Estela de Luz

The Estela de Luz stands as a slender, hundred-four-meter pillar of quartz panels in the heart of Mexico City. Built for the two hundredth anniversary of independence in twenty-ten, the project ran sixteen months late and tripled its original budget. When the tower finally opened, the public nicknamed it the Suavicrema, because it resembled a popular brand of cream-filled wafer cookie. Engineers struggled with the complex assembly of seventeen hundred slabs, and investigators later found massive irregularities in the construction contracts.