Cuatro Torres Business Area

The Cuatro Torres Business Area, or CTBA, is a business district on the Paseo de la Castellana in northern Madrid, Spain. It stands on land that used to be the Ciudad Deportiva, the sports training grounds of Real Madrid. The four towers were finished in 2008 and are the four tallest skyscrapers in Spain. English Wikipedia also says they are among the ten tallest in the European Union.

They are Torre de Cristal at about 249 metres, Torre Cepsa at 248 metres, Torre PwC at 236 metres and Torre Espacio at about 224.5 metres. In 2021 a fifth, shorter tower called Caleido was completed in the same district. Together they changed the skyline of the city.

The four towers

Torre de Cristal, designed by César Pelli, is the tallest building in Spain. Torre Cepsa, designed by Norman Foster, has 45 storeys and is one metre shorter. It was first planned for the oil company Repsol, then bought by Caja Madrid in 2007 and renamed Torre Cepsa in 2015.

Torre PwC has 52 storeys and a double-skin glass facade, and a five-star hotel fills much of it. Torre Espacio, designed by Henry N. Cobb, has 57 storeys.

From sports ground to skyline

Real Madrid's old Ciudad Deportiva held football, basketball and tennis facilities. In the late 1990s the club's growing debts and rising land values led to talks about redevelopment, and the land was sold to the city. After political arguments the plots went to four companies, each of which built its own headquarters.

Building started in 2004 and the four towers were done by 2007 and 2008. The project was first called Madrid Arena before it got its present name.

Little details

On the top deck of Torre PwC, three small wind turbines make some electricity for the building, about 25 kilowatt-hours according to an estimate. The facade of this tower is covered in glass shaped like flakes.

When Torre Espacio's structure reached its top on 19 March 2007, the mayor of Madrid watched a fireworks show to celebrate.

On the globe

The model shows the row of four glass towers beside the road. Look at the different tops of each tower.