YDB
(Mobil Oil Company, today Colegio Universitario de Caracas). In 1959, Mobil Oil Company, controlled by David Rockefeller, produced 4.2% of Venezuelan oil. As part of its expansion policy, the company decided to commission its headquarters to this American architect with design experience in Venezuela, to ensure its participation in the country’s oil business. Although this building is not in the development scheme of the oil districts, Hatch, following the tendency of free-standing buildings as legible icons, developed the single building, aesthetically related to the NCR building, on a lot with a broad front for parking and gardens on Avenida Francisco de Miranda, facing the former seat of the Embassy of the United States of America (1958), also designed by Hatch. The eight-story structure has a reticulated façade on rectangular openings on different planes, with horizontal openings and sun protection elements, with a higher vertical circulation core. The building shows concern for efficiency and precise handling of construction details. Currently converted for educational uses, it underwent important alterations in which original finishes and elements were eliminated, as well as the turquoise blue color that characterized it for decades. Together with the American embassy building, the Mobil building helped to give the La Floresta urban development, located south of Avenida Francisco de Miranda, a presence in the sector with two major corporate buildings, and thus building a clear relationship between modernity and urban scale.
IGV