Roberto Ortiz
The creditor of the Pritzker Prize in 1995 accepted the challenge of creating a space for young entrepreneurs whose passion is the visual arts, in honor of Roberto Garza Sada, Mexican entrepreneur and philanthropist, great promoter and enthusiast of art, education and culture.
Tadao Ando was reluctant, but seeing the images of the majesty that surrounds the University of Monterrey, refusing ceased to be an option: the mountain landscape seduced him and wanted to be part of him. During his first visit to the site where the project would be carried out, in March 2007, he got angry when the extreme climate of the city made it impossible to see the promised mountains, so he raised a project too complex with the hope that he was rejected. But, to his surprise, all his proposals were accepted and subsequently completed successfully. Ando decided to baptize the structure as «The Gates of Creation», a particularly appropriate name to the purpose of the building: encourage young people to create ideas and projects with reference to visual art.
The building consists of 13 thousand 115 square meters of construction, measures 99 meters long by 27 wide and has six double height levels that connect only to the third floor. The first two levels are not at any time, since the building consists of two independent bodies (East and Poniente) that serve as the basis for the extensive bridge of the third level. The construction of the property, which required 800 tons of steel and 1,300 cubic meters of concrete, took place in a period of 34 months and used two thousand 800 workers. One of the aspects that characterize this monument to freedom and the imagination is the series of folds that simulate a folded piece that is known as «La Vela», which resembles a Japanese fan and emulates the mountains that surround the landscape. The structure has two “candles”: the largest measures 77 meters, the height of the point where both are 17 meters and each of the folds has a different size and shape, so they not only had to do by hand but, instead of the personnel used originally, Ebanistas were hired, who had to leave their comfort zone to learn to work with concrete.
After contemplating masterpieces of this size, it is clear that Tadao's best decision was to hang the gloves in his boxer career, to open doors to creativity and dedicate himself to realizing the most eccentric dreams.
See gallery: the freedom of being