Hotel Riu Plaza Guadalajara

Hotel Riu Plaza Guadalajara is a skyscraper and hotel located in the city of Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. At 204 m, it is the city and metropolitan area's tallest building and the twelfth highest in Mexico to date.

Construction began in March 2009, although there were no signs of the construction starting officially until September or October of the same year, and opened in June 2011. It has 42 habitable floors, holding 550 rooms, in addition to restaurants, meeting rooms and a 44th floor penthouse. On the roof is a heliport and maintenance rooms. A pinnacle rises above the top floor by adding 16 m to the building height.

Construction history
Its construction involved deep excavation, producing three basement floors and the foundation. Around the excavation was a retaining wall. This wall was made with steel and shotcrete. For its part the foundation account employed 113 piles of 0.6 to 2 m in diameter buried at a depth of between 10 and 15 m.

The area where this building stands is 8190.99 m2. The main materials were concrete, steel and glass. Its structure has columns and floor made from reinforced concrete and steel facade is formed of glass.

The Hotel is the second hotel in the chain built in a city, while others are beach resorts. The first of these was built in Panama.

Fire
On February 16, 2011, the hotel suffered two fires on floors 11 and 24, caused by an explosion in a LPG tank. Two workers were confirmed dead and 16 injured. Work on the hotel closed indefinitely, but wasn’t cancelled, as it was finished and opened months later. The fire did not damage the building's structure.