RICARDO LEGORRETA

The Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta talks to James Steele about the influence of Luis Barragan, his friend and
mentor, and his own work in and outside Mexico.

his interview took place in December

1991) when Ricardo Legorreta was in
Los Angeles to inspect some work in
progress and as a guest lecturer at the
University of California .

)s: Can you describe the influence that Luis

Barragin had on your work?
RL: That is a difficult question. I never studied with him because he didn't teach at any
University, but he meant a great deal to me. I
met Luis Barragin when he was nearly 73, and
we developed more of a friendship than a professional relationship. On the whole that
relationship revolved around daily life, his
philosophy, and that sort of thing. He was a
great architect as well as a wonderful human
being, and he loved life. He was very spiritual
and religious, but also very much of this
world. He loved freedom, and never married
because he was afraid oflosing it. He became
accustomed to a certain kind oflifestyle which
can be achieved in very few countries. He
practiced architecture for himself, and only if
someone came to him and said, "Please, Luis,
you can do whatever you want, please do this
for me", would he accept. He developed that
reputation in Mexico.
In the 1970s, I was invited to be on the
panel for the International Council for the
Museum ofModern Art in New York. I went
to two meetings and realized that panel consisted ofNew Yorkers showing New York art
to the rest of the world. I told them this is not a

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council, but a private club, and they asked me

what I had to offer. So I organized an exhibition of Barragan's work at the museum,
which helped make him unous outside of
Mexico. From a local personality he became
an international figure.
He was a philosopher, a bon vivant, and a
man of incredible taste. He avoided confrontation. If a problem arose, he would back
away. If a place disturbed him, he would get
up and say, "let's go somewhere else". We
used to have tea at his house at five o'clock.
On certain days he would call me and say,
"Ricardo, please don't come today, the light is
not right". On others, he would call me when
I was working and say, "you must come to my
house immediately", and I would say "please
Luis, I am working" , and he would say "you
must come as soon as possible, please, it's a
must" , and I would say" are you dying?", and
he would say "no". So I would arrive and
there would be birds in the back garden, and a
fire in the grate and everything would be
beautiful.
The influence of Luis goes deep. I learned
from him to enjoy life; I learned that the spaces
have a very special objective, and that ifthe tea
is not served right it is important; that small
details should be correct. And of course I was
influenced by him because he had wonderful
taste, and a sense of proportion and space.
He was an engineer by training. His father
was rather rich and he managed his father's old
ranches. One day he said that somebody tried
to kill him. I don't know whether to believe it,
but he decided because of that to go to France
and to spend three years over there. Then he
started to work as an architect. To me his main
concern was exterior spaces.
One thing that is not generally recognized
is that he was an incredible businessman. He
bought property just outside Mexico City,
which was considered worthless because it
was a lava field. He bought it for almost nothing, but he sowed grass, put up walls against the
lava, made magnificent spaces and developed
it into the most fashionable area. Of course he
made a large amount of money, and then he
started an office.
Luis never received a degree in architecture
but he was a master architect and a person of

great sensibility. He would recommend places

to see that were magnificent, but not exactly
in the way that we architects separate places in
terms of architecture. He would just say: "go
to that place". He would recommend anything from a small town in Mexico to a certain
place in Morocco or a restaurant in Paris. He
was acquainted with all the most important
muralists. One such painter was Chucho
Reyes, who is virtually unknown, but who
influenced us all in the use of natural colour.
This man was wonderful; through him I also
met Tamayo and other muralists and I learned
the process oflooking or rather understanding
Mexico. The international style was never
strong in our country. Luis Barragan was using
it though. Seeing buildings of this time, such
as his own house, you would think that they
were done by Le Corbusier. But he is still
extremely Mexican.
Luis was very ill for the last eight years ofhis
life. He was an elegant man and his physical
appearance was remarkable, impeccable, so
when he got ill it was an even worse tragedy.
Our conversations began about life and ended
up, little by little, about death. He was afraid of
the problems in passing away. He once told
me, "Ricardo, we have never done a job
together, and I must close my office because I
will never do another job unless I can do it
with you". But we never did it. Even though
we had several beautiful opportunities, he
killed each one of them. He was afraid,
because he had already been declared to be a
genius. But the influence is there, and I arn
very proud to be copying him, as we all do in
some way or other. Ifyou are capable of going
a single step further, then you have succeeded.
So there is no 'style' of architecture created by
a group. You can look at houses which are
considered historical, and say "that is Luis
Barragin"; and then someone will tell you
that is a hacienda that has been there for 100
years. He captured something in the national
spirit. That to me was his main contribution,
his great genius.
)S: Barragan successfully made the change
from national to international recognition.
When did that change start for you, and have
you had any difficulties in making that transition?

