Project Description
Overview
Designed by leading New Haven, CT-based architectural firm Pelli Clarke Pelli, the 30-story Banco Macro headquarters tower is distinguished by an oval profile, which rises with a gentle inward-curving plane. This sculptural shape efficiently fits the building into its irregularly-shaped five-sided site on Catalinas Norte, Buenos Aires City’s “Wall Street.”
Program
The two triple-height top floors for executive and administrative offices offer river view and cityscape options. The tower will also provide many high-end technical and aesthetic amenities. The first floor features a cafeteria, a large balcony overlooking the river and, a retail bank. The mezzanine hosts a gymnasium. Designed with stone floors, glass walls and a parabolic skylight, the elegant lobby staircase leads down to the building’s ‘Crown Jewel,’ a 21st century, triple height, 200 seat theater is distinguished by an interior skin of Barrisol. The stretched woven fabric/acoustic treatment covers the walls and ceiling, and also creates ‘3D illumination’ in conjunction with LED lights. The theater also boasts a custom ‘semi-spherical’ ceiling cloud/lighting fixture.
Design
Having worked with top Argentine Real Estate development/management firm VIZORA on B.A.’s innovative Madero Walk Eventos, WSDG’s acoustic design, systems integration and consulting prowess was ideal for Banco Macro. Project Manager, Federico Petrone coordinated a complex SI program to establish precise connectivity for over sixty individual meeting and conference rooms situated throughout the building. The mission culminated with the 200-seat theater. Outfitted with three separate audio mixing, lighting control and translation booths, the theater benefitted from WSDG’s array of 3D acoustic modeling programs, auralization reports, sophisticated room simulation and design programs engaged pre-construction to plot the multifaceted acoustic/AV integration. The tower also faced daunting potential external noise issues from bottom to top. The basement level theater abuts the building’s power station and three massive diesel generators. The triple-height penthouse executive conference and meeting rooms were situated beneath HVAC and elevator machine rooms. To inhibit sound leakage, all these areas were designed with full room-within-room construction: floating floors, double walls and hung ceilings. After initial findings of potential 110 dB traffic noise generated from a busy truck delivery road bordering the tower WSDG specified a glass skin for the building to establish an NC 30 interior sound level throughout the tower. Projected completion date is spring, 2018.
Photo credit: Axel Zemborain / Daniel Casoy / Tomás Varela