op. In 1973, a military dictatorship took hold, lasting for nearly 20 years. It was a period of brutality and repression that saw the country’s architects and designers stifled.
Now jump to today and Santiago is in an age of glass facads and urban development which brings us to Grand Tour nicknamed the Mordor of Santiago. Now the development of this city obviously hasn’t happened overnight. It’s been a decadesl long journey to make Santiago what it is today. And by the way, that journey is far from over.
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We would really, really appreciate it. Now, I believe I was about to tell you about why Grand Touré is called Mordor in the Chilean capital. It’s meant to be for Santiago what the Eiffel Tower is for Paris, or so its owner, Horse Pullman, reportedly said. And if by that he meant a controversial tower that divides a nation, then mission accomplished.
>> It aligns to how our economy has developed over the last 30, 40 years. In one side it shows an idea of this is what we are but also is this the best approach to design a building. People were afraid of how the building will react to earthquakes and on the other hand how the h district will change based on this huge influx of people.
>> Construction started back in 2006 and saw this building climb higher than any other had done here before. And while its architect Cesar Pelle said it was never planned to compete with the power of the Andes, its impact on the city really is like that of a mountain. Gran Turi dwarfs the city of Santiago, reportedly casting a shadow a mile long, which is far from ideal if you’re one of the buildings directly under it.
Around 72,000 cub m of concrete and more than 18,000 tons of steel make up South America’s tallest tower. You’ll see the body of the structure is supported by a heavily reinforced central concrete core that provides a solid base upon which the detailing was added. And there’s quite a bit of structural support, but there’s good reason for that.
Building in Santiago comes with one challenge that’s bigger than all the others. Earthquakes. This place sits in a seismic hot spot. Back in 1960, the country was hit with the biggest earthquake ever recorded, coming in at a frightening magnitude of 9.5. That was a fair way up the coast from Santiago itself, but the capital city faces its fair share of seismic events.
Granted, most are barely noticeable, but every now and again, the city does face enormous ground shaking like the 8.8 magnitude earthquake in 2010. Structures like Grand Tour have to be prepared. It’s why the tower is fitted with a special outrigger system. It works by connecting the exterior columns to the building’s core through a series of steel beams or trusses.
It’s a bit like standing between two walls and sticking your arms out. You’re going to feel a lot more stable than if you were just on two feet. At the base of the building, copper spring shock absorbers were fitted to the foundations to absorb seismic energy. Now, those of you paying attention will have realized that this earthquake hit right in the middle of Grand Tour’s construction period.
It happened when the tower was about 2/3 complete and standing around 200 m above the city. You might think that would leave it less than structurally stable. But remarkably, Grand Tour came through the ultimate seismic test virtually unscathed. Its impressive outrigger system and base engineering absorbed any energy cast out by the earthquake, meaning work could continue on the tower later that same year.
But there’s another secret to Grantori success, and it comes from the tower’s shape. The glass wall facade tapers as it climbs towards the latattis four cornered crown at the top. And there are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, the effect of wind is lessened on a tower that slims as it rises. You can cut down on something called vortex shedding, which is where wind forces build up and swirl around a structure.
Imagine trying to work while this was going on around you. A tapered design impacts the natural frequency and the distribution of forces, too. You can actually use the shape to redirect the biggest forces to the strongest part of the tower. It’s all incredibly ingenious stuff. But despite its impressive engineering, Grand Tour has a lot of enemies.
To offer some context, the second tallest building in the city, and in fact anywhere in the country, it is more than 100 m shorter than Grand Tour. It really is in a league of its own. And while it’s a grand symbol of the continuing development of the city, it stands as a big glass reminder of wealth disparity.
The enormous glass tower began construction in 2006 in Santiago’s most affluent area. But come 2009, the nation found itself tangled in a recession following the global financial crisis. Construction of Grand Tour grown to a halt for nearly a year, looming over the city’s residents as an incomplete reminder of Chile’s financial troubles, unemployment, and personal debts.
But the problems go far beyond what this represents financially. If you build it, he will come. >> If you build it, they will come. Okay, so I might be slightly paraphrasing the original quotes, but you get the picture. To say Santiago’s population is around 7 million people, over 3 million visitors travel to this complex every month, and the city just isn’t set up for it.
This is more than just a massive office building. Grand is the centerpiece of the Costina Center, which features four towers and a six-f flooror mall. It’s right in the heart of the financial district known to locals as San Hatton. Right from the off, people complained the tower would cause nightmarish traffic because of a lack of improvement being made to the nearby road network.
And while this tower came through protests, construction delays, and a $600 million overspend, those traffic issues didn’t go away. Come 2015, reports surfaced that Grand Tour was practically empty because the building’s owners hadn’t managed to sign up any leases. They’d failed to get an occupancy permit from the government because the necessary road upgrades hadn’t been made around the tower.
Years of debate followed about whether upgrades would be publicly or privately funded. And so Grand Tour stood a $1 billion empty skyscraper. >> When it comes to the shopping center, yes, it’s a success. It’s among the most profitable shopping centers in Chile. In terms of legacy, it’s part of our skyline, but still deploy has this issue with how to deal with following stages and today is not fully open the the tower itself.
But in terms of how reshape the city’s skyland is a success. >> It might be just one of the more than 50 office towers occupying this everdeveloping space, but there’s no denying it’s the biggest sign yet of a city straying from its architectural roots. And just look at how big it is compared to everything else here. And yet this thing forced its way above the skyline, overcoming all kinds of obstacles.
If Grand Tour can find a way, then anyone can. Now, the people of Chile aren’t alone in wanting to protect their architectural heritage from buildings like this. Right across South America, the same problem is being encountered. It’s one of the key reasons, among others, that the continent sits at the bottom of the pile when it comes to the world’s tallest buildings.
But Grand feels like a key milestone for change. In the last 20 years, a number of skyscrapers have made the climb towards the skies as part of the South American skyscraper revolution, and there are loads more on the way. Gran Turi has set a precedent that you can build super tall in South America, a 300 m symbol of the continent’s ever growing climb towards the skies.
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