Mexico City
TEN Arquitectos

Photography © Undine Pröhl

A translucent jewel brightens a derelict neighborhood

Program: Mexico City needed a hotel of a special kind—one that would differentiate itself from the predictable, exist as a work of art, and breathe fresh, new life into the hotel scene in this vibrant city. Location was everything, and a grimy, derelict, 1950s five-story apartment building in a prime location fit the bill. Unfortunately, zoning laws did not permit demolition—the architect needed to perform radical surgery on the existing site.

Solution: For the Hotel Habita, a total of 32 rooms and 4 suites were created with two floors of social space on top, including a lap pool on the roof and an open-air terrace to accommodate meetings and banquets. A retreatlike interior deflected the unpleasantness of the outside world. This was created by attaching a new translucent glazing system to the building's outer edge, giving it a glowing second skin. The hotel enjoyed immediate success, with 75 percent occupancy, reinvigorating development and transforming the fringe of a high-end shopping area into a consolidated urban fabric.

For more images please see the November 2003 issue or Architectural Record.

The Winners: Orange Innovations | Hotel Habita | Sekii Ladies Clinic | Start-Up Offices | Inn at Price Tower | Darwin Centre | Apple SoHo | Stealth/Ogilvy | Gannett/USA Today Corporate Headquarters | ImageNet

The Finalists: Automated Trading Desk Technology Campus | Jackson-Triggs Niagara Estate Winery | University of Washington | Herman Miller MarketPlace | Beacon Communications Office | New Academic Complex, Baruch College, CUNY | Mott Children's Center

Unbuilt Projects: Great Harbor Design Center

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