Casa Lamm Cultural Center & Gallery

Casa Lamm is a cultural and arts center in a historical building in the Colonia Roma. On the corner of Álvaro Obregón and Orizaba streets, it’s a 1911 residential building constructed to refer to the elegance of some cosmopolitan European buildings of the same period.

Originally designed as a home for its owner and builder, Lewis Lamm, the family never lived at the site. It was soon rented to the Marist Brothers who converted it to house the Colegio Frances. It was later acquired by the García Collantes family who lived there until 1990. This is likely what saved it from less discriminating owners who demolished many similar homes in the area.

The site reopened as the Casa Lamm Cultural Center in 1993. Today the building is used for training of professionals in the fields of art and literature. It’s among very few institutions offering undergraduate and graduate coursework in Museum Studies and Art History. The widely respected Casa Lamm Art Gallery is an extension of the academic program. The house also published catalogs and similar reference works to complement the exhibition and academic aspects of the center’s work.

With a French restaurant onsite, too, it’s become something of focal point for this part of the city. With multiple salons for events and meetings, it’s one of the city’s best places to be invited for conferences, meetings and similar get-togethers.