Santiago's Gran Torre skyscraper viewed with foreboding
70-storey monster dwarfs rest of Chile's capital, and could worsen traffic jams
The skyline of Chile's capital has been altered over the past year by a skyscraper - the tallest in South America and one so towering it casts a shadow nearly two kilometres long.
The 70-storey Gran Torre Costanera Centre overwhelms the view of a city founded in 1541 by Spanish conquistadors and which remains proud of its colonial-era buildings.
Workers completed the top floor of the nearly US$1 billion structure in February, and in March tenants are expected to start moving in.
The 300-metre tall Gran Torre is shorter than New York's Empire State Building (443 metres) and less than half the size of the world's tallest building, Dubai's Burj Khalifa (828 metres). But it is taller than even some of the Andean hills surrounding Santiago.
A shopping mall has risen next door and other skyscrapers - two hotels and an office building - are going up nearby.
The Gran Torre was built to withstand earthquakes - Chile, located on the Pacific Ring of Fire, is especially prone to powerful quakes. The building came through with flying colours in February 2010, surviving the 8.8-magnitude quake that devastated much of south-central Chile with no structural damage.
