Mexican architect Pedro Ramírez Vázquez dies at 94

PanARMENIAN.Net - Pedro Ramírez Vázquez, the architect who led many of Mexico’s landmark Modernist construction projects of the mid-20th century, including museums, the country’s largest sports stadium and the shrine that attracts its most important religious pilgrimage, died on Tuesday, April 16, his 94th birthday, in Mexico City, The New York Times reported.

His death was announced by Mexico’s National Arts Council.

Ramírez designed the national headquarters of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, which ruled Mexico from 1929 through 2000 and whose all-powerful presidents commissioned most of his projects. He built many government structures, including the Foreign and Labor Ministries, and served in government himself, as secretary of human settlements and public works from 1977 to 1982.

Outside Mexico he was known for designing the Mexican pavilions at several World’s Fairs, including the one that opened in 1964 in Queens.

Ramírez was born in Mexico City on April 16, 1919, in the waning years of the Mexican revolution. His father was a bookseller in Mexico City’s historic center. Two of Pedro’s older brothers studied law and pursued government careers, one as a minister on the Mexican Supreme Court and another as Mexico’s secretary of labor. Both died in the 1990s.

Ramírez is survived by four children.