This is my last week as an intern at Tatiana Bilbao's office in Mexico City. In about two weeks, I'll be on a plane heading north. I have a lot of mixed feelings about leaving the office. On the downside, like many high-desirability offices, there is the expectation to work longer hours for a... View full entry

Monday was a national holiday to celebrate Independence, so instead of going into work, I donned my giant fiesta sombrero and trucked out to Reforma for the big military parade. I joined huge crowds along the parade route, and grabbed a spot on top of the ecobici (shared public bikes) rack so I... View full entry

After one of Archinect's senior editors kindly put my "one day tour of mexico city architecture" into a map form, it dawned on me that maybe I should make a map of all of the interesting contemporary and modern architecture I've seen here in Mexico City. Mapmaker, mapmaker, make me a map.... I've... View full entry

After writing about one day of modernism in Mexico City, I decided to take this weekend to catch up on the places I'd recommended sight unseen (at least, in person). Here are three projects, one unexpected, which all made reference to time- temporary cities on ancient, new buildings enveloping... View full entry

A reader requested a one day itinerary to visit the highlights of "innovative contemporary architecture" in Mexico City, and it made me think about what I've seen here (and about what I've missed). I'm probably omitting buildings, either because I don't know them, or because I'm trying to... View full entry

In early 2013, Gaeta-Springall Arquitectos completed a Memorial to Victims of Violence in Mexico. Many people understood the memorial as particularly memorializing the victims of the drug war in Mexico, of which somewhere around 60,000 people have been killed since 2006. As such, it remains... View full entry

Thirty years ago, the area known as Santa Fé was a massive landfill at the edge of Mexico City. When the dump reached capacity (around the same time NAFTA was creating wealth and attracing international businesses), the powers that be decided to transform the dump into the glittering new... View full entry

I got up early this morning and quietly slipped out to head down to Coyoacan, recommended by one my friends as one of his favorite neighborhoods. The metro drops you off a good ways off from Coyoacan, on the opposite side of a huge park, the Viveros de Coyoacan. You can’t actually access it... View full entry

Chapultapec is the sprawling city park at the end of Paseo de la Reforma. It’s at least a mile long and contains some major institutions such as the National Auditorium, the presidential houses, and the massive museum of Anthropology as well as the Mexico City Zoo and some lakes... View full entry

Note: Combis, or more accurately, Kombis, refer to small panel microbuses originally made by Volkswagen but have come to refer to a wide variety of makers microbuses. I've traveled in combis in Peru and China, and they seem to satisfy a major trasnportation niche in nearly every developing... View full entry

Today I decided to do a dry run on my own, to make sure I really knew how to get around the city. Catching the combi from the street was easy, it took me straight to the metro station. Actually, it bounced us around, sped, and slammed on brakes while blasting techno music and I thought, you know... View full entry

Slow start today. I slept well, being exhausted from the stress and the long day of travel. Woke up around 8, and did some research and work, trying to identify all the things I need to do. Making lists is calming. Around noon, Alejandro and I made fried eggs with salsa, and that was our late... View full entry

From the air, you get a feel for the massive sprawl of the city. On the ground, you are overwhelmed by the density and complexity. Mexico city is full of people, it’s kind of dirty, but tropical, warm. Lots of concrete everywhere. The city is built in so many layers, the buildings meld and... View full entry