Mexico City was no exception to the post-war design boom and explosion of modern architecture that swept cities all over the world. Far from the low profiles and butterfly roofs that dominate spaces across the United States, however, the structures that rise in CDMX during the mid-century period were big. They were bold. And – a tribute to the region’s vibrant culture, food, and flora – they were colorful. Here, we examine inside six icons that disrupted design in its heyday, and that left a legacy for today’s architecture enthusiasts.
Camino Real Polanco Hotel
Emblem of the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Camino Real in the upscale Polanco neighborhood offers museum-quality art and furnishings.
Architect Ricardo Legorreta had just spent three years in his own practice – and recovering from a long illness – when he got a life-changing commission to design Camino Real Polanco ahead of the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. It was a tight schedule, with only a year and a half left.
But with the good fortune of a vast plot of land near the city center, Legorreta seized the opportunity. While other companies may have designed vertically, Legorreta has created an expansive five-story building with an inviting and textured residential feel in a central courtyard, private patios, gardens, and rooftop terraces.
“When you come out sick, you realize life is short, and you have to take advantage of it,” says his son, Victor Legorreta, Partner, Managing Director and Design at Legorreta. “He thought, ‘Now is the opportunity to do something unique and more courageous – an opportunity to take more risks. For him, the personal challenge was to be able to do something unique.'”
“My dad was coming out of that really rational approach from the international movement, and he knew [Luis] “Baragan at the time, blended functional and romantic aspects,” said Victor Legorreta, son of Ricardo Legorreta, who designed the Camino Real Hotel. It is one of the characteristics of the hotel: architecture that uses emotion and courtyards. This exclusivity – it’s the first time you see this element in homes now in such a large place. “
Flooded colorful walls meet rough plaster walls, which is common in Mexican architecture, the effect is most evident in the hot pink screen and yellow wall that protects the grandiose fountain in the parking lot. It is a poetic cross between modernity and nature, and a sure influence of his friend Luis Barragán. “Architecture is relevant to place, relevant to culture,” Victor says.
Camino Real Polanco represents the zeitgeist in time and space, modernity at its peak, collaborative and creative artists, and the Summer Olympics, which gave permission to push boundaries. “In the ’60s with the Olympics, there was a boom in Mexico, and now I’m very optimistic that we’re looking back at an interesting time period,” Victor says. His company is remodeling the hotel, with modern lighting and restaurant terraces, an omnipresent focus across architecture as a result of COVID-19. But for the restoration, the company will remain true to its roots, respecting the revival of his late father’s original work. As Victor says, “The intervention of Legorreta will be by Legorreta.”
satellite towers
Built in 1957, Luis Barragán and Mathias Goeritz, the charming Torres de Satelite, announced the Ciudad Satélite Gate, which was envisioned as a commuter community when Mexico City’s population was booming.
He’s the father of “emotional architecture,” a Pritzker Prize laureate, architect and engineer with a business so extensive and pivotal to the growth of modern architecture in Mexico City that he has become a household name. And while Luis Barragán may be better known for projects like the Cuadra San Cristobal, Torres de Satelite, or satellite towers—collaborated with sculptor Matías Goertz and painter Jesús “Chúcho” Reyes—redefining the skyline in 1957.
Conceived as a gateway to the neighboring Satélite community, Torres de Satélite, designed by architect and urban planner Mario Pani, was meant to be one of two statues (another on the northern edge still unbuilt) self-proclaiming from afar – and viewed by car. As you can see, the towers are located in a busy middle, in the middle of the highway. From miles away, you notice a dash of color from the trails. Interest turns to curiosity, then fascination, as the five isosceles pyramids seem to change shape and color as they approach.
When they were originally designed, they wore shades of white, yellow, and ocher. During the Summer Olympics, a monochromatic orange palette contrasts with the sky. Today, you’ll see blue, white, yellow, and red leaflets that change depending on the weather, the time of day, and where you’re standing.
“Barragan was more than an artist,” says Victor Legorreta. “He was coming back into the vernacular and using colors in a very romantic style in architecture. You see the sentiment.” And the more I looked, the more I discovered. Tower construction emphasizes the horizontal, a technique seen in many homes designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Vertical seams are smooth, broadening the horizon. Nearly 60 years later, the sculptures still ask the question: Is it the art or architecture of Torres de Satelite?
“Barragan was coming back into the vernacular and using colors in a very romantic style in architecture.”
—Victor Legoretta
Banobras Tower
Built in 1962 by Tori Banobras Architect Mario Bani as part of the Nonoalco Tlatelolco housing project, it is the second largest complex in North America. At the time, it was the second tallest building in the country.
It is an attempt to reduce the work of architect and urban planner Mario Pani to just one building. Torre Banobras, or the Insignia Tower, is just one skyscraper of more than 100 buildings comprising the Nonoalco Tlatelolco housing project in northern Mexico City. That’s right, apartment complex over 100 buildings—The second largest in North America after the New York City Co-operative.
