Insignia Tower (Torre Insignia)

Insignia Tower was constructed in 1962 to guard the offices of the Banco del Gobierno Mexicano Banobras (National Bank of Public Works). The longitude is of 127 meters and has 25 floors. After the 1985 earthquake, it was abandoned until 2008, when the building has acquired by the american real estate company Cushman & Wakefield, which transformed the tower in the Corporativo Tlatelolco. It was remodeled in 2011. 

The architecture. Mario Pani designed the tower as the headquarters of Banobras, the national public-works bank, and it was completed in 1962 as part of the vast Nonoalco-Tlatelolco housing scheme he also planned. Its triangular, tapering plan is what makes it recognisable from across the north of the city, and it was engineered for the valley's soft subsoil — it came through the 1985 earthquake without structural damage, even though it then stood empty for years. In 2008 it was bought and refurbished as Corporativo Tlatelolco, and it has been leased as office space since 2011.

The carillon. At the top sits a carillon given to Mexico City by the Belgian government: 47 bronze bells weighing some 26 tonnes, long billed as the tallest carillon installation of its kind. The bells are rarely rung nowadays, usually around dusk, so hearing them is a matter of luck.

Visiting. The building is private offices, so there is no public access or viewing deck — this is one to see from the outside. Pair it with what surrounds it: the Plaza de las Tres Culturas with the Tlatelolco archaeological site and the colonial church, the Tlatelolco University Cultural Centre, and the Memorial of 1968.

Getting there. It stands on Avenida Insurgentes Norte, in the Nonoalco-Tlatelolco complex. The closest stop is Metrobús Manuel González on Line 1, right on Insurgentes; the Tlatelolco and Buenavista metro stations are a slightly longer walk, with Buenavista also serving the suburban train.