Ricardo Legorreta Vilchis (May 7, 1931 – December 30, 2011) was a Mexican architect. He was a prolific designer of private houses, public buildings and master plans in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and some other countries. He was awarded the prestigious UIA Gold Medal in 1999, the

AIA Gold Medal The AIA Gold Medal is awarded by the American Institute of Architects conferred "by the national AIA Board of Directors in recognition of a significant body of work of lasting influence on the theory and practice of architecture." It is the Ins ...

in 2000, and the Praemium Imperiale in 2011.

Life and career

Ricardo Legorreta was born on May 7, 1931, in

Mexico City Mexico City is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Mexico, largest city of Mexico, as well as the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North America. It is one of the most important cultural and finan ...

. He studied architecture at the

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México 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 ...

, where he graduated in 1953. After working for ten years with José Villagrán García, he established his own office in 1963.UIA: 1999 Gold Medalist Jury Citation
, retrieved 31 December 2011

Architectural expression

Legorreta was a disciple of Luis Barragán and carried Barragan's ideas to a wider realm. Barragan, in the 1940s and 1950s amalgamated tradition and the modern movement in architecture yet his work is mostly limited to domestic architecture. Legorreta applied elements of Barragan's architecture in his work including bright colors, play of light and shadow, and solid Platonic geometric shapes. One of the important contributions of Legorreta has been the use of these elements in other building types such as hotels, factories as well as in commercial and educational buildings. His most famous works are the Camino Real Hotel in Mexico City, the IBM Factory in Guadalajara and the Cathedral of Managua.

Works

In Mexico City

* 1964, Laboratorios Smith Kline & French, collaboration with Mathias Goeritz, today the Comisión de Derechos Humanos del Distrito Federal, Av. Universidad 1449 * 1967, Cedros International School and Universidad Panamericana Preparatoria, Tecoyotitla 364 y 366, Chimalistac,

San Ángel San Ángel is a ''Colonia (Mexico), colonia'' (neighborhood) located in the southwest of Mexico City in Álvaro Obregón, Mexico City, Álvaro Obregón borough. Historically it was a rural community called Tenanitla in the pre-Hispanic period. It ...

* 1967, Casa Lomas Altas * 1968, Camino Real hotel, Colonia Anzures * 1968, Offices of Celanese Mexicana, now ''SEMARNAT'', Av. Revolución 1425, Tlacopac,

* 1972, Restoration of the Palace of Iturbide, Historic Center * 1976, Seguros América offices, today Tribunal Federal de Justicia, Av. Revolución 1508,

* 1985, Kodak factory in

Xochimilco Xochimilco (; ) is a borough () of Mexico City. The borough is centered on the formerly independent city of Xochimilco, which was established on what was the southern shore of Lake Xochimilco in the precolonial period. Today, the borough cons ...

* 1993, Restoration of the Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, UNAM. Justo Sierra street #16, Historic Center * 1993, Papalote Museo del Niño, Bosque de Chapultepec 2nd Section * 1994, Restoration of the Club de Banqueros, Av. 16 de Septiembre 27, Historic Center * 1994, Remodel of the Chapultepec Zoo * 1994, Centro Nacional de las Artes master plan, Edificio de Administración e Investigación, Edificio Central and Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas ''La Esmeralda'' * 1998,

Televisa Grupo Televisa, S.A.B., simply known as Televisa, is a Mexican telecommunications and broadcasting company. A major Latin American mass media corporation, it often presents itself as the largest producer of Spanish-language content. In April ...

Santa Fe * 2001, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Santa Fe * 2005, Plaza Juárez including the Museum of Memory and Tolerance and Secretaría de Relaciones Exteriores (Plaza Juárez tower) * 2010, Torre BBVA Bancomer, in collaboration with ''Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners'' of London.

