Estela de Luz — Mexico City’s Pillar of Light
© Diego Delso
To commemorate Mexico's bicentennial of independence from Spain, an open competition led to the creation of the Estela de Luz, a contemporary monument intended to signal the nation’s forward gaze as much as its past.
The winning design, created by architect César Pérez Becerril, consists of 1,700 panels of translucent quartz mounted on a structure rising 104 metres. Often referred to as the “Pillar of Light,” the tower is less a solid mass than a luminous surface.
César Pérez, in collaboration with Austrian engineer Robert Müller, developed a specially engineered material that disperses light evenly across each panel, creating a vertical column that changes with the time of day — opaque in full sun, radiant after dusk. And it’s not easy to capture in a photograph.
Situated adjacent to the main entrance of Chapultepec Park, one of the most notable features of the Estela de Luz is its remarkable capacity to alter perception; at times appearing to be of normal size, and at other times seeming to reach a height of 1,000 meters, even visible from kilometres away.
Situated beside the main entrance to Chapultepec Park, the monument’s most striking feature is its ability to alter perception. From certain angles, it appears slender and contained; from others, it seems to extend far beyond its thousand metres in height, visible across the city skyline.
Long live Mexico!
Paseo de la Reforma 509, Ciudad de México, CDMX, 06500, México