INTER VIEW

Automex Factory) Toluca) Mexico. In this

important industrial unit) ifwhich only the first
stage has been built) Legorreta tried to break out if
the restrictive idea that thefactory is just a placefor
work. An exterior railway and wide central axis
were designed to accommodatefurther growth. Two
cone-shaped buildings) which provide waterfor the
plant) are located here. The project includes an
engine and production area) an assembly plant)
control booth) cqfeteria and parkingfor employees.
The structure is mainly steel with plastic covered
'" aluminium panels set at a 45 degree angle to
~ provide diffuse illumination. To thesouth ifthe
is; plaza is a separate office structure made ifconcrete.

RL: That gets into an interesting issue, and the

reason I like the question is because that
change is not an easy one for an architect to
make. I love Mexico very much mainly
because it is my country. It is very natural to be
an architect there. I don't know when I
decided to be an architect, I just did it.
Mexico entered a period of crisis at the end
of the seventies. One party, the PRI, has been
the dominant power for the last 40 years. The
President at that time was a dictator, and got
more and more powerful until things became
unbearable. This President took Mexico into
a crisis in the middle of the oil boom. To save
his political image, he nationalized banks. At
that time the banks in Mexico were not only
the basis of the financial structure but also the
basis of the growth of the country. They were
promoters, the developers who put things
together. I come from a family of bankers who had not sold any shares over a period of
50 years - and I was angry. The country collapsed. Everybody in my generation backed
out. People who had money decided to take it
to invest in Europe or the United States. By
coincidence, a Mexican actor living in
California, Ricardo Montalban, was in
Mexico. He called me and said, "Ricardo, I
love your hotel [Camino Real, Mexico City];
would you like to do a house for me? ... I am
very grateful for everything the United States
has done for me, but I want to show them that
Mexico is not the country of siesta, or burros,
and manana, so let's do something about it."
That was the real opening for me. At the same
time, I lectured in the United States, partly in
order to discuss Mexico, and also because it
gave me the opportunity to travel in a northern country. And suddenly I found that people were very interested. I discovered that it
was not because of my architecture, but
because I have roots and I belong somewhere,
and also because of the popularity of the postmodem movement which was starting at that
time. Suddenly everybody believed that
someone who had roots was a genius, and
people got very interested in the reasons
behind why I build the way I do and what
inspired me. So along with the Montalban

house I was also interviewed to do a technology centre in California, which was my

first large project in the United States. They
asked me why they should place their confidence in a Mexican architect for such a large
job and they said that I would have to open an
office in Los Angeles so they could see that I
was serious. This commission gave me such a
feeling of challenge that I decided to do it.
Construction on that job starts soon; the interview took place six years ago. I love challenges
and I decided that I was going to overcome
that one. Architecture is one ofthe fewactivities in which you don't have to come from a
rich country to succeed because really, what
you are selling is pure brains and creative talent. That was my challenge. Why shouldn't
Mexico, which is a country with a great architectural tradition be given a chance? That was
the beginning of my international activity,
and suddenly we were called to work with
Mcquire and Thomas. Mcquire is a great
person, and a real visionary. (Another person
who has helped me a great deal is Charles
Moore). Through tremendous effort, I
became established here.

Metropolitan Cathedral) Managua) Nicaragua.

An earthquake destroyed the old cathedral on the
site. The new larger one was to have even greater
symbolic significance due to its high visibility on a
mountain overlooking the city. It was designed to
accommodatefestivals ifup to 100) 000 people) the
daily Cardinals Mass and a special sanctuary inside
the cathedral. According to Legorreta) ((The
intention was to represent the spirit and ceremony if
a contemporary) active church in which the cathedral
is the centre ifcommunity strength. For this reason)
the plan is not ifa traditionalform. )) Lighting and
ventilation are natural) and building materials have
been kept simple.

