Cuatro Torres Business Area

The Cuatro Torres Business Area (CTBA), also known as the Área de Negocios de las Cuatro Torres (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 four tallest skyscrapers in Spain, and four of the ten tallest in the European Union: the Torre Emperador, Torre de Cristal, Torre PwC and Torre Cepsa. Construction of the buildings finished in 2008.

Cuatro Torres Business Area
Área de Negocios de las Cuatro Torres
From left to right: Torre Cepsa, Torre PwC, Torre de Cristal and Torre Espacio
General information
Status	Completed
Type	Office & Hotel (Torre PwC)
Location	Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid,  Spain
Coordinates	40°28′40″N 3°41′16″W
Construction started	2004 (all)
Completed	Torre Espacio : March 2007 Torre PwC: April 2008 Torre Cepsa: May 2009 Torre de Cristal: December 2009
Height
Roof	Torre de Cristal: 249 m (817 ft) Torre Bankia: 248 m (814 ft) Torre PwC: 236 m (774 ft) Torre Espacio: 230 m (750 ft)
Technical details
Floor count	Torre PwC: 58 Torre Espacio: 57 Torre de Cristal: 52 Torre Cepsa: 45
Lifts/elevators	Torre de Cristal: 27 Torre Espacio: 27 Torre Cepsa: 14 Torre PwC: 8
Design and construction
Architect(s)	Torre Cepsa: Norman Foster Torre de Cristal: César Pelli Torre PwC: Carlos Rubio Carvajal and Enrique Álvarez-Sala Walther Torre Espacio: Henry N. Cobb

Since the site was developed a fifth tower, Caleido, was subsequently completed in 2021.

CTBA buildings

Building	Year Finished	Height	Floors
Torre de Cristal	2008	249m	52
Torre Bankia	2009	248m	45
Torre PwC	2008	236m	58
Torre Espacio	2007	224m	57
Torre Caleido	2020	181m	36

Torre de Cristal

Main article: Torre de Cristal (Madrid)

Designed by Cesar Pelli and built by Dragados,^[1] Torre de Cristal (Spanish for Crystal Tower), with a height of 249 meters, is the tallest building in the country. In April 2007, its structure surpassed the height of Torre Espacio.

Torre Cepsa

Main article: Torre Cepsa

Designed by Lord Foster, and built by a joint venture of Dragados and Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas,^[2] the 45-storey Torre Cepsa (Spanish for Cepsa Tower), with a height of 248 m, is the second tallest building in the area, surpassed by Torre de Cristal by 1 meter.

It was first known as Torre Repsol and was to have served as headquarters for the oil and gas company Repsol YPF. During the construction of the tower, Repsol decided to change the location of its future headquarters, and the financial institution Caja Madrid (currently Bankia) purchased the building for €815 million in August 2007.^[3] In 2015 it was loaned to Cepsa for its main headquarters and hence the tower was renamed again as Torre Cepsa.

Torre PwC

Main article: Torre PwC

Designed by Carlos Rubio Carvajal and Enrique Álvarez-Sala Walter and built by Sacyr Sau,^[4] the 52-storey skyscraper, formerly known as Torre Sacyr Vallehermoso, is 236 meters (774 feet) tall. It houses the five-star hotel Eurostars Madrid Tower, which occupies 60% of the tower, with rooms between floors 6 and 27 and at its upper part, a two-storey dining room offering a panoramic view of the city. It is the only tower with double skin facade and it is covered entirely of glass in the form of flakes. On the upper deck there are 3 wind turbines capable of producing wind energy for use in the building. A production of 25 kWh is estimated.

Torre Espacio

Main article: Torre Espacio

Designed by Henry N. Cobb and built by Obrascón Huarte Lain, the 57-storey Torre Espacio (Spanish for Space Tower) is 224.5 metres (737 feet) tall. In November 2006, its height surpassed that of the Gran Hotel Bali, thus making it the tallest building in Spain, although it retained that title only for a short time (see above). The structure was topped out on March 19, 2007 and that evening, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, mayor of Madrid, attended a firework display to commemorate the event.

Gallery

• 
  The CTBA featuring Madrid in the back
• 
  CTBA during its construction, in 2008
• 
  CTBA complex
• 
  Torre de Cristal & Torre Espacio, CTBA
• 
  Torre Cepsa, August 2008
• 
  CTBA on 8 January 2009
• 
  From Tetuán-Valdeacederas

See also

• AZCA
• List of tallest buildings in Madrid

References

1. Structurae database
2. Structurae database
3. (in Spanish) Expansión.com: "Caja Madrid purchase Torre Caja Madrid" Archived 2007-09-27 at the Wayback Machine.
4. "Construction details" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-02-09. Retrieved 2008-08-14.

External links

• PERI GmbH: Cuatro Torres Highrise, Madrid, Spain
• Emporis buildings^[usurped]
• Panoramics and night pics CTBA.