Francisco Mujica (January 29, 1899after 1929) was a Mexican architect. He developed a "neo-American" style of architecture.

Biography

Mujica was born on January 29, 1899, in Mexico. His father, Mujica y Savago, was a diplomat. He was educated in Mexico, Chile, Spain, Belgium, and Paris, studying architecture, archaeology, urbanism, and sociology. Mujica was a professor at the

National Autonomous University of Mexico The National Autonomous University of Mexico (, UNAM) is a public university, public research university in Mexico. It has several campuses in Mexico City, and many others in various locations across Mexico, as well as a presence in nine countri ...

and in Buenos Aires. He received a silver medal from the

Paris Salon The Salon (), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art event in the Western world. At the ...

. He investigated ruins in Mexico that dated to the

pre-Columbian era In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

and worked to create reconstructions showing what they likely looked like. Based upon these models, Mujica developed a "neo-American" style of architecture which received various awards from the Pan-American Congress of Architects. In 1919 Mujica proposed a skyscraper that would be thirty-four stories and based upon the Pyramid of Huatusco. In 1929 Mujica included his ideas in his introduction to ''History of the Skyscraper,'' which he self-published. The book was re-published in 1977 by

Da Capo Press Da Capo Press is an American publishing company with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. It is now an imprint of Hachette Books. History Founded in 1964 as a publisher of music books, as a division of Plenum Publishers, it had additional offi ...

. He also designed a "city of the future" with eighty story buildings and proposed it to the

New York City Planning Commission The Department of City Planning (DCP) is the department of the government of New York City responsible for setting the framework of city's physical and socioeconomic planning. The department is responsible for land use and environmental review, ...

. A commenter for ''

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'' described his proposals as "A little more practical than mere oil paint fantasies" and concluded that it was an "interesting idea, but apalling." His work has been cited as an influence on the

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

movement.

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Biography

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Further reading