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Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo House-Studio

Address: Diego Rivera 2, San Ángel Inn, Álvaro Obregón, 01060 Ciudad de México

Architect:  Juan O'Gorman  

Year built: 1931-1932

Historical / Architectural Relevance: Along with Casa Juan O'Gorman, the house is one of the  first examples of functionalist architecture  adapted to the Mexican landscape and cultural context.

The site consists of two separate structures connected by a bridge at the roof level. The building on the east side was Frida Kahlo’s dwelling and atelier. The building on the west side was designed for Diego Rivera.

Frida Kahlo lived in house between 1934 and 1940, when she returned to her childhood home. In this house, Kahlo painted many of their famous artwork, including  Lo que el agua me dio (What the Water Gave Me)  and  El difuntito Dimas (The Deceased Dimas) .

In his studio, Diego Rivera worked on about 3,000 easel paintings. His house, where he lived until his death in 1957, stores pre colonial art and Mexican art crafts.

Current Use: House Museum.

Other resources:

 Take a 3D Tour of the museum with Google Earth 

 Diego and Frida: A Smile at Halfway  - Google Arts & Culture

 In Painters' Poetic Homes, the Soul of a Nation Emerged  - New York Times

Presidente Alemán Urban Center

Address: Félix Cuevas s/n, Tlacoquemecatl del Valle, Benito Juárez, 03100 Ciudad de México

Architect:  Mario Pani 

Year Built: 1947 - 1949

Historical / Architectural Relevance: With 1,081 apartment units, the Presidente Aleman Urban Center (Spanish: Centro Urbano Presidente Aleman, abbreviated as CUPA) was the first high-density, low-cost, multi-family housing development in Mexico City and the first of its type in Latin America.

The design of the housing complex was an adaptation of Le Corbusier's "towers in the park." The site includes six three-storey and six thirteen-storey residential buildings, gardens, a swimming pool, primary schools, childcare facilities, and commercial spaces. The built area only occupies 20% of the total land.

The success of this housing development lies in the high quality of the interior layouts for each apartment unit, and the sense of community that has been build among the residents and remains until today.

Other resources:

[Video]  Centro Urbano Presidente Alemán  - Institute of Social Research UNAM

 El primer Multifamiliar Moderno  (The first modern muti-family housing building) - Google Arts & Culture

Luis Barragán House and Studio

Address: Gral. Francisco Ramírez 12, Ampliación Daniel Garza, Miguel Hidalgo, 11840 Ciudad de México

Architect:  Luis Barragán 

Year built: 1948

Historical / Architectural Relevance: A  UNESCO World's Heritage site , the house and studio "represent a masterpiece of the new developments in the Modern Movement, integrating traditional, philosophical and artistic currents into a new synthesis."

Current Use: House Museum

Other resources:

 Casa Barragan  - ArchDaily

 Casa Luis Barragán: Floor Plans  - Luis Barragan Foundation

 Luis Barragán’s Forgotten Works, Revisited  - The New York Times Style Magazine

Max Cetto House

Address: Agua 130, Jardines del Pedregal, Álvaro Obregón, 01900 Ciudad de México

Architect:  Max Cetto 

Year Built: 1949

Historical / Architectural Relevance: The house is located in El Pedregal, a neighborhood developed in the mid-1940s on an area formed by lava fields resulting from the eruption of the Xitle volcano around 5,000 BC.

The Max Cetto house was the  first house built in El Pedregal  . The house not only combines concepts of the international modern movement with the emerging Mexican modernism, but also the architect's particular approach. Cetto integrated elements of the surrounded landscape in his work, such as topography, local materials, and vegetation, in addition to mere aesthetics and functional aspects.

Current Use: House Museum

Other resources:

 Casa-Estudio Max Cetto  - An iconic house on the lava fields in Mexico City

Central University City Campus of UNAM 

Address: Av. Insurgentes Sur 3000, C.U., Coyoacán, 04510 Ciudad de México

Architects: More than 60 architects, engineers, and artists were involved in the creation of the campus master plan.

