Fuencarral-El Pardo District, Madrid Modernist architecture in Madrid 2008 establishments in Spain

Construction

See also

References

External links