Tower Glories (of Glories) or, translated literally from Catalan - "Tower of Fame" (Glòries Torre), formerly known as the Agbar tower or Torre Agbar in Barcelona (Torre Agbar, the abbreviation of the company Aguas de Barcelona) - Barcelona's famous skyscraper, which is an example of high-tech architecture of the city.
Tower is located in the district of Sant martí in Barcelona, between Diagonal Avenue and Badajoz street, near the place Glories Catalanes and the Sagrada Familia.
The tower was designed by the French architect Jean Nouvel in cooperation with the Spanish firm b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos. The construction of the Torre Glories was carried out by the company Dragados.
The building has 38 floors, 4 of which are underground and 34 floors above the ground. The total height of the tower is 145 meters, becoming, during the opening of the third tallest building in the Catalan capital, after the hotel Arts and tower Mapfre, having about 154 meters. The official opening of the Agbar tower took place on 16 September 2005.
The original name of the Agbar tower was in honor of the owners is a holding company of the Agbar Group, which is the headquarters of the Corporation in building and occupies most of the floors, renting the remainder. Tower "Agbar" was purchased in March 2010 for 165 million Euro, after reaching an agreement with its former owner, the investment group Azurelau. Azurelau previously bought the property in mid-2007. The purchase price was not disclosed.
By 2017, the tower was purchased by a group of real estate Merlin Properties, and after renamed to Glòries Torre in honor of the name of the nearby square, Glories Catalanes (Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes).
According to Jean Nouvel, Torre Agbar is intended to symbolize the shape of a geyser rising into the air. When creating the project, the architect was inspired by Montserrat, a mountain near Barcelona.
As a result of its unusual shape, the building is known by several nicknames, such as el supositori ("suppository") l obús and several, including the "big cucumber".
The design of the tower of Glory combines a number of different architectural concepts. The base of the tower is built of reinforced concrete, covering the facade of glass, and over 4,500 window openings cut from structural concrete.
The defining and most attractive feature of the building's Glories is its night lighting. The skyscraper has 4,500 led devices that allow you to generate luminous images on the façade of the building.
The lighting system due to the complex hardware and software system that can reproduce 16 million colors, and create independent transitions colors without any delay, which creates a very striking effect.
In addition, on the outer side of the tower of Glories installed temperature sensors that regulate the opening and closing of the window blinds of the facade, reducing energy consumption for air conditioning.
After completion of construction, the Agbar tower quickly became an architectural icon of Barcelona and one of the most famous buildings. Although, admittedly, initially, the object was not alien to criticism from citizens and experts who assumed that the construction of such buildings is unlikely to fit into the architecture of Barcelona. But, over time, all used, and now the tower Glories is a vital attribute of the Catalan capital, thereby, together with other buildings of the city, making such a diverse and impressive ensemble.
In mid-2008, various Catalan public institutions made a list that included objects and everything that, in their opinion, considered the major cultural signs of the Autonomous community and was intended for use as models for tourist Souvenirs identity of Catalonia. This list, along with others, entered the Torre Agbar tower.
The popularity of the tower among tourists was so high that a visit to the skyscraper was included in the routes of the tour buses (and even a tour of the helicopter), which carry visitors to the city at the Turistico-representative places of Barcelona.
So, the history of the popularity of the tower Glories, from rejection, and bewilderment, until the surge in popularity once again confirms the tendency of individuals to denial of everything new, strange and bold - on the one hand, and the gradual addictive, up to the rapture that still "yesterday" didn't fit in with the perception of the world on the other.
