JUAREZ COMPLEX: PLAZA DEL AGUA | PROJECTS | Legorreta Arquitectos
JUAREZ COMPLEX: PLAZA DEL AGUA

Category: Master Plans
Region: Mexico
Year: 2003
Location: MEXICO CITY, MEXICO
FT2 Construction: 32,292 sq ft
FT2 Ground: 296,007 sq ft
Involved Areas: Master Plan

Collaborators:
LEGORRETA®
Ricardo Legorreta,
Víctor Legorreta,
Noé Castro,
Miguel Almaraz,
Adriana Ciklik,
Carlos Vargas C.,
Víctor Figueroa,
Oscar Islas,
David Figueroa,
Andrés Lozano,
Jorge Vallarta,
Jaime Villalón,
Guillermo Mateos,
Armando Echávez,
Enrique Barrera,
Mariana Hernández,
Luis Oviedo,
Karina Vega
B&aa

Consultants:

ART: Vicente Rojo
CONTRACTOR: Grupo Farla
CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT: Ingeniería y Consultaría, S.A. DE C.V.
STRUCTURAL DESIGN: Izquierdo Ingenieros y Asociados, S.C.
PLUMBING DESIGN: Garza Maldonado y Asociados, S.C.
ELECTRICAL DESIGN: Cien Acres Diseño de Instalaciones, S.A de C.V.
LIGHTING DESIGN: Arquitectura de la Luz

Photographer:

c13 studio
Lourdes Legorreta
Luis Gordoa
José Ignacio González Manterola
Arturo García Campos
Paul Czitrom.- Cortesía CEMEX
Fideicomiso Centro Histórico y Secretaría de Turismo del D.F.


Juarez complex is located inside the historical center of Mexico City, in front of the Alameda Park. With a total area of 296,000 sqft, the complex is adjacent on the north side with Juarez Avenue, on the south side with Independencia street, on the east side with Dolores street, and on the west side with Luis Moya street. Juarez Complex has as a primary objective, to regenerate an important zone of the historical downtown of Mexico City that was severely damaged by the 1985 earthquake. The complex is formed by open spaces, passages and plazas. The new headquarters for the Foreign Affairs Secretariat and the Superior Court of Justice of the Federal District, as well as mixed use buildings and parking lots are part of the Juarez Complex. Because of its location, this complex is defined as a transition zone between the “Paseo de la Reforma” avenue with great scale buildings and the Historical Center of the City, with buildings of lower heights and spaces with more friendly scales for the pedestrians. In the architectonic planning we search to respond to this new context, reason why, we designed a 44 feet high basement made out of “Huixquilucan Pearl“ stone. The roofs of such basement are treated as gardens and terraces, to be used as expansion areas for the taller buildings. The height of the basement responds to the one of the Corpus Christi’s Temple which design, materials, and scale have a clear relation with the Historical Center. In coordination with the Historical District Organization, and with the INAH (National Institute of Anthropology and History), we restored the Corpus Christi’s temple in order to make it work as the main attraction with the rest of the complex. Of all these outdoor spaces, the main one is Plaza Juarez which surrounds the temple of Corpus Christi. This Plaza is the key generator of the rest of the complex, and the main pedestrian access to it. In the center of the plaza, we designed, together with the plastic artist Vicente Rojo, a great fountain that completes with the use of water, the integration to the vegetation in Alamedas park. The design of the fountain is a water mirror of 114 x 98 feet, with more than one thousand red concrete pyramids that in addition to the movement of water generated by a series of air injectors between each pyramid turns into a great fountain full of movement. Along the exterior spaces, besides Vicente Rojo’s fountain, is located the mural called “VELOCIDAD” (“speed”) from the muralist David Alfaro Siqueiros, among other pieces of art with the intention to recover the tradition of public popular art of our city.



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