Paseo de la Reforma Paseo de la Reforma (literally "Promenade of La Reforma, the Reform") is a wide avenue that runs diagonally across the heart of Mexico City. It was designed at the behest of Maximilian of Mexico, Emperor Maximilian by Ferdinand von Rosenzweig d ...

at Lieja street. * 2010, División de Estudios de Posgrado y Especializaciones en Economía, UNAM. Centro Cultural Universitario

Other cities in Mexico

* 1967, Chrysler factory in

Toluca Toluca , officially Toluca de Lerdo , is the States of Mexico, state capital of the State of Mexico as well as the seat of the Municipality of Toluca. Toluca has a population of 910,608 as of the 2020 census. The city forms the core of the Grea ...

* 1967

Nissan is a Japanese multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. The company sells its vehicles under the ''Nissan'' and ''Infiniti'' brands, and formerly the ''Datsun'' brand, with in-house ...

Cuernavaca Plant * 1970,

IBM International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

Guadalajara Technology Campus,

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

* 1975, Hotel Camino Real, Cancun, now Hyatt Ziva Cancun * 1981, Hotel Camino Real, today ''Westin Brisas'',

Ixtapa Ixtapa (, ) is a resort city in Mexico, adjacent to the Pacific Ocean in the municipality of Zihuatanejo de Azueta in the state of Guerrero. It is located northwest of the municipal seat, Zihuatanejo, and northwest of Acapulco. In the 2020 I ...

* 1985, Renault factory en Gómez Palacio,

Durango Durango, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Durango, is one of the 31 states which make up the Political divisions of Mexico, 32 Federal Entities of Mexico, situated in the northwest portion of the country. With a population of 1,832,650 ...

* 1989, Plan Maestro para Huatulco, Huatulco * 1990, Hotel Las Brisas, Huatulco * 1991,

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (English: Museum of Contemporary Art, Monterrey), abbreviated as MARCO, is a major contemporary art art museum, museum, located in the city of Monterrey, in Nuevo León state of northeastern Mexico. MARC ...

* 2001, EGADE Escuela de Graduados en Administración y Dirección de Empresas del

ITESM Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM; ), also known as Technological Institute of Monterrey () or just Tec, is aresearch university based in Monterrey, Mexico, which has grown to include 35 campuses located across 25 cit ...

in Monterrey * 2005, Casa Legorreta residence, San Miguel de Allende * 2007, EGAP Escuela de Graduados en Administración Pública y Política Pública del

in Monterrey * 2007, Hotel La Purificadora, 2006

Puebla City Puebla de Zaragoza (; ; ), formally Heroica Puebla de Zaragoza, formerly Puebla de los Ángeles during colonial times, or known simply as Puebla, is the seat of Puebla Municipality. It is the capital and largest city of the state of Puebla, and t ...

* 2007, Hotel Casa Reyna, Privada 2 Oriente 1007, Puebla City * 2007, Hotel Camino Real Monterrey * 2008, Museo Interactivo Laberinto de las Ciencias y las Artes,

San Luis Potosí San Luis Potosí, officially the Free and Sovereign State of San Luis Potosí, is one of the 32 states which compose the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 59 municipalities and is named after its capital city, San Luis Potosí. It ...

* 2008, The Tides, Playa del Carmen Riviera Maya * 2011, Centro Médico Zambrano Hellion of the

in Monterrey

United States

* 1983–1985, Casa Montalbán, in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

* 1985, buildings at Solana Complex in Southlake near Dallas * 1988, Tustin Market Place,

Tustin, California Tustin is a city located in Orange County, California, United States, within the Los Angeles metropolitan area. In 2020, Tustin had a population of 80,276. The city does not include the unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated communit ...

* 1990, Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose * 1994, Pershing Square restoration, Los Angeles * 1995, San Antonio Public Library * 1995, South Chula Vista branch library, Chula Vista,

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

, California * 1998,

Novartis Novartis AG is a Swiss multinational corporation, multinational pharmaceutical company, pharmaceutical corporation based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and was the eighth largest by re ...

Institutes for BioMedical Research building,

Emeryville, California Emeryville is a city located in northwest Alameda County, California, in the United States. It lies in a corridor between the cities of Berkeley, California, Berkeley and Oakland, California, Oakland, with a border on the shore of San Francisc ...

