The Hour of Mexico: State-Sponsored Modern Architecture in Mexico City, 1925-1934

Between 1925 and 1934 five of twentieth-century Mexico's most important architects designed the modern buildings and urban parks which helped define Mexican modernism and reshape Mexico City in the wake of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1917). The Ministry of Health (Carlos Obregon Santacilia, 1925-29), the Tuberculosis Sanatorium at Huipulco (Jose Villagran Garcia, 1929-36), the Hipodromo neighborhood with the Parque Mexico at its center (Jose Luis Cuevas, Leonardo Noriega, 1923-27), the Venustiano Carranza Social and Sports Center for Workers (Juan Segura, 1929), and the Central School of the Revolution (Antonio Munoz Garcia, 1933-34) show the distinctive development of Mexican modern architecture and urban planning. Built for the government, or with considerable governmental oversight, these buildings reflected new policies and beliefs about race, public health, and civic participation and their architects' complex engagements with national architectural traditions, International Style modernism, classicism, and Art Deco. Modern architecture in Mexico City in the twenties and thirties was characterized by its variety and by its architects' fundamentally flexible approach to form and meaning. By incorporating and transforming modern idioms from abroad these buildings promoted the development and image of a citizenry that was both physically and politically healthy. In their ambition to shape the individual and collective modern Mexican body in opposition to long-standing beliefs about racial fitness, modern architects and their clients re-examined national history and architecture. Modern painting, sculpture, and photography also played important roles in defining the new buildings. Considering the buildings in the context of the vibrant artistic and intellectual culture of 1920s and 1930s Mexico City, and with respect to the political and social transformations of the period, as well as diverse currents of international architectural modernism, deepens scholarly understanding of modern Mexico and contributes to the growing body of research which shows the reach and diversity of modern architecture around the world.