Seven architectural firms - including Zaha Hadid Architects and Norman Foster - have been shortlisted by the government of Mexico for a competition to design a new structure for Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport.
According to Arch Daily, the firms will need to envision a 5,000 hectare structure that can accommodate 40 million passengers a year and 70 gates. The firms will have to work their way around a master plan provided by Arup Group.
All the firms are being led by Mexican Practices. The project will reportedly cost the government a whopping $5 billion and officials expect the construction to begin later this year, although completion could take another four or more years. Authorities want the airport to be functional by 2018 and plan on developing the structure in stages, reports Architects Journal.
Below is the list of the seven shortlisted firms:
1. Zaha Hadid
2. Norman Foster
3. Richard Rogers
4. SOM
5. Gensler
6. Pascall+Watson
7. Teodoro González de León with Taller de Arquitectura X
The Mexican government has been planning to build a new airport for more than two decades now. According to the Mex DF Magazine, officials have been toying with the idea since the 1960s. The magazine explains that over the years, the airport has more than served its time and has exceeded its threshold limit of catering to 30 million passengers on an annual basis.
Recently, after President Enrique Pena Nieto was elected president in 2012, he brought up the idea of an expansion in a meeting, asserting that a state-of the-art airport could give the economy a boost.
"The saturation we've had for several years in the Mexico City airport keeps us from having more tourism, more investment, more business in the capital. It's something that should be resolved as soon as possible," he said in the meeting, according to the transcripts of his remarks obtained by Bloomberg.
"The fact that the government is talking about projects of this size is good news, it means public investment is going to go up," Alonso Quintana, chief executive officer of Empresas ICA SAB (ICA*), Mexico's largest construction company, told the publication in a telephone interview.
