Tall & Urban News

Pininfarina's architecture division will be designing a new high-rise condominium complex in the Mexican metropolis of Mérida. The city is the capital of the Yucatán, a southeastern peninsula of Mexico, famously home to the Chichen Itza and other Mayan ruins. This will be the Italian design company’s first branded residential tower in Mexico; it is also working on a luxury condominium in Guatemala and designed the Air Traffic Control tower at the new Istanbul airport

Located just north of the city center, the Light Towers is walking distance from shopping centers, cinemas, and restaurants. The complex primarily comprises two distinct towers, one 17 stories high, the other, 18. The towers are connected by a “permeable” five-story base which will provide pedestrian access through the building’s lobby from the street.

This latest residential project follows a new U.S. Consulate building designed by west-coast based architecture firm The Miller Hull Partnership, which broke ground in December 2020; the glass and limestone-clad government building, located nearby to Light Towers, is expected complete in 2023.

Each of the two towers has 122 modular condominiums, with two and three-bedroom units and four- and five-bedroom penthouses. Terraces wrap around the towers at each story. Each unit also comes with a fair amount of greenspace; huge swaths of tropical shrubbery line the terraces, spilling over the edge. Between 25 percent and 75 percent of square feet per unit is allocated for greenspace.

For more on this story, go to Architects' Journal.