The Torres de Colón () is a high-rise office building complex in the Plaza de Colón district of Madrid, Spain. Originally built between 1968 and 1976, and renovated in 2024, the complex consists of two twin towers standing at tall with 30 floors each. They were designed by Spanish architect Antonio Lamela.
They were originally conceived as twin towers sharing the same base until the 1990 renovation, which connected the two structures with a suspended fire escape. It is currently the 11th tallest building in the Spanish capital and was the tallest office building in Madrid until the completion of the Torre Picasso in 1989. The towers were built between 1967 and 1976 by the Madrid-based architect Antonio Lamela and the engineers Leonardo Fernández Troyano, Javier Manterola, and Carlos Fernández Casado.
In December 2019, the owner, Mutua Madrileña, announced a major renovation of the towers, which took place between 2020 and 2024. The base floors and the plug-shaped crown were removed and replaced with two new four-story structures, an intervention carried out by the Spanish architect Luis Vidal. Since April 2025, and for a period of 12 years, they have been leased in their entirety to the law firm Garrigues.
History
The building with its 116-meter height and 23 floors is the twelfth-tallest in the Spanish capital (counting the CTBA towers). It was the headquarters of the Rumasa company, during which time its name was changed to Torres de Jerez (Towers of Jerez), in honour of the home town of the company. It is currently valued at $116 million.
It is found in and dominates the Plaza de Colón, one of the major commercial centres in Madrid. The twin buildings are known locally as "El Enchufe" or "The Plug" for the plug-like structure that binds them.
The towers are located at 31 Calle de Génova, on the corner of Paseo de la Castellana and overlooking Plaza de Colón, in the Almagro neighborhood of the Chamberí district. Calle de Goya and Paseo de Recoletos also converge at this plaza, and directly opposite are the Jardines del Descubrimiento (Discovery Gardens), inaugurated in 1977.
Across Calle de Génova is the Centro Colón, built at the same time as the towers. Its neighbors include the Crédit Agricole IndoSuez building and the Palacete de los Condes de Egaña (Mansion of the Counts of Egaña). The site was formerly occupied by the palatial home of Luis de Silva y Fernández de Córdoba, an apartment building whose façade followed the curve of the plaza. Also known as the "Twin Buildings," they were designed by Spanish architect Lorenzo Álvarez Capra and built in 1881. Benito Pérez Galdós lived there and wrote some of his most important works.Crisol, Cristina. «Redescubrir Madrid de la mano de Galdós.» El País. Consultado el 15 de agosto de 2014. In 1964, the Basque real estate developer José María Osinalde acquired the properties, which belonged to the Azpiroz family, at number two, Plaza de Colón.
The small plot of land on which they are located was part of what was known as the Huerta de Loinaz, the triangle formed by Almagro, Génova, and Paseo de la Castellana streets. Following the initiatives of the Castro Plan in the mid-19th century, there was considerable speculation, and it was in this context that the French company Parent, Schaken et Cie bought a large tract of land to later sell it in subdivided lots. Schaken was a company linked to the Schaken Parent railway company, which participated in the development of Madrid's railways from the second half of the 19th century. They urbanized the land in the southern part of the eastern Almagro neighborhood after it had passed through the hands of the Arango family, of Cuban origin, who were among the largest landowners in the neighborhood along with Miguel Sainz de Indo. The result was the construction of residences in this area for the wealthiest sectors of society.
Location Surroundings In 1964, Antonio Lamela presented a project entitled "Planning of Plaza de Colón," advocating for open, high-rise buildings. In the journal Arquitectura, he reflected on the lack of an efficient and up-to-date General Urban Development Plan, which forced private developers to anticipate the plans—an undesirable situation that fostered land speculation and increased construction costs. He submitted two "volume planning projects" to the City Council for the plots located on either side of the intersection of Calle de Génova and Plaza de Colón, proposing high-rise, freestanding buildings. His idea was based on maximizing the use of ground-floor space by reducing the visual impact of the structure and facades that did not reach the ground, in what he called "suspended architecture," referring not only to its structure but also to the pedestrian's perception from ground level. In his project, he aimed to create a cohesive urban unit, balanced between the corner masses, expand pedestrian space both in sidewalks and in the permeability of the site by allowing pedestrian traffic on the ground floors of the buildings, obtain a good view from Jorge Juan and Goya streets, and solve the problem of lack of parking.
