| Interbank Building | |
| Address: | Carlos Villarán 140 |
| Years Built: | 1996–2001 |
| Cost: | US$ 40,948,900 |
| Owner: | Intercorp |
| Height: | 88 m |
| Floor Count: | 20 |
| Floor Area: | 43,500 m² |
| Architect: | Hans Hollein[1] |
| Structural Engineer: | Carlos Casabonne Rasselet |
| Services Engineer: | José Tavera |
| Main Contractor: | Cosapi |
The Interbank Building is a building located in the neighbourhood of Santa Catalina, La Victoria District, Lima. It serves as the main headquarters of Interbank, a Peruvian financial entity and was inaugurated in February 2001. It is located at the intersection of Luis Bedoya Reyes and Javier Prado Este avenues. It has a total construction area of 45,300 m2 and a maximum height of 88 metres.[2] [3]
The building's predecessor was located at the Plazoleta de la Merced in the Jirón de la Unión.[4]
The construction was in charge of the Peruvian company Cosapi S.A. and the design by the Austrian architect Hans Hollein. This marked the end of a period of inactivity for the architect since the 1980s. This building was inaugurated at the same time as the Media Tower in Vienna. Both projects were designed in parallel.[5] The construction period was between 1996 and 2000.[6] The building was inaugurated in 2001.[7]
The building consists of two distinct and interlinked blocks. The first of them is the tower (Tower A) and the second (Tower B) is the six-story rectangular building with white glass exterior walls where offices and the cafeteria are located. An appendage protrudes from this block from the fourth floor. Tower A is slightly inclined, adopting the figure of a "sail in the wind" whose front is reinforced by a titanium mesh that serves both as decoration (it has a set of lights that change from the color of the institution to the characteristic colors of some special festivity) as protection from sunlight. The tower has 20 floors and reaches a maximum height of 88 metres topped with a helipad.[5]
The inclination of the tower not only has an aesthetic function but also an anti-seismic one developed by the specialist Carlos Casabonne Rasselet.[5] In the same way, the plinth facing the street has been made with volcanic stone from the Andes, according to ancient tradition of the Inca architecture of Peru.[5]