Parque Central complex, Caracas

In 1969 the engineer Carlos Delfino introduced the Parque Central project to President Rafael Caldera, to urbanize a new district of Caracas.

In 1970 he began to construct 8 residential buildings : Tacagua, Caroata, Catuche, Tajamar, San Martin, El Tope, Mohedano and Anauco. Each of these huge building hosts 317 apartments, at an altitude of 120 meters and 44 floors. They were completed in 1972, while the twin towers were built at the same time, with malls and offices.

Each tower is 64 floors, rising 225 meters. The West tower was completed in 1979 and the East Tower was opened in 1983.

However, in April 2003, both towers were surpassed in height (by only 5m) by Mexico City’s Torre Mayor, and thus are no longer the tallest buildings in Latin America, but still they remain the tallest in South America.

On October 17, 2004, a fire broke out in the East tower. At least 10 floors were damaged in the incident. The fire started on the 34th floor and flames reached the 44th floor of the building. These floors housed key government offices. At the time an inquest was being held on the activities of these offices. It sustained critical damage as efforts were hampered due to poor water pressure and lack of fire fighting equipment. Military helicopters tried pouring water from above to quench the flames. It was also feared that the steel structure could be damaged severely enough to collapse.