The spectacular Agbar Tower, the new landmark building of Barcelona

by Victor Grigore, Webphoto.ro

In a city of architecture like Barcelona, is tough job to steal the show, but the Agbar Tower manages to turn all heads. It is the most impressive building you will see when landing with a plane or when approaching with a cruise ship and is visible from a lot of places in the town, thanks to the large boulevards that don’t block the view.

The building is 144 meters high, made of concrete and steel, covered with glass that makes a real show during the night, with its red and blue lights. The tower is 38 stores high, allowing some 30.000 offices to be hosted here. Most of them belong to the water company Agbar. It currently dominates the skyline of Barcelona, a city with a passion for architecture, which turned modernity into its own style. Is hard to compete as a symbol with Sagrada Familia, a cathedral under construction for centuries or with other landmark buildings of Gaudi and his successors, but the glass tower shaped like a torpedo or a bullet made its spectacular entrance in Barcelona’s landscape. The shape brought it some mocking nicknames like the suppository or hints to its phallic shape.

But tourists flock to take pictures of the tower, especially after evening, when the lights of the 4.500 windows with just as many led displays give a performance. Surprisingly, this is not the tallest building in Barcelona, being surpassed by two blocks situated near the beach, but the more conventional shape of those helps Agbar steal the show.