A Concrete Giant in Mexico City

Even before its official inauguration in late 2015, Torre Reforma is already an architectural icon in Mexico.

At 807 ft high with 57 levels, this corporate building is the tallest in Mexico City. It features impressive walls of exposed concrete that resemble a large open book when viewed from a certain angle.

Characterised by both its slimness and strength, the walls that serve as the backbone of the tower were built with CEMEX Fortis. The high-strength properties of this concrete allow it to bear the weight of the slabs, which were conceived without interior columns to maximise the use of space, with the support of the intertwined metallic structure.

The flexibility of concrete as a building material, coupled with the strategic design of the walls with ‘tetris’ style windows, dissipates telluric waves and releases energy in the event of an earthquake. The concrete used for the walls was designed by CEMEX in gradient shades of grey to match the building height, in accordance with customer requirements.

In order to build a project of this magnitude, special pumping equipment that can pour concrete at high altitudes and in difficult access areas was required. ‘Placing boom’ is a technology solution provided by CEMEX that allows for a continuous concrete pour with utmost safety, promptness, consistency, and efficiency of cost and labour.

Edited from source by Joseph Green. Source: Cemex

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/the-americas/08072015/concrete-giant-mexico-city-125/