Torre Virreyes, Lomas

The Torre Virreyes in Mexico City was one of the final projects of renowned architect Teodoro González de León. The skyscraper is rather looming over the Parque de la Luz, one of the westernmost extremes of Chapultepec Park.For that matter, it rather looms over the tiny neighborhood of Molino del Rey, too. The building has also been known by the name of its address, Torre Pedregal 24. The tower was completed in 2014. At 121 meters in height there are 24 floors of offices. But the ground level is entirely commercial shopping and restaurant space. It's not really on the scale of a major shopping center, but provides a nice open area and meeting space.González de León worked with English designers Arup to provide structural design for the project. He also worked to integrate and preserve the remarkable Super Servicio Lomas building of Vladimir Kaspé from the 1940s. That building was cataloged as an Artistic Monument by the National Institute of Fine Arts (INBA) in 2009 although much of it was lost over the course of many years.Today the Super Servicio makes up the entire northern point of the Torre Virreyes complex. Also open to the public at the street level are an auditorium, multi-purpose room, and lots of semi-public open space.The builders of the tower also carried out a simultaneous rehabilitation of the adjoining park and bikeway. Today the complex and the park remain that much more of an attractive place to stop along the way.