Year Built: 1949 - 1952

Historical / Architectural Relevance: The National Autonomous University of Mexico (Spanish: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, abbreviated as UNAM) is the oldest in North America and the largest university in Latin America. Its origin traces back to the sixteenth century, when viceroy Antonio de Mendoza founded the Royal and Pontifical University in 1551. For about four centuries, the university campus was located in today's Mexico City Historic Center. It was until 1929, when the the university achieved its administrative autonomy, that plans to create a new campus began.

Architecture students Teodoro González de León, Armando Franco, and Enrique Molinar envisioned the master plan for the new university campus in 1946. Architects Mario Pani and Enrique del Moral, well-known architects of the time, developed the final project and led its execution. Artists Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Juan O'Gorman, Jose Chavez Morado, and Francisco Eppens contributed with  ten, large-scale murals. 

In 2007 the campus was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. According to UNESCO, the site "bears testimony to the modernization of post-revolutionary Mexico in the framework of universal ideals and values related to access to education, improvement of quality of life, integral intellectual and physical education and integration between urbanism, architecture and fine arts."

In 2019, the 1,811-acre university campus received more than 116 thousand undergraduate and graduate students. The same year, the campus had a daily influx of more than 300 thousand people, including students, faculty, administrative and maintenance workers, and general public.

Other resources:

 UNESCO Site Nomination  (includes master plan maps, building's plans, campus images, and detailed history of the site)

 Architectural photoshoot  by Yueqi Jazzy Li

 Video tour  around campus and famous murals by Diego Rivera and Juan O'Gorman

UNAM University City  Premium High Res Photos  - Getty Images

Latin American Tower

Address: Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas 2, Centro Histórico, Cuauhtémoc, 06000 Ciudad de México

Architectural design:  Augusto H. Alvarez 

Engineering:  Leonardo Zeevaert ,  Nathan M. Newmark  (consultant)

Year Built: 1956

Historical / Architectural Relevance: The 44-storey building was the tallest skyscraper in Mexico City since its construction until 1982. Designed with characteristics of the International Style, the Latin American Tower is both an architectural and engineering landmark. The structure has been recognized as the world's first major skyscraper successfully built on highly active seismic land.

Current Use: Commercial / Office space / Observation deck

Other resources:

Latin American Tower:  Facts and Statistics 

Video:  Visiting Torre Latinoamericana  

Latin American Tower  Premium High Res Photos  - Getty Images

Satellite City Towers

Location: Ciudad Satélite, 53100 Naucalpan de Juárez, México (Mexico City suburbs)

Design: Luis Barragán and  Mathias Goeritz 

Year Built: 1958

Historical / Architectural Relevance: In 1957, architect Mario Pani created a master plan for Ciudad Satélite (Satellite City), a middle-class residential development that echoes American car-oriented, suburban housing developments of the 1940s and 1950s.

Mario Pani invited Luis Barragán to design an urban landmark for the entrance of Ciudad Satélite, which was conceived as a symbol of the country's prosperity and the resulting shift from rural to a modern life.

Barragán invites artist Mathias Goeritz to collaborate with him in this task. The result was a group of five reinforced concrete prisms, the tallest measuring 170 feet and the shortest 98 feet. The towers were placed in a long, narrow, oval-shaped platform in the middle of a highway. Goeritz intention was to give an illusion of motion when drivers approach the towers. The optical effect of the towers when viewed by moving observers is one of the essential features of this urban piece.

With the Satellite City Towers, Barragan and Goeritz combined architecture and sculpture, and introduced the concept of Emotional  Architecture  at an urban scale. The towers became not only a symbol of modernity, but also set the precedent for the development of Kinetic Art in Mexico, an important art movement in the 1960s and 1970s.

