Hidden Gems of Modern Mexico City Architecture & Design

If you’re an architecture enthusiast in Mexico City, world class design spanning every era surrounds you. By exploring the metropolis, you can discover everything from Aztec engineering marvels to cutting-edge skyscrapers, colonial convents to stunning examples of 20th Century Mexican Modernism. While I love it all, the latter is my absolute favorite. The 1900s brought remarkable change to Mexico City’s built landscape.

This was the era of homegrown modernist architects like Luis Barragán, Teodoro González de León, a nd Mario Pani. They were accompanied by multitalented jacks-of-all-trades like Juan O’Gorman, Diego Rivera, and Vicente Rojo. Together, these revolutionary artists transformed Mexico City architecture into something uniquely chilango. They combined Prehispanic motifs and geometry with sleek modernist lines and materials. The result is a thrilling Mexican vernacular architecture that continues to fascinate me.

You may already be familiar with some of this Mexico City architecture. The Casa Luis Barragán, the Monumento de la Revolución, and the Ciudad Universitaria (University City) are all famed examples that no one should miss! But once you’ve checked these well-known marvels off the list, I strongly encourage you to discover the other sites below. I’m mostly focusing on lesser-known spots from these incredible architects and artists, giving you the chance to experience the rich variety of Mexico City modernism without the crowds. Keep in mind that I’ve honed in on 20th Century Modernism here, not 21st Century contemporary architecture! (I’ll save that for a future post.)

Casa Gilardi & Casa Prieto López

If you’re a modern architecture buff, your first stop in Mexico City is probably the Casa Luis Barragán. This UNESCO World Heritage Site served as the home of Barragán, Mexico’s most famous architect, for decades. An emblem of Mexican minimalism and a strong influence on architects even today, it’s beloved for good reason! But after you’ve visited the Casa Barragán, don’t forget to check out the architect’s other spectacular designs around Mexico City.

Casa Gilardi

The Casa Gilardi, just a few blocks away from Barragán’s own house, is a privately-owned home hidden on a quiet street in San Miguel Chapultepec. But the slice of bright pink on its exterior hints at the groundbreaking architecture within. Casa Gilardi exemplifies everything we associate with Barragán today: contrasting, brilliant yellows, pinks, and blues, clean lines, an innate understanding of natural light, and seamless integration of the interior and exterior patio.

Casa Prieto López

Head (much) further south in the city and you’ll arrive at the rocky Pedregal. Luis Barragán and colleague Max Cetto were the first architects to envision the Pedregal as a habitable urban space. Previously, chilangos saw this wilderness of undulating cooled lava as untamable. An area of tarantulas and snakes, it was fit for painters’ eyes and photographers’ lenses, but not for modern homes. Barragán and Cetto saw the Pedregal as an untouched canvas to enact their vision of a uniquely Mexican, wholly organic community where modernist homes would perfectly blend into to the wild landscape. After Cetto built his own home there (see below), Barragán moved forward with a daring development plan. This started with the Casa Pedregal, officially known as the Casa Prieto López.

While still exemplifying Barragán’s signature style, the Casa Prieto López’s greatest strength is the Pedregal itself. Rough curves and valleys of black volcanic rock surround the home, forming the singular garden and appearing in surprising ways within the structure itself. The contrast between dark, porous stone and highly saturated pops of color is spectacular.

How to Visit Casa Gilardi and Casa Prieto López

Both these homes are privately owned, but open for small group tours on certain days if you reserve in advance. Write to the Casa Gilardi owners on their Facebook page here or at casagilardi@gmail.com. The Casa Gilardi has an entrance fee of $300 pesos and charges an additional $500 pesos for a photography pass. You can walk there if you’re in the Roma/Condesa area. Take an Uber/Didi from anywhere, or of course, take my beloved Metro. It’s close to the Juanacatlán (Línea 1) and Constituyentes (Línea 7) stops. It’s well worth the trip to see this unique Mexico City architecture.

As for Prieto López, the current owner has done wonders to restore the house and garden to their former glory. Write them at visitas@casapedregal.com to make a reservation. It costs $800 pesos for foreigners, $500 pesos for Mexicans, $450 pesos for foreign students, or $275 pesos for Mexican students. If you aren’t yet ready to fork out the cash, one part of the property has been converted into Tetetlán, a stunning restaurant focused on local and organic ingredients. It’s a little pricey as well, but has great food and is worth it for the floor alone. (Think: clear floors exposing the volcanic rock below.) You can take an Uber/Didi there fairly quickly (20-30 mins) from central areas of the city.

