ES-513019 Cuatro Torres Business Area in Madrid, Spain

Cuatro Torres Business Area (CTBA), Spanish for "Four Towers Business Area", is a business district located in the Paseo de la Castellana in Madrid, Spain, on the former Ciudad Deportiva of Real Madrid. The area contains the tallest skyscrapers in Spain, and some of the highest in the European Union: the Torre Espacio, Torre de Cristal, Torre PwC and Torre Cepsa. Construction of the buildings finished in 2008. The complex was formerly known as Madrid Arena.

Torre de Cristal
Designed by Cesar Pelli and built by Dragados, Torre de Cristal (Spanish for Crystal Tower), with a height of 249 meters, is the tallest building in the country. In April 2007, its structure surpassed the height of Torre Espacio. Its highest point is intended to house a garden.

Torre Cepsa
Designed by Norman Foster and built by a joint venture of Dragados and Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, the 45-storey Torre Cepsa (Spanish for Cepsa Tower), with a height of 248 m, is the second tallest building in the area, surpassed by Torre de Cristal by 1 metre.  It was first known as Torre Repsol and was to have served as headquarters for the oil and gas company Repsol YPF. During the construction of the tower, Repsol decided to change the location of its future headquarters, and the financial institution Caja Madrid (currently Bankia) purchased the building for €815 million in August 2007. In 2015 it was loaned to Cepsa for its main headquarters and hence the tower was renamed again as Torre Cepsa.

Torre PwC
Designed by Carlos Rubio Carvajal and Enrique Álvarez-Sala Walter and built by Sacyr Sau, the 52-storey skyscraper, formerly known as Torre Sacyr Vallehermoso, is 236 meters (774 feet) tall. It is the only one of the four to be designed by Spanish architects. Torre PwC houses the five-star hotel Eurostars Madrid Tower, which occupies 60% of the tower, with rooms between floors 6 and 27 and at its upper part, a two-storey dining room offering a panoramic view of the city. It is the only tower with double skin facade and it is covered entirely of glass in the form of flakes. On the upper deck there are 3 wind turbines capable of producing wind energy for use in the building. A production of 25 kWh is estimated.

Torre Espacio
Designed by Henry N. Cobb and built by Obrascón Huarte Lain, the 57-storey Torre Espacio (Spanish for Space Tower) is 224.5 metres (737 feet) tall. In November 2006, its height surpassed that of the Gran Hotel Bali, thus making it the tallest building in Spain, although it retained that title only for a short time. The structure was topped out on March 19, 2007.

This postcard came from Lanire (Postcrossing, 18 June 2018)