are actually too many reasons to visit Mexico City—too much
to do, to see, to eat, to love. For starters, its cuisine is legendary,
and it keeps getting better. When The New York Times released
its annual “52 Places to Go” list in 2016, it was quite likely the
combination of ambitious new restaurants and sublime street
food that propelled Mexico City’s ranking to first place. And a
new global boom in mezcal—tequila’s smoky sister—makes the
city’s crop of moody mezcalerias ripe for discovery.
If it’s history you’re after, there are nearly seven centuries
of glory and intrigue literally piled on top of one other on this
magnificent platform of a city (it rises a mile and a half above
the sea, yet it’s continually sinking), from the establishment of
the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan atop Lake Texcoco to the doomed
19th-century reign of Austria’s Archduke Maximilian and his
glamorous wife, Carlota, at Chapultepec Castle.
Perhaps you fancy some of the best souvenir shopping on
the planet? The region’s exuberant folk arts—from tin, silver
and textiles to colorful Huichol yarn and beadwork—are
highly collectible and functional. Speaking of the arts, Mexico
City boasts the world’s greatest number of museums (150),
a vast assemblage that comprises
Mesoamerican artifacts, decorative arts
and world-class masterpieces. And its
stature looms large in 20th-century art
history, when Frida Kahlo and Diego
Rivera held court from La Casa Azul in
Coyoacán, photographers like Edward
Weston and Tina Modotti honed their
modernist eyes in the leafy streets of the
Condesa neighborhood, and Salvador
Dalí famously said, “There is no way
I’m going back to Mexico. I can’t stand
to be in a country that is more surrealist
than my paintings.”
But perhaps the most thrilling sights
Mexico City has to offer are all around
you, in its buildings. They announce
themselves the minute you set off by
cab or Uber from the airport: intriguing
ideas lurking in seemingly insignificant
structures, try-anything shapes, truly
transcendent colors. The architecture is
just as multifaceted and outsized as any
other aspect of this massive metropolis,
and a new generation of “starchitects”
is ensuring it stays that way.
You’ll probably never get to the end
of your Mexico City bucket list—that’s
part of the city’s unrelenting allure. But
there are a few architectural marvels
that can visually orient you in the city’s
larger-than-life design lineage.
T
H
E
R
E
Clockwise from top:
Rojkind Arquitectos’
Cineteca Nacional; a
colorful mural in
colonia Cuauhtémoc;
fig tart at Contramar.