Casa Orgánica

When architect Javier Senosian finally announced that his famed Casa Orgánica would open to the public as a museum last December, I signed up for a tour immediately. But before I could go, Covid-19 cases rose drastically and the city slid back in the dreaded Semáforo Rojo lockdown. All museums, galleries, restaurants, and so on closed from one moment to the next, including the Casa Orgánica. As of June 2021, however, the house is back open for very small group private tours.

After my long wait, I was finally able to visit the Casa Orgánica recently. What I discovered was absolutely thrilling. Senosian, who studied under clean-lined functionalists at the UNAM, took his designs in the complete opposite direction as he developed his architectural practice. A strong believer in the power of natural, curved forms and textures, Senosian has become the foremost creator of organic architecture in Mexico. 1985’s Casa Orgánica, where he lived with his family for several decades, is a stunning example. The house eschews straight lines and angles. It literally embraces you in a labyrinthine, womb-like space of poured “ferro-concrete” bends and curves. (The uterus is actually a big inspiration for Senosian, who believes it’s the first space we ever experience.)

The Tour Today

The Casa Orgánica tour, led by Senosian’s knowledgable students, is a spectacular sensory journey from the outset. You must remove your shoes at the door, padding through the luxuriously carpeted house in your socks. Winding, arterial hallways lead into spacious rooms with thoughtful built-in furniture, from serpentine cabinets to curved, inviting beds. The house is just as Senosian left it before moving, filled with his art, clothing, and even books. It’s full of fascinating details, including a sculptural painted eye that stares straight at the Torres de Satélite, an architectural site designed by Barragán and Senosian’s teacher, Mathías Goeritz. The exterior of the house is just as jaw-dropping. Most of the Casa Orgánica is covered by curves of grass and climbing bougainvillea blooms. A shark-shaped addition emerges from the sod. Whether you’re a design student or a mere photo-snapping Mexico City architecture fan like me, visiting the house is incredible.

How to Visit the Casa Orgánica

Learn more about the house, Javier Senosian, and scheduling a visit at https://www.casaorganica.org/visitas. Bring cash for your ticket. (And maybe some extra efectivo to buy one of the excellent books about Senosian’s architecture on site.) You can take Uber/Didi to Naucalpan to reach the house in about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on traffic.

Museo Anahuacalli

When a family friend visited years ago, I told him about some of Diego Rivera’s most unique projects: the mosaic-ed sculpture Fuente de Tlaloc, his lesser-known portraiture, and of course, the Museo Anahuacalli. “No no no,” he mansplained to me, “You must be mistaken…Rivera was a muralist, not an architect!” Fortunately for us all, I was definitely not mistaken. Rivera’s sprawling career crossed disciplines and borders. It showed him to be a multifaceted Renaissance man who dabbled in everything from writing to fireplace-building.

But Rivera best expressed his vision on a monumental scale. The Anahuacalli Museum in far-south Mexico City is perhaps the greatest example of his brilliant creativity. (Other than his murals, of course.) Rivera’s great life passion — other than women — was collecting Mesoamerican artifacts. In fact, he amassed over 50,000 spectacular pieces over the years: a collection fit for a museum! So fit for a museum, in fact, that Rivera built one himself. He selected this lava-covered slice of the southern Pedregal for his temple to ancient Mexicanidad, combining Prehispanic influences with clean modernism for a truly one-of-a-kind building. The Anahuacalli Museum rises like a black lava fortress from the soil, half gothic and half mexica.

The Museum Itself

The museum’s leadership describes it as “inspired by pre-Hispanic architecture, the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, and functionalist aesthetics.” If you think that sounds like a bewildering mix, it is. Yet the jack-of-all-trades artist makes it work, creating a uniquely Riverian modernist pyramid. It’s genuinely one of a kind within Mexico City architecture. The interior holds about 2,000 fascinating treasures over three stories, spanning every region and culture of Mexico. Each display case is a work of art, particularly the breathtaking “altar” on the ground floor. Finally, the outside and inside of the Museo Anahuacalli are studded with stone mosaics and motifs, which line the walls, floor, and even ceiling.

How to Visit the Museo Anahuacalli

You can easily take an Uber/Didi to and from the museum. It’s also accessible via public transportation: take the Metro to Tasqueña, then hop on the Tren Ligero or a combi to get the rest of the way there. (It is a wee bit complicated this way.) The museum is currently open with limited capacity, and you must buy tickets in advance here.

Casa Estudio Diego Rivera & Casa Juan O’Gorman

Now let’s move on to a drastically different set of buildings, also associated with Diego Rivera himself. When Rivera and Frida Kahlo first married, they asked their friend Juan O’Gorman to design a house for them. The result was their functionalist yet whimsical Studio-House, independent homes connected by a thin bridge. While that’s the simple story we’re told in films like Frida, the reality of these groundbreaking designs begins much earlier.

