A Modernist’s Guide to Mexico City

Designers of the Year winner Matt McLeod shares his favourite Mexico City design spots.

As one-half of the design firm McLeod Bovell (winners of the Arthur Erickson Award at our 2014 Designers of the Year Awards), Matt McLeod is a guy not afraid to hop on a plane in search of inspiration. He let us in on the design-worthy stops in the culturally rich megalopolis of Mexico City.

Owned by the superlative boutique hotel owner Grupo Habita, Hotel Downtown is possibly more of a nightclub than a hotel. The three restaurants and rooftop bar will be packed with young, beautiful people Thursday to Saturday.

Take in a soccer match at Estadio Azteca, one of the largest stadiums in the Americas. Built for the 1968 Olympics, it can seat almost 120,000 fans for a soccer match. Avoid the end zones full of rambunctious local fans and pick the seats near midfield.

 Architect Luis Barragán was a modernist master, and his own house, Casa Luis Barragán, is just as he left it. It’s a little oasis of carefully considered calm in the gritty Tacubaya neighbourhood.

 Celebrating its 109th birthday this year, the San Angel Inn has been a Mexico City standard since 1906. Ask for a table in the charming colonial courtyard and dine with Mexico City’s (greying) elite on well-prepared Mexican classics.

 I love to head to the Zócalo, stand under the giant Mexican flag, and take in the 360-degree panorama of Mexico’s primary public space.