Torre Colpatria, Office tower in central Bogotá, Colombia.
Torre Colpatria is a 50-floor office tower at Carrera Séptima with Calle 24 in Bogotá, rising 196 metres. Its square base holds an inner square with thirteen lifts, service areas and the stair. Four facades of concrete pilasters and unbroken vertical glazing bars run from ground level to the roof, and a separate ten-floor block stands on its south side.
Designed from 1973 by the firm Obregón, Valenzuela & Cía. Ltda. and built by Pizano Pradilla Caro y Restrepo Ltda., the tower was completed in 1978 and opened in 1979. In 1979 it overtook the Centro de Comercio Internacional as the tallest building in Latin America, a title it lost in 1982 to the Torre Ejecutiva Pemex in Mexico City. It remained Colombia's tallest for 37 years, until the BD Bacatá surpassed it in 2015.
The tower takes its name from Grupo Colpatria, the owner whose offices and bank headquarters occupy the building. Since 6 August 1998, the city's anniversary, its facade has been lit at night; the original xenon projectors changed filter colours several times per minute, and the LED system installed by Philips in December 2012 can project defined images across all four facades, sometimes in the colours of the Colombian flag.
The tower stands at the corner of Carrera Séptima and Calle 24, where Avenida Eldorado meets the Seventh Avenue, in the Las Nieves area of downtown Bogotá. The observation deck occupies the 49th floor, at 192 metres, with the heliport four metres above it. It opens to visitors on weekends and holidays.
The facade lighting installed by Philips in 2012 reaches 120 metres up the tower and can project high-definition images across all four sides. It replaced the 36 xenon lights that had lit the pilasters since 6 August 1998, the city's anniversary. The earlier projectors changed colour several times a minute, sometimes forming the yellow, blue and red of the Colombian flag.
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