Unidad Habitacional Nonoalco-Tlatelolco

The Conjunto Urbano Nonoalco Tlatelolco is the largest apartment complex in Mexico, and second largest in North America, after New York's Co-op City. The complex is located in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City. It was built in the 1960s by architect Mario Pani. Originally, the complex had 102 apartment buildings, with its own schools, hospitals, stores and more, to make it a city within a city. It was also created to be a kind of human habitat and includes artwork such as murals and green spaces such as the Santiago Tlatelolco Garden. Today, the complex is smaller than it was and in a state of deterioration, mostly due the effects and after effects of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake. This quake caused the immediate collapse of the Nuevo León building with others being demolished in the months afterwards. Further earthquakes in 1993 caused the condemnation of more buildings. In addition to the lost buildings, many residents eventually undersold or abandoned their apartments, as repairs were either never made or made poorly.

Today the complex consists of 90 apartment buildings, divided into three sections bordered by Avenida de los Insurgentes, Eje 1 Poniente Guerrero, Eje Central and Paseo de la Reforma. Originally, the complex was designed to house people from different economic social strata, but today almost all of low or very low income. Crime is a major problem as is the structural integrity of the remaining buildings.

The complex was ordered built by the administration of President Adolfo López Mateos, between 1960 and 1965, with financing and condominium administration provided by the Banco Nacional Hipotecario, Urbano y de Obras Publicas, S.A. The area has been an urban center since the pre-Hispanic period, when it began as an independent city state on an island in Lake Texcoco. By the time Spaniards arrived, the island had been incorporated into the Aztec Empire centered in the nearby island city of Tenochtitlan. Tlatelolco was famous for its large market, which continued to exist after the Spanish conquest. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the area was a train yard for the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México. The modern apartment complex was built over the then-abandoned train yard. It surrounds the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, a place that symbolizes the synthesis of Mexico’s pre-Hispanic and colonial pasts with the modern day. This plaza contains the archeological site of Tlatelolco with its ceremonial center, the parish church of Santiago Tlatelolco and the modern buildings that surround them, including a building associated with the Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores. The project involved a total of 130 buildings over an area of 1,200,000 square metres (13,000,000 sq ft), with schools, hospitals, markets, businesses, church and police stations. Its signature building was the Torre Insignia or Torre Banobras. This was built in the form of a triangle or lance point (to resist temblors) 127 meters high with 24 floors. It was originally surrounded by gardens and had a large reflective pool. This tower contains the Carrillon Clasico, one of the world’s few glockenspiels and the only one in Mexico City. It consists of 47 metallic bells, considered to be the optimal number for four octaves. They were cast in Belgium and weigh 26 tons. The main bells are dedicated to Hidalgo, Morelos, Cuauhtémoc, Madero and López Mateos . A sixth bell is dedicated to relations between Mexico and Belgium.

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