Mier & Pesado Institute

Photos courtesy of Fundacion Mier y Pesado.

The Mier y Pesado Institute is a private girls school taking up a full block between the Calzada de los Misterios and the Calzada de Guadalupe. It can’t really be visited but it’s so architecturally striking that leaving it out here would be unfair to every one.

The foundation that runs the school was created in 1917 in the will of the Duchess of Mier, Doña Isabel Pesado De la Llave. She’d lived most of of her life in Paris but descended from a family whose original home was in Tacubaya. The same foundation they’d created ended up building the Edificio Ermita on the northern end of their estate in Tacubaya. All of the family’s remains are buried within the old Basilica of Guadalupe.

The Foundation then directed the creation of this school, theInstituto Mier y Pesado, for girls and the Escuela Mier y Pesado for boys in Coyoacán. It’s an Art Deco treasure too. The school here is was begun in 1926 and opened as an orphanage in 1932. It was designed by architects Manuel Cortina García and Juan Segura.

The school has been used as a setting for multiple TV shows and films. But it still operates as a day school for girls. Opening onto the Calzada de Guadalupe, it’s remarkable from just about any angle. It’s also quite simply the biggest