If You’re Interested in Architecture, This is Where I’d Take You in Mexico City

Following up on my post about how much time to spend in Mexico City, here is an itinerary I’d plan if you were visiting for a weekend and told me you’re interested in architecture. I’m assuming you have three full days to spend here for this itinerary, but there is enough flexibility you could absolutely omit some stops if you have less time!

Most of the buildings on this weekend were not built for the purpose they now serve. A lumberyard became a gallery. An abandoned office building became a hotel, a bar, and a shopping plaza. A restaurant sits inside what used to be something else entirely, with a mural of Pancho Villa watching you eat. This is a testament to Mexico City as a living city that continually changes and adapts to the current demand, building on top of older structures and using them for new ends.

Two places on this weekend are the exception: Casa Barragán and the UNAM campus were built once, for exactly the purpose they still serve today. Everything else here got a second life. Watching for that difference, stop to stop, is a big part of why I’d send you on this particular route.

You’ll also feel the scale shift as you go: a small, walled private house on Friday morning, a hotel and a pair of museums by the afternoon, an entire university built as its own self-contained city on Sunday, and back down to a single restaurant inside a converted building by Saturday night.

Before You Go

Book Casa Barragán as early as you possibly can. Tickets are guided-tour-only, released weekly, in very small groups, and the wait can stretch from weeks to months. Do this before anything else on this list if visiting is a priority for you.

Friday: San Miguel Chapultepec to Polanco

Start at Casa Barragán. If your timing doesn’t line up, or the scale of it isn’t your thing (it can feel a little like being a mouse in a maze, small and enclosed), the Camino Real Polanco is worth knowing about as an alternative. It wasn’t designed by Barragán. It was designed by his protégé, Ricardo Legorreta, who worked alongside him and carried his use of color, light, and water into a building at a much larger, more public scale. Resulting in a different feeling entirely, using the same underlying instinct.

After Casa Barragán, walk to Kurimanzutto, a few minutes away on Gobernador Rafael Rebollar. The gallery occupies a building from 1949 that was once a lumberyard and later an industrial bakery, converted by architect Alberto Kalach into one large, light-filled exhibition space, where the original wooden ceiling trusses are still intact. Admission is free. If you’re interested in visiting other galleries, LABOR, is right across the street from Casa Barragán.

From there, take a break at Vermút Deco. Open from 1pm on weekdays, this is a vermouth bar built into a curated shop of books, ceramics, and objects. Use it to take a break, have a snack, and browse before taking an Uber over to Polanco.

Your first stop in Polanco is the Camino Real, designed by Ricardo Legorreta as I mentioned above. You can walk in and wander through the lobby and public spaces, even if you don’t have a reservation or plan to eat in one of their restaurants. If you’re ready for a meal, Morimotois a good option. The interior is styled like the inside of a ship, and their menu is built around teppanyaki and inventive sushi rolls.

From there, you could take another Uber, or if you feel like stretching your legs and like walking you could walk to the Museo Soumaya and the Museo Jumex which sit across from each other in the area known as Nuevo Polanco. They’re worth visiting for the buildings alone as much as whatever’s on view inside. Soumaya’s curved, honeycombed exterior is not subtle about being contemporary. Jumex, right next to it, is quieter and more restrained, but remains thoroughly modern and minimalist in its design.

For dinner, I’d suggest one of the following options: Loma Linda, in Plaza Carso, sits inside an ultra-modern high-rise that mixes a mall, offices, and residences into one structure. Comedor Jacinta in Polanquito sits among quiet, early-20th-century streets that feel like a different city entirely. It’s one of my favorite places to take guests for Mexican food. Try the molcajete with goat cheese. Pick your poison. Either way, notice the architecture around you while you eat.

Saturday: Centro Histórico

If you’re not already getting breakfast elsewhere, my favorite spot in the city is Café Tacuba, in a colonial building worth seeing.

From there, walk to the Palacio de Correos, an ornate, eclectic building from the Porfiriato, when the idea of a modern Mexican capital meant looking distinctly European. Bellas Artes sits right across the street, a building that spans styles originally designed under Porfirio Díaz, and finished in Art Nouveau and Art Deco styles.

Across the street, go up the Torre Latinoamericana. It’s a mid-century engineering feat, the tallest building in Latin America when it was completed in 1956, and built to withstand this city’s earthquakes years before that kind of engineering was common. The observation deck runs somewhere between 220 and 290 pesos depending on which package you choose; confirm the current tier before you go.

When you descend from the Torre Latinoamericana, walk into the Alameda itself and take your time. On the far side, at Calle Dr. Mora, you’ll find Barrio Alameda: a striking Art Deco building from the late 1920s, built by a German doctor, left vacant for decades, and rehabbed in 2015 into a mix of shops, a mezcal bar, a rooftop terrace, and a small boutique B&B upstairs.

From here, the walk to dinner takes you past two sites that are worth noticing as you pass: the Monumento a la Revolución, an Art Deco mausoleum that dominates the skyline in this part of the city, and El Caballito, a 28-meter bright yellow steel horse’s head by the sculptor Sebastián. It’s also, quietly, a ventilation shaft for the drainage system underneath it, which is either the most or least romantic thing you’ll learn all weekend depending on your perspective.

End your day at Arango for lunch or dinner depending on your timing and appetite. Either way, it’s worth a long, unhurried meal. It’s inside an Art Deco building, with a mural of Pancho Villa, born Doroteo Arango, painted on the exterior wall, and a view directly onto the Monumento a la Revolución.

Sunday: UNAM

This is the one full day built around a place that was never repurposed. Ciudad Universitaria was built between 1943 and 1952, entirely for the purpose it still serves, and it’s been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007. It’s less a campus than a self-contained city, with murals worked directly into the architecture rather than added afterward.

Start at the cluster around the Rectoría and the Biblioteca Central. The library’s four exterior walls are covered in a Juan O’Gorman mosaic mural, often cited as the largest mural in the world, built from stone sourced from across the country. The Rectoría boasts murals by Siqueiros. Give yourself real time here if the muralists interest you.

MUAC, the university’s contemporary art museum, is a short Pumabús ride away, close enough to fold into the same morning without losing much time. If you have a genuine interest in botany or just want more time outdoors, the Jardín Botánico is also on campus, but it’s a separate hop and not walkable from the murals. Treat it as optional rather than assuming you’ll fit it in unless it is a priority for you.

Finish with a late lunch at Tetetlán, in the nearby Pedregal neighborhood. It’s designed by Alberto Kalach, the same architect behind Kurimanzutto. Instead of converting an old building here, he built the restaurant with a transparent floor over the actual lava rock and plants beneath it. The food is built around the comal, and it’s one of the better versions of Oaxacan cooking I’ve had in the city.

Have you visited any of these places? I’d love to hear about your experience.