Casa O’Gorman

Just a few meters from Diego and Frida’s one-time home sits a humble red house in a similar style. In the late 1920s, O’Gorman built the house for his father Cecil, though Juan ended up living and working in it himself. A painter, muralist, and architect, Juan greatly admired the ideas of modernists like Le Corbusier. He seized this 1929 opportunity to build something drastically different from any other Mexican home. The result was the first functionalist structure in the country. Today known as the Casa Juan O’Gorman, the two-level concrete home features a simple yet elegant curved staircase and broad paneled windows. It was revolutionary in its simplicity and experimental form. O’Gorman’s neighbors in San Ángel, however, didn’t appreciate its beauty at first. Like the Eiffel Tower and plenty of other buildings before it, many hated the Casa O’Gorman. Traditionalists preferred the area’s classic, colonial homes.

Casa Estudio Diego Rivera

It’s only over the course of the 20th Century that we learned to appreciate this little house and its outsized significance in Mexico’s architectural history. Kahlo and Rivera, however, adored their friend’s avant garde spirit. Only a few years after he moved in, they commissioned their house right next door in 1931. It really functions as an extension of O’Gorman’s original aesthetic on a larger scale, adding elements of white and blue to the red-hued concrete, as well as a striking green “fence” of cacti.

Kahlo herself only lived here for few years before returning to her childhood home — today’s famous Casa Azul — but Diego continued painting and partially living here for decades. Inside the larger structure, Diego’s art studio is the inarguable star of the show, highlighting his eclectic work and folk art collection. Note the double-height paneled windows. O’Gorman designed these so that Rivera could transport the gargantuan pieces of his murals/mural studies out with a crane.

How to Visit the Casa Estudio Diego Rivera and Casa Juan O’Gorman

In a fairly quiet, colonial part of southern Mexico City, these houses stand in stark contrast to the historic San Ángel Inn across the street. If you’re using public transportation, I recommend taking the Metrobus down to the La Bombilla stop. Then, you can stroll through a few lovely blocks of the cobblestoned, colonial neighborhood on your way to modernity. The houses are open Tuesday-Sunday, 10-5:30 PM. If you have a little extra cash, pop into the San Ángel Inn for a delicious breakfast.

Museums of Chapultepec Forest

Nestled among the lush greenery of Mexico City’s famed Bosque de Chapultepec — the lungs of the city, sprawling twice the size of NYC’s Central Park — lie three stunning examples of Mexican Modernism. This area is home to several of the city’s best museums: the Anthropology Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Tamayo Contemporary Art Museum.

Anthropology Museum

The Anthropology Museum is hardly a hidden gem. Still, it merits a mention not only for its jaw-dropping contents — astounding artifacts from Aztec and Mayan cultures, Gulf Coast and Teotihuacán, Tula and Monte Albán — but for its unique Mexico City architecture. In the 1960s, architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez drew inspiration from the Precolumbian past and cutting-edge modernity for this hymn to clean lines and monumental volumes. The most striking feature is the long stone courtyard, centered by a towering column carved with stone reliefs by the Chávez Morado brothers.

Tamayo Museum

Right next door, I may not be a huge fan of the ultra-contemporary art within. That said, the architecture of the Tamayo Museum is striking in its own right. Designed by one of my favorite architects, Teodoro González de León, along with Abraham Zabludovsky, the angular, concrete building accentuates its natural surroundings, providing an eye-catching contrast without alienating the landscape.

Modern Art Museum

Finally, there’s the Museo de Arte Moderno (MAM), one of my favorite Mexico City museums. This stunner holds both permanent collections and rotating exhibitions highlighting the best of Mexican modern art. Sitting a stone’s throw away across Reforma Avenue, the MAM doesn’t grab your attention from the outside. Along with many museums of the 1950s and 1960s in Mexico, this was an emblem of an emergent, modernizing country. The original design by Pedro Ramírez Vázquez (who also designed the Anthropology Museum) was never fully realized, but what they did create remains lovely. Divided into two structures, enjoy both buildings’ warm, surreal domes, which seem to glow from within like mother-of-pearl washed up on the coastal sand. In between the two buildings, a wonderful and varied sculpture garden lies among the trees.

