Vallejo's

EPM

from the Architectual Record

"Architect Giancarlo Mazzanti’s Biblioteca España [record, November 2008, page 138], completed in 2007, is one of the 10 «park-libraries» built as part of the social plan for the city’s most neglected sections."

"In 1999, they [EPM] commissioned the first important urban project in Medellín’s financial center: Parque de los Pies Descalzos, or Barefoot Park, by architect Felipe Uribe de Bedout."

"In 2004, Uribe’s EPM Library and Parque de la Luz, by architect Juan Manuel Peláez, rose side by side in the financial district." "Bedecked with 300 concrete-and-steel masts, which have an average height of 72 feet and are equipped with LEDs, the park changes in mood and appearance throughout the day and the year, according to the position of the sun and the shadows cast. Because of financial constraints, however, the masts are not regularly illuminated, as originally envisioned."

"According to national statistics, in 1991 the number of homicides in Medellín was 381 for every 100,000 inhabitants. By 2005 that number had dropped to 34. The role of strategic city planning and dynamic architecture in this dramatic change is undeniable."

^by Jimena Martignoni is based in Buenos Aires and writes on Latin American architecture and landscape design.