Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Satelite's Towers


Mario Pani commissioned architects Luis Barragan and Matias Goeritz to design a monument to mark the entrance to Ciudad Satelite. This monument consists of five concrete towers with triangular plans painted red, blue, yellow and white on an elongated plaza surrounded by a freeway. 

As the rest of Satelite, the towers are automobile-oriented: they are best seen from a car. As you drive north towards Satelite they appear unexpectedly, and the street points straight ahead at them. As you approach them you realize their incredible size. Not until you are a couple dozen meters from the towers does the road turn and makes you circle around them. 

A couple years ago, the Mexico City government built a second freeway over the southern section of the freeway that leads to Satelite, to alleviate traffic. Now there are plans to build a second level on the freeway's northern end as well. Even if the towers themselves are not touched, the modification of the freeway that leads toward them would make the experience of them quite different. This would be a tragedy. 

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