How to Visit the Chapultepec Forest Museums

Due to their central location along Reforma Avenue, these paragons of Mexico City architecture are very accessible. You can easily reach all three via Metro (Line 7, Auditorio stop and stroll down to the museums) or the Auditorio stop of the Reforma Metrobus. Or make a fun day trip of it and enjoy a Sunday bike ride down Reforma (when it’s closed to cars), popping in to whichever museum suits your fancy. Oh, and they’re all free that day! The MAM and Tamayo are open Tuesday-Sunday, 11 AM to 5 PM. The Anthropology Museum is currently open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 AM to 5 PM (somewhat odd pandemic hours).

Espacio Escultórico of the UNAM

Once upon a time, the territory which the National University (University Nacional Autónoma de México) calls home was a singular wilderness: the Pedregal. After the volcano Xitle erupted 11,000 years ago, it left rolling coils of cooled, cracking lava across the landscape, creating a wholly unique ecosystem. While sadly, development has impacted much of this ecology, several forward-thinkers — most famously Luis Barragán, of course — recognized the untamed beauty of the Pedregal. Within the UNAM campus, sculptor Federico Silva completed his masterpiece, the Espacio Escultórico (Sculptural Space), in 1979.

The space consists of a giant circle of wild volcanic rock. The circle is surrounded by a wide path and looming, angled stone monoliths. Six huge modern sculptures lie scattered around, rising dramatically from the rugged landscape. Many consider this the largest outdoor sculptural installation in the world.

How to Visit the Espacio Escultórico

The space lies within the Centro Cultural Universitario (CCU). The CCU is easily reached via the Metrobus down Insurgentes Sur Avenue, to the stop of the same name. Unfortunately it’s only open from Monday through Friday, 7 AM to 4 PM, but access is free. It appears that the Espacio is still closed due to Covid, but I hope this changes soon! While you’re there, take a look at the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), a fairly recently-built, cutting-edge museum designed by Teodoro González de León. It’s currently open Friday-Sunday, 11 AM to 5 PM.

Museo del Chopo

When I first stumbled upon the Museo del Chopo on a walk through the Santa María la Ribera neighborhood, I had no idea what I was looking at — even more, I was completely unaware of this building’s bizarre, century-long history. Still, the odd structure, lined by two skeletal towers, entranced me. Rising like a steampunk factory on the edge of a traditional neighborhood, the museum is both out of place and perfectly fitting. After all, el Chopo represents the beginning of Mexico’s modernist era in many ways.

The story of this mysterious building stretches back, improbably, to Queen Victoria’s Great Exposition in London, and the Crystal Palace built to house its marvels. This sparked a craze for world and regional fairs, along with gothic-industrial buildings in a style known as Jugendstil, often combined with elements of art nouveau. In 1902, architect Bruno Möhring designed a particularly interesting structure for a fair in Dusseldorf — and that’s where the story gets weird. A Mexican exposition company took notice of the Dusseldorf building. Eventually, they shipped it piece-by-piece to Mexico, where it arrived to the capital via the old Buenavista Train Station, and was painstakingly rebuilt here. Since those bold days, el Chopo has served as a Japanese Pavilion, a natural history museum, an abandoned ruin. Today, it’s a gorgeously restored UNAM museum dedicated to avant garde art and performance, with a special focus on LGBTQ+ cultural expression.

How to Visit the Museo del Chopo

You can access the area around the museum easily via the Buenavista Metro or Metrobus stations. This is the site of the old train station, though sadly no longer home to passenger trains destined for all of Mexico. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, the museum itself remains closed. You can check the current status of its opening here, but for the time being, it’s nice to walk around the neighborhood and enjoy the building’s oddball exterior. In the 70s, el Chopo began hosting a punk/rock music tianguis, or weekly Saturday market. This eventually spread to the surrounding streets, and it’s still thriving today, with music, clothing, and much more. El Chopo has brought together the best of European and Mexico City architecture.

Casa Estudio Max Cetto

Before Luis Barragán, before Diego Rivera, in the Pedregal lived Max Cetto. This German Jewish architect fled the Nazis in 1938, later bringing his creative talents and collaborative design vision to Mexico City. A few years later, he became a Mexican citizen and moved to the untamed Pedregal of cooled lava, endemic plants, and crystal-clear views of the volcanoes to the southeast. (A rare occurrence in smoggy CDMX these days, sigh.) Cetto made himself right at home there, building the first ever modern house in the area.

The house combines elements of Mexican functionalism with richly realized artisanal details. The structure itself is lovely and interesting, but immeasurably enhanced by the natural environment. The gardens integrate seamlessly with the volcanic rock and greenery. The outside is brought in even more with floor length windows. Nearing the end of this article, can you tell that I love the Pedregal and volcanic stone (tezontle)?

