The Centro Simón Bolívar Towers TCSB also known as the Towers of Silence is a building with a pair of 32-story towers, each measuring 103 meters in height, in El Silencio district,

Caracas Caracas ( , ), officially Santiago de León de Caracas (CCS), is the capital and largest city of Venezuela, and the center of the Metropolitan Region of Caracas (or Greater Caracas). Caracas is located along the Guaire River in the northern p ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

. Built during the time of the presidency of

Marcos Pérez Jiménez Marcos Evangelista Pérez Jiménez (25 April 1914 – 20 September 2001) was a Venezuelan military officer and the dictator of Venezuela from 1950 to 1958, ruling as member of the military junta from 1950 to 1952 and as president from 1952 t ...

, the TCSB was opened to the public on December 6, 1954.

Features

The TCSB is an example of

functionalist architecture In architecture, functionalism is the principle that buildings should be designed based solely on their purpose and function. An international functionalist architecture movement emerged in the wake of World War I, as part of the wave of Modernis ...

that includes the concept of integrating artistic works into the building. When first built it was a symbol of Venezuelan national identity, of a country emerging from its agrarian and

petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

-based economy, at the beginning of its industrialization. The TCSB is thus imposed as a simple aesthetic symbol of modernity and of the long-term development facing the country. The TCSB is suspended in the air above the ground on stilts, allowing the public to traverse beneath it unhindered. The symmetry of the building is rigorous, with the twin towers arising from two parallel wings, consisting of a system of plazas, walkways, porches, doorways, commercial areas and underground parking; the Bolivar Avenue passes underneath. The towers occupied the title of the tallest twin towers in

until the construction of the towers of

Parque Central Complex The Parque Central Complex is a housing, commercial and cultural development, implemented by Centro Simón Bolívar and located in El Conde in the center of the city of Caracas, Venezuela adjacent to Paseo Vargas. Within the complex are the Pa ...

along the same road in the city of Caracas. On February 7, 1982, the climber Dan Goodwin scaled the outside of the towers using only his hands and feet.

Gallery

File:Centro Simon Bolivar 2013 002.JPG, South and North Tower Simon Bolivar Center views from Diego Plaza Ibarra. File:Av Bolivar caracas.jpg, East façade from Avenida Bolivar. File:Centro SB.jpg, West facade, Plaza Caracas. File:Caracas city.jpg, View of the reconstruction of the Plaza Diego Ibarra. File:Buildings of Caracas.jpg, Having observed panaromica where Simon Bolivar Center towers from the west of the City. File:Silencio bandera.JPG, West Facade view from the Urbanisation El Silencio. File:Cesar Rengifo El mito de Amalivaca CSB 2013 000.jpg, Mural The Myth of Amalivaca, work by artist César Rengifo. File:PlazaDiegoIbarraCaracas IMG2049.JPG, Night view of the Plaza Diego Ibarra

References

External links

Skyscraperpage (Simon Bolivar Center 2)

Skyscraperpage (Simon Bolivar Center 1)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Centro Simon Bolivar Towers Office buildings completed in 1954 Buildings and structures in Caracas Twin towers Skyscraper office buildings in Venezuela