Born in Mexico City on May 7th, 1931
Dies in Mexico City on December the 30th, 2011.

1948 – 1955
Draftsman and Project Manager with Jose Villagran Garcia.

1955 – 1960
Partnership with Jose Villagran Garcia. 

1961 – 1965
Free-lance activities.

1965 - 2011
Founder partner of Legorreta Arquitectos, now LEGORRETA^®.

He completed his professional studies at the National School of Architecture of UNAM, where he graduated in 1952.
 
His professional work began in 1948 in the office of the architect José Villagrán, where he collaborated as a draftsman to eventually become Project Manager and in 1955 as Partner. From 1961 to 1963 he dedicated himself to free professional activity and in 1964 he founded Legorreta Arquitectos together with Noé Castro and Carlos Vargas Senior.
 
Ricardo Legorreta excelled at interpreting the architectural style of buildings of Mexican origin: vibrant colors, geometric shapes, fountains, light-filled spaces and intimate patios with hallmarks of his style.
 
He had a career spanning over fifty years and designed over 100 projects ranging from museums and hotels to office buildings and factories, university campuses, urban spaces, as well as private residences in Mexico and abroad.
 
His work includes influences from the colonial period of Mexico and the Islamic world -the patios-. It was also influenced by the monumental architecture of Louis Kahn.
 
One of his first buildings - the Hotel Camino Real in Mexico City (1968) - was one of his favorites because he said it helped him discover his Mexican roots. He had been very ill and during his recovery he created a building that is now one of his most famous works.
 
Legorreta continued his work with the design of the Montalbán House in Los Angeles (1985), the Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey (1991), the Metropolitan Cathedral in Managua (1993), Pershing Square in Los Angeles (1993), the Centras Library of San Antonio Texas (1995), the Technological Museum of Innovation in San José California (1998), the Center for Visual Arts of Santa Fe University, New Mexico (1999), the Juárez Complex in Mexico City (2003-2005 ), the Carnegie Mellon University of Business and Computer Science in Qatar (2011), and many other public and private urban buildings and spaces.
 
Legorreta was an artist and designer in tune with the environment and never forgot to design buildings for the people who use them.
 
In 1999 he received the Gold Medal from the International Union of Architects (UIA) and in 2000, he became the first Latin American to receive the prodigious Gold Medal from the American Institute of Architects (AIA), for being an architect whose work it has had a lasting influence on the history and practice of architecture. He is the only Mexican who has received the prestigious Praemium Imperiale awarded by the Japan Art Association (2011).