Yesterday, July 12, a partial collapse occurred at Plaza Artz Pedregal, a high-end shopping mall in southern Mexico City. Designed by the prominent Mexican architecture firm Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos, the collapsed section appears to be an overlapping cantilevered volume, as seen in social media videos of the incident and renderings released in 2016. The cause of the collapse remains under investigation.
Construction on the project began in 2012, and the mall opened in March of this year. Mexico City Mayor José Ramón Amieva stated that mall management noticed the cantilevered portion separating from the main structure several hours before the incident. Consequently, an emergency evacuation of the mall and its surrounding area was completed just minutes before the collapse, resulting in no reported casualties. According to the local newspaper Milenio, the Secretary of Civil Protection for Mexico City confirmed that no one was trapped inside the building at the time of the collapse.
In a press release, architecture firm Sordo Madaleno Arquitectos stated: “We deeply regret the collapse at the Artz Pedregal mall and immediately contacted the Mexico City Civil Protection Secretary to coordinate response measures, including cordoning off the site to ensure public safety.” A spokesperson for Plaza Artz Pedregal also stated they are cooperating with authorities regarding traffic management and the investigation into the cause of the incident.
Last September, Mexico City was struck by a 7.1-magnitude earthquake, which caused numerous poorly constructed buildings to collapse. The region's challenging geological conditions and construction quality standards have drawn increasing scrutiny in recent years.
GIFs courtesy of Twitter users @SkyAlert and @Milenio.
This article was written by Mónica Arellano. The translation is powered by AI.