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INTERVIEW

Renault Factory . Located in Gomez Palada,

Durango, Mexico, the Renault Fadory is a huge
rectangle divided into a manufacturingplantfor
engines and suspension systems and a 26-hectare
section set asideforfuture expansion. Legorreta said
if this project, ((The desert is magic, it absorbs you.
Ifound myselfthinking ifwalls that never end, and
I didn't want to siften this emotion, so I covered the
site with stone and used red as the main colour.
Instead iffighting the desert, we complemented it. "

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Above and right: Solana Southlake and Westlake.

With Legorreta Arquitectos, a team including
Mitchell-Guirgola Architects, Barton Myers and
Peter Walker developed this straightforward scheme
on a 770-hectare site. The aim was to use the road
crossing the property as apositive influence and to
make an underpass which was integral to the
design . The main objective was to recover the
original prairie and to create compounds that would
establish unity through the interplay ifdelimiting
walls, scale, colour and the proportions if the
fenestration ifeach building. Within this context,
each architect had complete.freedom. Vertical
elements were used as symbols to indicate direction
and entrance, and texture has become a
humanizing element in the unlimited scope if the
Texas landscape, helping toJorm more intimate
spaces - afamiliar theme also qfBarragan 's work .
The village centre contains two rental office
buildings, a commerdal area, a 200-room hotel and
a health and sports club. The first phase if the IBM
building, which is theJocus if the project, consists if
34,838 square metres ifc1fices, as well as a dining
room and computer centre.

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Lift: Hotel Camino Real, Ixtapa, Mexico. The

landscape's strong identity had an influence on the
design ifthis hotel, which blends into the rugged
mountain range if the seashore. The architect
dedded to make the most ifthe environmental
benifits. Rooms were terraced to adapt to the steep
slope if the shore and the covered terraces that
resulted were orientedJor the best view if the sea and
the best locationJor prevailing breezes. Spedal
consideration was given to the solarium, located at
mid-level, which uses working aqueducts,Jountains
and wateifalls. The beach was lift untouched, and
thatched palm umbrellas are usedJor shade. The
site encourages walking along a hidden cove.
Legorreta points out, ((This hotel is truly Mexican,
in spirit,form, colour and materials. I visualized it
as a symbol ifcontemporary Mexico: strong,
spadous, romantic and spiritually poweiful. "

INTERVIEW

Conrad Hotel, Cancun. This design is based on

simple, elongatedforms that aaentuate the spirit if
the terrain and the position if the building between
the sea and a lagoon. Like his mentor Luis
Barragan, Legorreta shows a concern to retain the
atmosphere imbued by the presence if water.

JS: Do you still maintain an office in LA?

RL: I have found that design occurs wherever
the architect is, and the result of opening
another office was that I ended up just duplicating administrative effort. My office is
organized in such a way that it offers the support that is needed for me to devote as much
time as possible to design. We opened the LA
office because of the Technological Centre
project, and maintain it as a kind of answering
service, if you want to call it that, and this is
where the architects doing the working drawings are. The bulk of the work, however, is
done in Mexico.
JS: Is Casa Shapiro your latest house here?
RL: ye's, it is just fInished. My experience
here has been very rewarding. I'm still trying
to understand my country, just as you are still
working at understanding yours. When
somebody calls you to do a project inside their
country, your fIrst reaction is, "how do I go
about understanding that situation?" And
people tell you, "no, we have called you
because we like what you do, we don't want
you to understand us". So I have realized that I
am very lucky, in that California, and Texas,
and New Mexico, where my work has been
concentrated, have historically had a close
relationship with Mexico. I still say that the
only thing I'm doing is recovering what is
ours! The climate, light and lifestyle are all
similar.
JS: Do you work in bearing wall construction
only?
RL: Basically what I like is the wall itself One
of the things that I have been dealing with is
the question of doing walls in wood. A true
Mexican would consider that to be fake. I
have found that what really interests me is the
creation ofspace. A new challenge is the possibility of doing a house in Chicago. That is
really frightening, to work in another culture.
I have been very lucky to have been working
the south-west and hope I will have the
[MJ
opportunity to continue to do so.
Photographs by Lourdes Legorreta.

James Steele is an archited and is currently visiting

prcfessor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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