Other resources:

 Between art and architecture : Torres de Satélite, 1958 - Domus Magazine

National Museum of  Anthropology

Address: Av. Paseo de la Reforma s/n, Polanco, Bosque de Chapultepec I Seccion, Miguel Hidalgo, 11560 Ciudad de México

Architect:  Pedro Ramírez Vázquez , Jorge Campuzano, and Rafael Mijares Alcérreca

Year Built: 1964

Historical / Architectural Relevance: The National Museum of Anthropology is the largest and one of the most visited museums in Mexico, as it contains the most important archeological and ethnographic collections of the country.

The building synthesizes pre-Columbian aesthetics with European modernist elements. Considered a masterpiece of architect Ramirez Vazquez, the museum is a symbol of modern Mexican identity.

The main architectural feature of the museum is "el paraguas"(the umbrella), which consists of a large, rectangular concrete slab supported by a single slender column that partially covers the central courtyard of the building.

Other resources:

 Virtual Field Trip:  National Anthropology Museum

Camino Real Hotel

Address:  Calz. Gral. Mariano Escobedo No. 700, Anzures, Miguel Hidalgo, 11590 Ciudad de México

Architect:  Ricardo Legorreta 

Artwork includes:  Fountain of Eternal Movement  by Isamu Noguchi;  sculptural wall  by Mathias Goeritz,  El hombre frente al infinito  by Rufino Tamayo

Year Built: 1968

Historical / Architectural Relevance: The Camino Real Hotel is one of the first Legorreta's works that reflects the influence of both Barragan's Emotional Architecture and Mexican vernacular architecture with a contemporary interpretation.

Current use: Hotel

Other resources:

 Project Description  - Architect Magazine

 Camino Real Polanco , Mexico City

 A Mexico City Hotel  for True Fans of Midcentury Modernism - Wall Street Journal

Notes for a curatorial proposal regarding the  Camino Real Hotel  - Archivo Design

Palmas 555

Address: Av. Paseo de las Palmas 555, Lomas de Chapultepec, Miguel Hidalgo, 11000 Ciudad de México

Architect: Juan Sordo Madaleno

Year Built: 1975

Historical / Architectural Relevance: The building is an example of a "counter-trend" in the context of the Mexican modern architecture and of Sordo Madaleno's own career. Mexican architecture scholar Alberto González Pozo points out that the building “demonstrates that abandoning­ orthogonal order is not a prerequisite for achieving provocative forms.” 

Current use: Commercial / Offices

Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Address: Fray Juan de Zumárraga No. 2, Villa Gustavo A. Madero, Gustavo A. Madero, 07050 Ciudad de México

Architect:  Pedro Ramírez Vázquez , in collaboration with José Luis Benlluire, Alejandro Schoenhofer, Gabriel Chávez de la Mora y Javier García Lascuráin

Year Built: 1976

Historical / Architectural Relevance: The Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is considered one of the most important and most visited Catholic sites in the world. For about two centuries, a former basilica built between 1695 and 1709 housed the image of the Virgin of Guadalupe. However, by the mid twentieth century the building was not in optimal structural conditions and it lacked the appropriate size to receive the increasing number of pilgrims each year. A new building was necessary.

The modern basilica was built next to the former sacred site. With a circular plan, the basilica spans 330 feet in diameter and has capacity for up to 10,000 visitors. The architectural relevance of this building lies in the sophistication of its engineering and the boldness of its form. Up until the twentieth century religious buildings in Mexico followed baroque or neoclassical layout and aesthetics. With the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Ramirez Vazquez and his team challenge old architectural paradigms and offers a contemporary solution according to the technological innovations and functional needs of the time.

Other resources:

Our Lady Of Guadalupe Mexico  Premium High Res Photos  - Getty Images

 Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe  - Video with exterior and interior images, as well as images of the old basilica.

 Every year millions of miracle-seeking pilgrims visit Mexico City  - National Geographic