Casa Siza

Art Gallery Stay in a Prestige Design Gem

A designer dream team collaborated to open this updated property in CDMX’s Santa Maria la Ribera neighborhood. On the roster: Pritzker-prize-winning “poetic modernist” architect Alvaro Siza, AD-100 interior designer Lucia Corredor of the celebrated Decada Muebles brand, and an all-star selection of contemporary artists—Bosco Sodi, Izumi Kato, Mario Garcia Torres—whose works add boldness and texture to the townhome’s clean-lined cubic spaces.

This newly opened gallery and designer urban getaway offers a strong statement stay for global creatives. Each room bears Lucia Corredor’s acclaimed personal style, defined by thoughtful spareness and a touch of mid-century modern, punched up into the contemporary realm via raw, tactile art and textiles.

The upper-level apartment is entered through the ground-floor gallery and atrium space, naturally lit by a converted garage door that reveals the private, by-appointment exhibit to the street outside the original patio gates. Upstairs, two cubic living levels hold three bedrooms and baths equipped with rain showers (one also with a sauna), and in-room offices/reading nooks. An unadorned terrace overlooks the street, bringing natural elements in to spill over the sharp architectural lines, breaking up the home’s geometry.

Sharing the winning line up of the interior design and architecture team, Casa Siza’s in-house art collection contains notable works by Mario Garcia Torres, Izumi Kato, Michael Joo, and Bosco Sodi, Corredor’s husband and the host behind Casa Wabi and Casa Nano 2.0, creative properties we are honored to have in our collection.

AROUND

Colonia Santa Maria La Ribera sits west of Mexico City’s historical center, within the Cuauhtémoc district, and was created in the late 19th century by affluent merchants seeking homes outside Mexico City’s then downtown bustle. Prior to their arrival, the neighborhood was home to Lake Texcoco (the reason for the “riverbank” denomination in its name) and an Aztec temple, Tenochtitlan. Missionaries and ranchers followed once the area lake was drained, yet after its heyday in the 1920s and 1930s, the neighborhood fell on hard times, turned semi-industrial, and saw the demise of its tiled and gated mansions. Preservationists flocked to the area in the early 2000s, allured by its more than 1,000 historically classified, 19th-century buildings.

The Alameda de Santa Maria, with its Moorish-inspired Kiosco Morisco by José Ramón Ibarrola for the 1884 World’s Fair, is Colonia’s main draw, a colorfully geometric, cast-iron monument in the Mudéjar ornamental style that blends Spanish and Moorish architecture and design elements. Dancers gather in the park, and the leafy area is surrounded by restaurants, cafes and architecture typical of the homes built in the neighborhood’s heyday. In the neighborhood, you’ll find the Museo del Instituto Geología, a striking Beaux Arts building, as well as the Mercado la Dalia, or Santa Maria Market, a dazzling combination of kaleidoscope produce and artisanal creations. The surrealist library, Biblioteca Vasconcelos, controversially designed by Alberto Kalach, punctuates the neighborhood, with its floating mass of bookshelves and Great Baleen Whale Sculpture by Gabriel Orozco.

LOCATION

Mexico City, Mexico. Nearest airport: Mexico City (MEX, 20 minutes)

BEST TIME TO VISIT: September to March