Urban planning Within this urban planning context, the architectural project for the Columbus Towers was conceived, and construction began in 1968. In 1969, the Old Mint was demolished, and a public competition for ideas—unusual at the time—was launched to design the site as a landscaped public space. The competition requirements included the creation of a commemorative framework for the historical event of the Discovery of America and its representative figures, an underground public parking garage with a capacity for 1,000 vehicles, a landscaped area, and a solution to the traffic problems at the intersection. Lamela's project eliminated the section of Jorge Juan Street adjacent to the National Library building, removing the fences and iron railings, as he considered the concept of walled enclosures typical of early 20th-century buildings outdated; this created a superblock for public facilities. It also involved the creation of an overpass over Recoletos-Castellana, facilitated by the topography of Génova and Goya streets, which descend to Plaza de Colón. For the western part of the plaza, Lamela reused the volume arrangement project already submitted to the City Council in 1964. 580 technicians from different specialties entered the competition; Antonio Lamela received an Honorable Mention.
Architecture Initial design concept (1968) Both towers had always been planned with a rectangular, not square, floor plan, with the Castellana tower facing parallel to the avenue and the Genoa tower facing south. The staircases were located at the rear, that is, to the north in the tower facing Genoa and to the west in the tower facing Castellana. The elevators were in the central core, in a group of three, one of them a double-cab elevator for use as a freight elevator.
The project was conceived for residential use from the outset. Numerous designs and layouts were considered, including three, two, and one apartment per floor, featuring large cantilevered terraces that were highly sought after at the time. Its use as tourist apartments managed by a hotel chain was even considered, an innovative concept that had proven successful in more tourist-oriented areas. Ultimately, the riskiest option was chosen: one apartment per floor with the finest possible finishes and luxuries. To facilitate marketing, a full-scale model was built in Las Pueblas, elevated one story above the ground, faithfully recreating the interior layout and materials used as a "show apartment." The residential use plan was short-lived, as the halt in construction prevented the proper marketing of the residential units. The show apartment was used for many years by a family close to the Osinalde family until it was demolished.
The towers have a suspended structure; the building consists of two pillars together on top of a platform from which hang two large towers with perimeter beams six feet singing with pendulums each floor with cable-stayed steel cables. Construction commenced with the concrete footings, the two central pillars and the upper platform. Then the towers were built from top to bottom, from the upper platform plant to plant closer to the base of the building. At the base, three floors (six floors including basements) were built from the bottom up.
First design (1976)
The building consists of a base or podium upon which rise two twin towers of orange-brown color, topped by two greenish crests joined by a plug-shaped finial from which the emergency staircases hang. The building has three elevators in each tower and two elevators on the parking levels.
The base is reminiscent of the nearby building at Génova 27, also designed by Estudio Lamela, before its renovation by the same firm between 2003 and 2005. The original 1974 project, during the height of the oil crisis, aimed for "natural climate control and self-protection," achieved through angled glass to minimize solar exposure. The two twenty-story towers rise from the podium, one projecting forward of the other rather than parallel. The typical floor plan of the tower is quadrangular, but not perfectly square. With a floor area of 607.74 m², it consists of a reinforced concrete central core containing four openings: three for elevators and a fourth for wiring and other installations. The façade features double- glazed glass: the first pane has a sawtooth pattern, while the second, installed during the 1990s renovation, is uniform with rounded corners. Each tower is topped by a greenish, quadrangular crest joined by a semicircular, plug-shaped structure.Remodelación de edificio de oficinas Génova 27 Estudio Lamela
Suspended structure
What makes this building stand out is its technical innovation, since for various reasons the floors had to be built in reverse, that is, "from top to bottom." Choosing a traditional structure would have made vehicle access to the basement levels impossible, as the necessary pillars would not have left enough space for ramps, and would have reduced the usable space for parking. This space was crucial due to the already small size of the plot (1700 m²). Furthermore, the new municipal ordinance required a minimum of 150 parking spaces. This approach resulted in completely open-plan floors, free of pillars and beams, allowing for maximum flexibility in the layout and better use of the usable area without obstructing the horizontal utilities. Furthermore, thanks to the transmission of loads through the core, one of the towers could be projected up to 9.5 meters above Genoa Street, as there were no supports obstructing pedestrian traffic. However, the choice of this method resulted in an increase in construction costs of between 10 and 15% compared to the traditional pillar structure.
This suspended or hanging structure model was novel because until then only seventeen towers in the world had been built using this system, such as the Commercial Union Building (now St. Helen's or Aviva Tower) or 20 Fenchurch Street (demolished) in London, the BP Building in Antwerp, the Standard Bank Centre in Johannesburg, or the BMW Headquarters, among others. Subsequently, Spanish architecture adopted the hanging model, developing in other cases the experience originating in the Columbus Towers.
The towers are designed in a way that departs from the traditional skyscraper or tower scheme, their main peculiarity being that the building's loads are transferred to a cap structure located at the top of the building and from there are conveyed, through a central concrete core, to the foundations. The loads are transmitted to the central core directly or through the cap structure, ultimately being transferred to the ground by means of a 13x13 m footing, 7 meters deep.