2024-05-03T07:52:23-04:00 https://archinect.com/news/article/150010268/improbable-transformations-of-a-venezuelan-architectural-icon-as-reported-by-citylab Anastasia Tokmakova 2017-06-02T20:53:00-04:00 >2018-01-30T06:16:04-05:00 <img src="https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/74/747p5e8ilflsxk88.jpg?fit=crop&auto=compress%2Cformat&enlarge=true&w=1200" border="0" /><em><p>Sometimes called a tropical Babel, the one-time symbol of the country&rsquo;s progress wound up converted into a prison and, according to some of its former inmates, a torture center for political prisoners.</p></em><br /><br /><p>The Helicoide's design was initiated in mid-fifties, the times of Venezuela's economic prosperity. Grandiose, ambitious and strange, the project proposed a first drive-through mall with over 300 stores, a car showroom, gas station, car wash and even a repair shop. However, the building's destiny, was much more complex and chaotic than originally planned. Its long transformation from the intended techno-utopia to a functioning prison is regarded by many as a cruel irony symbolic of the country's's dramatically unstable political climate.&nbsp;</p>