Tlatelolco was a redevelopment project with the aim of introducing a new way of life. An independent city within the city will integrate diverse social and economic classes and will house schools, hospitals and grocery stores for nearly 70,000 residences. Each block would offer all the services one might need, and in Torre Banobras, this meant banking.
Completed in 1962, it served as the headquarters for the National Bank of Public Works and Services. Today 24 floors serve as office space. The triangular prism is made of reinforced concrete, glass and aluminum, and while the 1985 earthquake caused extensive damage to the apartment complex in general, Torre Banaubras endured – considered one of the safest tall buildings in the city. Fun fact: It’s home to the largest carrion in the Americas with 47 bells.
Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo House Study Museum
A view of Diego Rivera’s house studio at the Casa Studio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo Museum features an exact replica of a large spiral staircase of the adjacent main house.
While many visitors rightly flock to the famous Museo de la Casa Azul, or the Frida Kahlo Museum, the lesser-known Kahlo and Diego Rivera Museum is only 15 minutes away, which is an icon in itself.
Architect and painter Juan O’Gorman designed Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo aged just 26 in 1931, far ahead of his time. Here you’ll find the functional influence of Le Corbusier, but with undeniable modern Mexican aesthetics and an artistic flourish. Rich colors, the use of terracotta, spiral staircases, and a distinctive cactus fence compliment the three home studios. O’Gorman went on to design many modernist structures, including the famous Central Library at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico (UNAM), which we’d be remiss if we didn’t mention—and takes us to our next stop.
University City
The Alfonso Caso Auditorium inside Ciudad Universitaria was designed in 1954 and is widely recognized for its glass mosaic mural by José Chávez Morado. It is one of many examples of the intersection of art and architecture on campus. The fresco called “La Conquista de la Energía” or “The Conquest of Energy” depicts new cycles of human life and revives previous sciences and employment building.
It is not one building, but the entire campus that makes the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) a modern and must-see icon. A UNESCO World Heritage Site, UNAM has more than 2,000 buildings spread over 2,500 acres. And here on the main campus, Ciudad Universitaria, design has a massive presence.
Created by more than 60 designers and masters planned by Mario Pani and Enrique del Moral, the site promotes what are the most famous mid-century architects and artists. “The most important architects of Mexican Modernism participated in the Ciudad Universitaria,” says Dr. Juan Ignacio del Quito Ruiz Funes, Director of the School of Architecture at UNAM. Teams of three architects developed the executive projects, and he says, “This makes it choral – a teamwork with very clear guidelines laid out by Pani and del Moral, but with different expressions in each project. It also makes them very rich. It provides them with architectural wealth.”
Wherever you look, you’ll find entire facades made of steel-framed windows painted blue in one building and yellow in the other. Once again we see references from Le Corbusier where many structures have been raised on stilts, broadening horizons and creating a greater human scale and community.
“When we talk about Ciudad Universitaria, architects have been – for about 15 or 20 years – in the process of absorbing these ideas that came from Europe,” says del Quito. “It is a very Mexican expression of the principles of modern architecture and modernism.”
Artists such as Diego Rivera, David Alvaro Siqueiros, José Chávez Morado, and Francisco Ebínz have produced some of the most important murals at Ciudad Universitaria. Totaling over 100, the artworks capture time, place, and date. Del Quito says, “Pre-Hispanic buildings, architecture, painting, and even sculpture were incorporated, so the idea was to bring back these principles.”
Los Manantales Restaurant
Felix Candela, Los Manantiales Restaurant, Xochimilco, Mexico City, 1958
Xochimilco is known by locals and tourists alike for its lovable floating gardens, which they enjoy while relaxing in a colorful area. Tragenera, or a wooden boat, along with mariachis. However, at this UNESCO World Heritage site, you will discover an astonishing juxtaposition – a parabola, of all things, amid fertile pre-Hispanic riverbeds.
Designed by Joaquín Álvarez Ordóñez and engineered by exiled Spanish architect Félix Candela in 1958, Los Manantiales Restaurant touts eight petals of concrete with torn edges two inches thick. Dr. Juan Ignacio del Quito had the opportunity to interview Candela when he was 92 years old. “He told me he had a lot of skepticism about what to study,” Del Quito says. “A friend of his father persuaded him to study architecture. He said he had difficulty drawing—he had no good hand at it—but he was very good at structural calculus, and what he loved most were the reinforced concrete shells made in Europe during the interwar period.”
When Candela arrived from Spain, he was only 29 years old. A decade later, he designed his first demo cover, “and from that moment on, he got famous,” says Del Quito.
While the finished restaurant is structurally sound, it is now in the midst of restoration – with the help of Alvarez and del Quito. For now, it’s best to enjoy it along the canal with a cold beer.
Related reading: The untold stories behind the legendary homes of Luis Barragán