Designed by architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez and Manuel Rosen Morrison, the buildings that make up the Tijuana Cultural Center constructed at the end of the 20th century, are now an urban landmark with a singularity so evident that it could only be understood in a city as peculiar as the one that houses it. We present to you on this occasion an approach to architecture with modern, nationalist, and iconic touches that at some point were part of the national emblem within the horizons of a Mexico like that of 1982.
In October 1982 in the city of Tijuana, Baja California, the facilities of what we now know as the Tijuana Cultural Center (Cecut) were inaugurated. That moment could probably evoke scenes inspired by movies like 'The Belly of an Architect', where examples of 18th-century Parisian architecture by Étienne-Louis Boullée are revisited in modern times. The shapes, scale, and arrangement of the volumes of the complex recall in the construction of the Cecut, how modern anti-historicism opened the possibility for a construction like this one, almost reaching the 21st century.
Ordered and inaugurated by the president of the Mexican Republic at that time, José López Portillo, the design of this site was entrusted to Mexican architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, who conveniently had been involved in the Border National Program that included the redefinition of Mexican identity in cities where some other cultural forces had weakened what was considered as such at that time. As part of this program, the architect had the opportunity to design some museums in border cities before, one of which was the Art Museum of Ciudad Juárez which was built in 1964.
Initially, the amendment for Ramírez Vázquez was to design a spherical space that would function as an Omnimax projection space and be conditioned to host temporary and varied presentations, a mission not only given on this occasion by the current president but also by his wife, Carmen Romano de López Portillo.
This construction intended to build a cultural landmark that would refer visitors to the national character of a city like Tijuana, where the clash of cultures is as constant as it is coherent, in the city with the highest migratory traffic in the world and where demographic growth was happening at an unprecedented rate.
Due to the social impact expected from this cultural center, a plot owned by the Federal Government was selected as the site, on one of the most important streets in the city. Construction began in 1980 at the intersection of Blvd. Independencia and Av. Paseo de los Héroes.
'The CECUT museum includes multiple exhibition areas and in addition to a large flat surface at the entrance level, it has two helical ramps linked by a flat area. These will be complemented by a large staircase whose function is to interrupt the visit halfway. The ramps, in addition to allowing a bird's eye view of the lower exhibition areas, allow you to enjoy the spatial structure with which the roof made of steel and without any intermediate columns was resolved.' Manuel Rosen Morrison, 1982.
Although the complex includes several buildings, undoubtedly the Imax Dome, popularly known as 'The Ball', is the reference point for visitors to identify the Cecut. For its construction, trying to rescue the qualities of spherical projection rooms used in countries like Canada and the United States, Rosen Morrison proposed not only implementing technology in projections but also making this practice evident in the materiality of the building.
The color of the material adds to the formal peculiarity of the building. This characteristic arises from the experimentation in the construction of the Japanese embassy in Mexico by Rosen Morrison, where the architect used a color additive in the concrete called warm tone, very similar to what the Cecut exhibits in the Dome in contrast to the gray of the concrete that other buildings of this type present. This method reduces costs and maintenance work by not having to worry about coatings or deterioration, taking advantage of the natural patina of the concrete with additives.
After a remodeling in 2013, today the Tijuana Cultural Center offers the following services:
- Auditorium
- Dome IMAX
- Californias Museum
- Exhibition Gallery El Cubo[2]
- Explanade and water fountains
- Cafeteria
- Youth Nutrition Health Area
- Carlos Monsivais Cinema
- Botanic Garden
- Aquarium
- Arts Documentation Center and Media Library
- Museum Store
- Luna Forum
- Mobile Stage
- Six rehearsal classrooms
- Underground car park
Over 30 years after its construction, the Tijuana Cultural Center is one of the most prominent places in the city of Tijuana. Perhaps the plan for national vindication of the 20th century is not as present as it was back then, but undoubtedly the weight and influence of the site offer Tijuana an equally strong and vibrant identity that continues to renew itself over the years on the buildings. Whether as part of a school plan or within the cultural activities offered by the center, the Cecut and its events are a key element in the formation of the inhabitants of the city of Tijuana, Mexico.
[1] What we know today as IMAX Cinema
[2] Built in September 2008 and designed by Tijuana architect Eugenio Velázquez; El Cubo was built in symbolic contrast to La Bola.
References:
1. García Orso, A. (2013). ARCHITECTURE. Tijuana Cultural Center. 30th Anniversary. ISSU. Retrieved 02, 2016, from https://issuu.com/armando1987/docs/arquitectura_centro_cultural_tijuana
2. Ministry of Culture (2013). Tijuana Cultural Center (Cecut). CECUT. Retrieved 02, 2016, from http://www.cecut.gob.mx/sis/culturales/cecut.php
-
Architects: Pedro Ramírez Vázquez
- Area: 35445 m²
- Year: 1982
