Designed by the Argentinian architect César Pelli in collaboration with the Madrid studio Ortiz & León, the Torre de Cristal, with a height of 250 m and 52 floors, is one of the four skyscrapers that define Madrid’s skyline at the northern end of the Paseo de la Castellana, the capital’s main thoroughfare. The project envisaged the remodelling of the lobby and the restaurant areas, and the works were to be carried out with the building in use and maintaining the continuity of all its services with a minimum impact on users.
The remodelling project, carried out by Savills, has given both spaces a refreshed image, with new areas for working, socialising, relaxing and informal meetings. To this end, a new revolving door has been installed on the south façade, a functional adaptation has been made to the 900 sqm of the lobby – with the creation of spaces within which there are areas to integrate receptions, meeting spaces, a coffee point and digital communication points – and new access turnstiles have been installed that are lighter than the previous ones, which have also been moved away from the main circulation space to make it more generous.
In this adaptation of the lobby, Empty has manufactured and assembled made-to-measure furniture in the reception areas of Mutua Madrileña and KPMG, benches and planters and a coffee point, all of them made of wood, with Dekton worktops and flared veneers, combining materials with curved and functional lines. There is also a video wall with a fragmented design of LED screens, and a brise soleil of metal slats anchored with braces to the forging and curtain wall to mitigate solar radiation on the south façade. In addition, modifications have been made to the installations to improve comfort, and numerous luminaires have been added, suspended in structures hung with braces from the main structure of the building.
The work in the restaurant areas consisted of dismantling the existing cladding and installations in order to modernise the spaces in accordance with the new proposed layout and ambience, both on the ground floor and on the first floor: a total of 875 sqm. Empty has carried out renovation work on the installations and on the vertical and horizontal cladding, as well as installing decorative lighting and customised furniture.