US Embassy; Chancery Building

The US Embassy is home to the diplomatic mission of the United States to Mexico. It’s been a landmark along the Paseo de la Reforma since it opened in 1964. At that time, it was the second largest US Embassy anywhere in the world.

It’s also affected the culture of its immediate environment. The Starbucks (in the left foreground in the photo above) was the first one that opened in Mexico in the 1990s. The Sheraton María Isabel Hotel was completed at about the same time as the embassy as a joint project between architects Juan Sordo Madaleno and José Villagrán.

In 2011, the US State Department announced plans for a new embassy in the Granada neighborhood. The expected re-opening there is to be in 2022. No plans for the old Chancery Building have been announced.

The absence won’t likely affect the Paseo de la Reforma corridor. Behind the US Embassy, the Cuauhtémoc neighborhood has developed into a strong lunch and hotels neighborhood. Much of business here is focused on the day-to-day business life of the central Reforma corridor. The length of Rio Lerma operates in tandem with Reforma. It’s a good walking neighborhood and considers itself a bit more serious than the Zona Rosa on the other side of Reforma.