ARCHITECTS OF MEXICO CITY: FRANCISCO J. SERRANO

FRANCISCO J. SERRANO (1900-1982) was a civil engineer and architect whose Art Deco and modernist buildings grace Colonia Condesa and other areas of Mexico City. He is part of an architectural dynasty.

His father, J. Francisco Serrano, designed several notable buildings in the city, such as the Edificio La Esmeralda (1892) and the Edificio Paris (1907) in the Centro Histórico.

His son, Francisco Serrano, (www.franciscoserranoarquitecto.com) is best known for his design of Terminal 2 of the Mexico City airport and the office buidling known as 'Los Pantelones'.

                                                  Edificio Jardines, Amsterdam 285, at Sonora

The second Serrano, Francisco J., is probably best known as the architect of the swanky Edificio Basurto in Condesa, but as you wander around the colonia, you'll notice that many of the best Art Deco buildings are his. An early work, the fanciful Edifico Jardines at the corner of Sonora and Amsterdam (across from Starbucks) features multiple balconies, terraces and mini-lighthouses on top. The streamline house at the corner of Michoacán and Avenida Mexico looks like a set for a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie.

Several of his houses have been altered or covered over with commercial signage, or have disappeared behind giant trees. But he undoubtably left the mark of his creative vision on Mexico City. Surprisingly, there is no monograph about him.

  

                                           Avenida Amsterdam, corner of Michoacán

Huichapan 20

Amsterdam 285

                                           

                                                                Pasaje Polanco

Here is a list of buildings I've been able to attribue to him:

COLONIA CONDESA

Laredo 5, 1933

Amsterdam 110, 1931

Laredo 22 (externsively remodelled), 1942

El Plaza Condesa (Parque España),1946

Edificio Casa Jardines, Amsterdam 285, 1928-30

Edificio Basurto, 1942-45

Nuevo León 68, 1952

Michoacán 43, 1935

Avenida Mexico 75, 1934

Nuevo León 120, 1936

Campeche 302, 1932

Amsterdam 206, 1935

Avenida Mexico 123, 1932

Chilpancingo 39, 1946

Chilpancingo 46, 1931

Parque España 49

Parque España 59

Huichapan 20

COLONIA ROMA

Edificio Rio de Janiero, Orizaba and Durango, Roma (ground floor remodel)

Edificio Anahuac, Queretaro 109, Colonia Roma (1932)

Edificio Acro, Insurgentes at Quintana Roo, 1937

Edificio Glorieta, Insurgentes at Chilpancingo, 1938

POLANCO

Pasaje Polanco, c. 1938

Emilio Castelar 6

Emilio Castelar 24

E.C. and Galileo, corner house

Arquimedes and Newton, corner house

Newton and Aristoteles

Conjunto San Carlos, Moliere, Seneca and Masaryk

CENTRO

Cine Teresa

OTHER

Faculty of Engineering, UNAM (collaboration), c. 1954

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe Church, Santa María de la Ribera

Let Them Eat Cake--La Pastelería Ideal

The following is an excerpt from the latest edition of 'Mexico City: and Opinionated Guide for the Curious Traveler', available on Amazon (click HERE) or, in Mexico City, at Under the Volcano Books in Colonia Roma (click HERE).

The aroma gets you about fifty feet from the door, a warm

mixture of sugar and butter combining with the exhaust

fumes from nearby Eje Central. As you pass through the

doors of La Pastelería Ideal you enter a life-size version of

Candyland. Thousands of sugary cakes, muffins, tarts, strudels,

danish, biscuits, croissants, éclairs, cream puffs, donuts,

cupcakes and brioche are spread out before you; more than

300 varieties. And that’s not including the cookies (I counted

almost 70 different kinds).

A beloved institution known to generations of Mexicans, it

was founded by Spanish immigrant Don Adolfo Fernández

Cetina in 1927. He came to Mexico City in 1913 at the age of

17 to work with a cousin in his small bakery business. Today

there are three locations in the city with more than 250

employees. The ovens are going 24 hours a day, seven days

a week.

Need a cake to feed 1600? No problem. You could bake it at

home (all you need is 100 kilos of flour, 400 eggs, 40 kilos

of butter, and a 10-foot ladder to reach the top), or head

upstairs to Ideal’s  second floor cake showroom. You’ll

see hundreds of cakes of all sizes, shapes and colors—the

biggest, with nine layers, requires three workers to construct.

Decorations might include a plastic lucha libre doll,

ice cream cones, or even a tiny ballerina twirling above a

bubbling fountain with twinkling lights.

There are cakes for weddings, quinceañeras (a girl’s 15th

birthday), birthdays, baptisms, and graduations. Ideal has

provided cakes for TV and movie stars as well as for four

Mexican presidents.

Are the cakes on display real? Furtive finger marks in the

frosting certainly suggested they might be. It turns out the

frosting is real—egg whites and sugar—but the cake itself

is Styrofoam. “They last for years, but they’ll get dirty, so we

replace them every month or so,” an employee told me.

How to shop in a Mexican bakery:

Pick up one of the metal trays and a pair of tongs and help

yourself. At Ideal, go to the counter in the back of the store where you will be given a ticket with the price written on it. Pay at the caja, then go back to the counter where your wrapped pastries await you.  

               Pasteleria Ideal, Calle 16 de Septiembre 18,

                        is open from 6 am to 10 pm daily.