In summer of 2005, Grimshaw was commissioned to design the Museo del Acero in and around Horno Alto 3, a decommissioned Blast Furnace from the late 60s. It marks a return for Grimshaw to the industrial city of Monterrey, in north-eastern Mexico.
An earlier commission in 1997 first introduced the firm to Monterrey’s steelmaking heritage and ist hulking Fundidora blast furnaces, which punctuate the skyline above an old steelworks on the site of what is now a popular and verdant park. This Parque Fundidora is a National Industrial Archeological Heritage Site and receives more than two million visitors per year. The design converts the 70-metre-high furnace structure into a series of habitable spaces and adds approximately 96,000 square feet of new axhibition, offices, workshops, educational spaces as well as an archive.