* 1998, The Tech Museum of Innovation, San Jose * 1998, The UCLA Tom Bradley International Hall Gallery and Conference Center, Los Angeles * 1999, Santa Fe University of Art and Design Visual Arts Center, 1999, Santa Fe * 2001, Max Palevsky Residential Commons (Chicago) * 2003, Latino Cultural Center Dallas * 2003, Keller Estate Winery,

Petaluma, California Petaluma is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population was 59,776 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

* 2005, Bakar Fitness & Recreation Center at

UCSF The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life ...

Mission Bay, San Francisco * 2015, Cross Border Xpress terminal and bridge in Otay Mesa,

, connecting to Tijuana International Airport

Central America

* 1993, Metropolitan Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, (

Managua Managua () is the capital city, capital and largest city of Nicaragua, and one of the List of largest cities in Central America, largest cities in Central America. Located on the shores of Lake Managua, the city had an estimated population of 1, ...

, Nicaragua) * 2004, Multiplaza Panamericana (

San Salvador San Salvador () is the Capital city, capital and the largest city of El Salvador and its San Salvador Department, eponymous department. It is the country's largest agglomeration, serving as the country's political, cultural, educational and fin ...

, El Salvador) * 2005, Centro Comercial Multiplaza Panamericana, in Antiguo Cuscatlan,

El Salvador El Salvador, officially the Republic of El Salvador, is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is S ...

* 2005, New campus of the Escuela Superior de Economía y Negocios, ESEN, Santa Tecla,

* 2007–2009, Casa Margarita,

Guatemala City Guatemala City (, also known colloquially by the nickname Guate), is the Capital city, national capital and largest city of the Guatemala, Republic of Guatemala. It is also the Municipalities of Guatemala, municipal capital of the Guatemala Depa ...

* 2012–2014, Terra Esperanza,

Other countries

* 2000, Mexico pavilion at Expo 2000 Hannover * 2003, Fashion and Textile Museum, (

Bermondsey Bermondsey ( ) is a district in southeast London, part of the London Borough of Southwark, England, southeast of Charing Cross. To the west of Bermondsey lies Southwark, to the east Rotherhithe and Deptford, to the south Walworth and Peckham, ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, United Kingdom) * 2004, Houses in Las Águilas,

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

* 2005, Hotel Sheraton Bilbao,

Bilbao Bilbao is a city in northern Spain, the largest city in the Provinces of Spain, province of Biscay and in the Basque Country (greater region), Basque Country as a whole. It is also the largest city proper in northern Spain. Bilbao is the List o ...

* 2007, Texas A&M University at Qatar, (

Education City Education City is an educational and research hub located in Al Rayyan, Al Rayyan Municipality in the Doha Metropolitan Area of Qatar. Developed by the Qatar Foundation, it was established by Moza bint Nasser, one of the consorts of Qatar's form ...

, Doha, Qatar) * 2008, Carnegie Mellon University (Qatar), (

, Doha, Qatar) * 2008, Campus Center and Student Residential Village, the American University in Cairo, Cairo) * 2009, Casa Del Agua Hotel, 2009 ( Jeju-do, South Korea) * 2010, Davidka Square, 2010 ( Jerusalem, Israel) *

Other Recognition

In 2000, Legoretta received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a nonprofit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest-achieving people in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet one ano ...

. In 2002, Legoretta received the

Order of Isabella the Catholic The Royal Order of Isabella the Catholic (; Abbreviation, Abbr.: OYC) is a knighthood and one of the three preeminent Order of merit, orders of merit bestowed by the Kingdom of Spain, alongside the Order of Charles III (established in 1771) and ...

granted by the government of Spain.

References

External links

Official Legorreta a Legorreta website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legorreta, Ricardo Ricardo Legorreta buildings, 01 Modernist architects from Mexico Postmodern architects Architecture firms of Mexico 1931 births 2011 deaths Architects from Mexico City Recipients of the Praemium Imperiale National Autonomous University of Mexico alumni Postmodern architecture in Mexico 20th-century Mexican architects 21st-century Mexican architects Recipients of the AIA Gold Medal Members of the Academia de Artes