"PARQUE DE CULTURA URBANA"

Mexico City’s “Bosque de Chapultepec” is the largest urban park in Latin America. This popular

park provides not only an invaluable ecosystem to the city but it also has a critical role in the

development of cultural and recreational activities.

The Urban Cultural Park [Parque de Cultura Urbana - PARCUR] restoration project is part of the

greater Chapultepec’s eco-cultural development plan called “Construction of the Bosque de

Chapultepec Cultural Complex”, under the leadership of the renowned Mexican artist Gabriel

Orozco Félix.

The project restored two iconic facilities that had long been abandoned, the aquatic park “El

Rollo”, opened in 1979, and “Atlantis”, the first commercial dolphin

aquarium in Mexico City. These empty spaces were transformed into recreational and cultural

venues that would encourage a wide range of activities and be accessible and inclusive to all

people.

The landscape design team developed an inclusive plan to build a variety of amenities including a

skate park (bowl and street plaza), footpaths, exhibition areas, a café, an open-air

forum, an agora cinema, a parking area, restrooms and a great number of walls that welcome

graffiti artists to create a site of artistic expression.

The first stage of the Urban Cultural Park was inaugurated in February 2022, during the “Primer

Festival de Cultura Urbana” [First Urban Cultural Festival], offering a venue for large-scale art

events and urban expression.

In October 2023, the project was completed with the construction of two large arched domes.

Universal accessibility was a priority in the team’s schematics, as was environmental

sustainability. Rainwater and wastewater processing plants were built and ecological diversity

was insured through the planting of trees, shrubs, flowers, herbaceous plants as well as the

creation of pollinator gardens

Professional urban skateboarders and celebrated graffiti artists joined the project to incorporate

their vision and experience in the construction of each space, to ensure their expertise and their

sense of identity was expressed throughout the process. In a time of global ecological and

political anxiety, creating spaces of community, culture, sport and artistry is needed to bring

people together, and this is what the “Parque de Cultura Urbana” is