Edificio El Moro, Art Deco skyscraper in Tabacalera, Mexico City, Mexico
Edificio El Moro is a 107-metre, 29-storey Art Deco tower at Paseo de la Reforma 1, in the Tabacalera neighbourhood of Cuauhtémoc, Mexico City. Built with steel, concrete and glass, it has five lifts and a total area of 22,000 m² on a site of more than 2,000 m².
The Lotería Nacional acquired the site at Paseo de la Reforma 1, where the Porfirian Casa de Mier y Terán and a police headquarters stood, and began construction in 1934. Engineer José Antonio Cuevas designed a compensating-box foundation to cope with the waterlogged subsoil. The tower was inaugurated on 28 November 1946, before the Torre Latinoamericana, and was briefly Mexico City's tallest building.
The building is known as La Lotería because it houses the offices of the Lotería Nacional (Lotenal). Its nickname El Moro comes from the first project presented, a five-story building that looked like a Moorish shop, which was printed on the lottery's letterhead. The lottery had previously occupied the Casa de Mier y Terán on the same site, where a neon gas advertisement was used in Latin America for the first time.
The building sits in the city center and is easy to reach by public transportation from various parts of Mexico City. Its location provides good access to metro and bus lines.
The name El Moro comes from the first project: a five-story building resembling a Moorish shop, printed on the lottery's letterhead, so workers called it El Moro. The approved tower rose to 29 floors and 107 m, making it Mexico City's tallest building for a brief period.
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