VERTICALITY:

Abstract

Anthropological critiques of urban segregation tend to maintain a horizontal frame. Walls and gates keep undesirable people over there as opposed to here. Insightful as this approach has been, this article pairs everyday perspectives with the built form to assess the politics of vertical segregation in Guatemala City. With more than one hundred office towers and condominium complexes constructed in the last decade, Guatemala City presents a vivid and visually stunning example of how the rich lift themselves above the rest. This article argues that vertical segregation is yet one more strategy employed by elites to abandon public space. Guatemala City sprouted a skyline in little less than a decade. Although the city was low level for centuries, kept at one or two storeys by earthquakes, a recent surge in foreign investment has prompted the construction of more than one hundred new office towers and condominium complexes over the last ten years. Each is over ten storeys. Each is exclusive. Given that most capital cities across the Americas went vertical in the early twentieth century, Guatemala City’s newfound height presents an opportunity to consider the ‘verticality’ of urban segregation.