Mexico City Architecture Guide

January 16, 2019

Mexico City Architecture Guide

Mexico City Architecture Guide
Miquel Adrià, Andrea Griborio, Alejandro Gálvez, Juan José Kochen
Arquine, August 2018

Publisher Description:

Mexico City Architecture Guide is a compilation of more than 150 works of architecture dating from the early 20th century up to the present day. To help orient readers, the guide is divided into five areas and includes seven maps to create a comprehensive panorama of the Mexican megalopolis. Each project includes details about the relevant architects, location and year of construction, as well as public transport information. The texts, photographs and maps created for this guide give fresh shape to the city.

Now available in an English-language edition for the first time, Mexico City Architecture Guide is an invaluable guide for international visitors as well as locals, displaying a strong commitment to Mexico’s capital and celebrating the city’s architectural culture.

dDAB Commentary:

Ideally a review of a guidebook would involve actually using it as it was intended: walking around the city with the book in hand. But since I won't be making a trip to Mexico City anytime soon, and have yet to visit the city, this review will make do from 2,000 miles away. Mexico City Architecture Guide, published one year after the same guide in Spanish, organizes its more than 150 works of architecture into 5 chapters corresponding to the five color-coded maps displayed on fold-out inside covers at the front and back of the book (first spread, below). Each clearly numbered project is given one page (important works, such as Casa Estudio Luis Barragan, are given two pages) with one photo, address, nearest public transit, telephone and opening hours (if applicable), and a short description. It's a straightforward guide that is organized intelligently as a guidebook.

A couple details indicate just how much better this book would be if I were in Mexico City rather than in my NYC apartment. First is the inclusion of nearby buildings in the descriptions of some of the entries. These are not other numbered buildings; rather they are buildings of note that could be seen or visited due to geographic immediacy. Unless I "visited" the city via Google Street View to see the exteriors of the numbered buildings, there's no way for me to take advantage of this sometimes-feature. Second are a few detailed maps within the chapters (Polanco, Condesa, and Ciudad Universitaria) that point out even more buildings, keyed to the maps through letters rather than numbers. These two details make the guidebook about much more than its 155 numbered entries — and a handy guide for whenever I make it down to Mexico City.

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