Iberdrola Tower 3.38

The Iberdrola Tower is an office skyscraper in Bilbao, Spain. Its construction started on 19 March 2009 and was officially inaugurated by King Juan Carlos I on 21 February 2012. The tower has a height of 165 metres tall and has 40 floors. The first eight floors of the tower were to hold a hotel by the Spanish hotel chain ABBA, but the project was eventually cancelled. The hotel will be replaced by an auditorium with the capacity of 200 people. The remaining floors have an office usage. The tower, built as Iberdrola's headquarters, is the tallest building in the Basque Country and the city of Bilbao.The tower was built in Abandoibarra, a former industrial area located next to the Nervión river that began to be renewed in the early 1990s and where other emblematic projects such as the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and the Euskalduna Conference Centre and Concert Hall have been built. There are two residential buildings designed by Carles Ferrater flanking the skyscraper. The entrance to the tower is located at the Euskadi Plaza.History of the buildingDesign and the Abandoibarra masterplanIn 1992 a public society, Bilbao Ria 2000, was created for the urban regeneration of the metropolitan Bilbao. The goal of that public company was to regenerate areas affected by the industrial crisis of the 1970s and converting former under used industrial lots into housing blocks, office buildings, green areas and other buildings of different usages.