El Helicoide

El Helicoide is a building in Caracas, Venezuela, located in Roca Tarpeya between the parishes of San Pedro and San Agustín, in the extension of the avenues Armed Forces, President Medina Angarita and Nueva Granada. It has the shape of a three-sided pyramid and is built on a hill. It serves as a facility and prison belonging to the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service (SEBIN).

Concept
Its construction was undertaken by a private company during the government of then president Marcos Pérez Jiménez in 1956. The first stage of work was completed in 1961. It was designed by the architects Pedro Neuberger, Dirk Bornhorst and Jorge Romero Gutiérrez. The idea included a commercial center and exhibition of industries, a 5-star hotel, a park, a club of owners and on the seventh level a show palace. The building would include a 4 km long ramp spiralling around the hill, allowing vehicles to enter the building and park inside of it.

Construction of the building came to a halt in 1961 due to budget problems. That same year the project was exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City until in 1965 attempts were made to resume its construction and to complete it in 1967, including an area for helicopter taxis, but it was not continued either. By 1982, only the geodesic dome with its aluminum as top finish of the concrete infrastructure was completed.

Intelligence facility
From 1984, very slowly and without responding to a global project, some state agencies were installed in the building, the most important of which was the Directorate of Intelligence and Prevention Services (DISIP). For this reason, the leadership was seriously affected by a bombing in the 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempts and an anti-aircraft response from it. The dome was later repaired following the events in 1992. Since 2010, a part of the building serves as the headquarters of the National Experimental University of Security (UNES).

On 16 May 2018, a, with several political prisoners arrested during the protests facing danger as Venezuelan authorities fired tear gas and buckshot at individuals in the area.

Dimensions

 * Total area: 101,940 m²
 * Built area: 77,748 m²
 * Commercial premises: 46,715 m²
 * Roads and green areas: 29,192 m²
 * Exhibition and industry area: 8.445 m²