How to Visit the Casa Estudio Max Cetto

This house is no longer in the midst of the wilderness, but it’s still kind of tricky to reach via public transportation. I recommend taking an Uber/Didi there. Email contacto@casaestudiomaxcetto.com to schedule a visit.

Mario Pani’s Historic Multifamiliares (Midcentury Government High-rises)

To wrap up this rambling story, it’s important to remember that not all Important Mexico City Architecture with a capital A is built for wealthy patrons or elite artists residing in private homes — or for that matter, in the luxury apartments springing up around the city. In fact, some of the most significant architectural movements around Latin America have developed by or for the people. My favorite examples of this mass architecture are the multifamiliares dotted around Mexico City. The populist-oriented government constructed these “multifamily” complexes years before high-rise public housing came to the U.S. Often, these buildings have thrived even as their counterparts across the border fell apart.

Centro Urbano Presidente Alemán (CUPA)

The CUPA, or multi, as many neighbors know it, kicked off decades of urban growth in Mexico City. In stark contrast to the low, crowded vecindades most chilangos once lived in, this 15-building complex would bring modernity. It all started with legendary Mexican architect Mario Pani, designer of the famed University City. He obsessed over French visionary Le Corbusier’s ideas for “vertical cities” and habitational units. These grand functionalist designs, both men believed, could bring a greater quality of life to city dwellers. At the same time, they’d allow governments to house great quantities of people in tall buildings.

In the late 1940s, Pani convinced the Mexican government to finance his first project, and the CUPA burst into existence as the first multifamiliar building in Latin America. To hear Pani tell it, the CUPA may actually be a world’s first. Le Corbusier himself didn’t finish his (much more famous, hmph) Unité d’Habitation de Marseille until a year later, in 1949, and even then on a much smaller scale, as the French government was deeply skeptical of the architect’s radical ideas. These days, the CUPA may be a bit worse for wear after over 70 years of life, but it remains a vibrant, collective community that’s very close to my heart. Its gray-and-red exterior —endless repetitions of windowpanes and open hallways, hanging laundry and rich greenery spilling from built-in concrete boxes — forms a mesmerizing pattern that combines the best of Mexican functionalism and brutalism.

Tlatelolco

Perhaps no structures hold a more complex, love-hate place in the Mexican zeitgeist than Tlatelolco. Designed by Mario Pani in 1960, this complex executed Pani’s vision on a stunning scale. It originally contained 102 buildings, with 11,916 apartments holding around 70,000 inhabitants. In fact, Tlatelolco remains the second largest apartment complex in North America. Its jaw-dropping scale and sleek, livable design represented the pinnacle of Pani’s funcionalist vision.

Yet that’s only the beginning of Tlatelolco’s story. In 1968, the Mexican government perpetrated the infamous Tlatelolco massacre on unarmed student protesters here. Snipers and police used the buildings to murder students in the plaza below, and hunt survivors. Tlatelolco became a symbol for the dark side of Mexican modernity, embodying both its promise and the ruthless consequences enacted by a government desperate to present modern, “civilized” perfection in the lead-up to the 1968 Olympics. Then, Tlatelolco was hit by yet another tragedy during the 1985 Earthquake. Built near the highly unstable center of the city, one of the high-rises collapsed entirely. Several others were damaged or not well-maintained over the years. Ninety buildings survive to this day, but sadly Pani’s vision of a city within the megacity has not survived fully intact.

How to Visit Mario Pani’s Multifamiliares

Unlike many of the buildings on this list, these are not museums or private residences open for tours. Instead, the CUPA and Tlatelolco are still home to thousands of residents from all walks of life. Many neighbors are friendly and fiercely proud of their home, but that doesn’t mean all are comfortable with tourist groups wandering around and snapping tons of photos. Both areas are open to the public, but I would ask that you be respectful and thoughtful while visiting these historic, integral parts of the fabric of Mexico City architecture.

You can reach Tlatelolco via the Metro Stop of the same name. There are also some slower buses that come here, but they get very crowded and I haven’t felt especially comfortable on them as a woman. The CUPA should be easily accessible with the 20 de Noviembre Metro Stop, but Line 12 is completely down. It’s been replaced by frequent, fairly speedy buses along Felix Cuevas avenue. (Or just walk 15 minutes from the Zapata or Felix Cuevas Metro/Metrobus stops.) As in any busier part of the city, be cautious and don’t carry around tons of valuables, of course. These complexes were truly designed as “cities within the city” complete with their own schools, green spaces, libraries, laundromats, stores, restaurants and much more. While you explore, support these local businesses with a purchase or two. Many of them are owned by or employ residents.