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Mexico City Is Exploding With New Hotels — Here Are Three of the Nicest

Above: One of nine bedrooms at Maison Lezard, each of which has its own unique interior design. Photos above and below: Leandro Bulzzano

Next week marks the start of Mexico City Art Week — which, in addition to including the Zonamaco art fair, has become an unofficial design week, too (not to mention a blessed excuse for us Northerners to escape all the bomb cyclones and deep freezes for a precious few days). In anticipation of some of you traveling to the fair — and the rest of you traveling to CDMX in the near future, because it’s on pretty much everyone’s list these days — we decided to devote this week’s newsletter to the beautiful, complicated capital, from Sight Unseen’s official tourist’s map of the city to our survey of the best new design hotels that opened there in the past year.

We’re kicking off with the latter. As Mexico City’s reputation as a travel destination has exploded in recent years, so too has its hospitality scene. The first time I visited back in 2007, Condesa DF, where we stayed, was pretty much the only stylish option in town; that’s hard to imagine now that the city is overstuffed with boutique properties. Before my most recent trip earlier this month, I took a close look at all of the latest additions, and chose three to stay at and spotlight here: Maison Lezard, retrofitted into a century-old mansion, is the most ambitiously “designed,” while Rodona is the friendliest with the most hotel-like amenities, and El Alfonsa has an epic entrance and lobby. Read more about all three below, then keep going for more Mexico City intel, including a preview of all the design shows happening there next week.

MAISON LEZARD

Staying at Maison Lezard felt a bit like being in a movie set. It’s a 20th-century former mansion — with a very dramatic entrance — converted into an ambitious nine-room property that serves fancy breakfasts every morning, but doesn’t have the full staffing of a traditional hotel, hence the feeling that you’re wandering around on an elaborate stage. Each of the rooms has a different interior and color scheme, and the design game is strong, with a Sottsass mirror in the main hall, a Kelly Wearstler chair on the porch, and lots and lots of art everywhere. There’s also a fun coffee shop and clothing shop inside a greenhouse out front that makes the yard a little more lively than the lobby.

RODONA HOTEL

I’m a lover of hotels, myself, so Rodona’s more full-service experience — and friendly greetings every time we got back from a long day of eating and flea market-ing — was right up my alley. It’s super centrally located in Condesa, and the Bauhaus building it occupies, also a former mansion, gives it its signature style. Designed by Oficina Particular and IZB Arquitectos, with contemporary Mexican art throughout, Rodona’s interiors are are fairly understated, but consequently the rooms have a calming vibe. I recommend eating at the restaurant on the ground floor, Lindy, which supposedly has great burgers (though as a pescatarian, I can recommend the fish).

EL ALFONSA

Also retrofitted into an old building, this one an Art Deco residential building from the 1930s, El Alfonsa is essentially 13 serviced apartments with kitchenettes and dining tables, designed by Mexican architect Antonio Farré. Unfortunately I don’t really know the story behind the ancient-looking brass emblems on the front entrance and throughout the hotel, or why there’s a figural bronze greeting you at the door, but I enjoyed it very much. Walking into the soaring marble, glass, and brass lobby was an experience every time.

Bag Brand Audette’s Redesigned Flagship Is Bathed in Butter

Handbag brand Audette has entirely redesigned its Roma Norte flagship store. Photos: Maureen Martinez-Evans

As a humble visitor to Mexico City, I would argue that it is first and foremost a food city. Despite the incredible heritage of Mexican craftsmanship and design, as well as its burgeoning contemporary scene, it is not, unfortunately, a shopping destination on par with its metropolitan peers. There are of course notable exceptions — which you’ll find on our map below — and among them is Audette, a handbag brand that, while its founders are native to France and its production is done in Spain, has called CDMX home since it began in 2017. Back in 2021, we reported on Audette’s first flagship store in Roma Norte, and last month the duo refreshed the small space with a brand new design by local architect Gerardo Casasola and London designer Théo Tan. Bathed in pale yellow, it contrasts angular moments with soft columns and curves, a gentle backdrop against which the brand is showcasing a bold gradient of its colorful, sculptural bags. The warm swath of the walls is punctuated by two huge marble blocks from Orizaba, Mexico, created in collaboration with sculptor Pablo Arellano, that serve as display tables. Go for the bags, stay for the selfies.

In This Jewel Box of a Shop, the Custom Woodwork Honors the Craftsmanship of the Clothes

The new Chava showroom is lined in pine, a favorite of Luis Barragàn, who designed two masterworks nearby. Photos: Fabian Martinez

There are few things more luxurious than custom-tailored clothing. Yet when Olivia Villanti — founder of the made-to-measure women’s shirting brand Chava — realized that her clients often craved the instant gratification of taking a piece home right away, she decided to annex a more public-facing space in the same building as her office and production atelier and turn it into a proper, Tuesday-through-Saturday store. Opened last month in Mexico City’s San Miguel Chapultapec neighborhood — next door to Barragàn’s Casa Ortega, and down the street from his famed former home — the shop is stocked with one-of-a-kind shirts for both men and women made with fabrics from the Swiss mill Alumo and the Italian mill Ibieffe, plus new leather jackets and sweaters, with small-batch shoes and bags on the way.

The store is small but very beautiful, much of it lined in stained pine in an homage to one of Barragàn’s favorite materials. The interior is the work of Sebastian Mancera, of Taller 3000, who incorporated custom details like a bench whose semicircular armrests echo an embedded vitrine with a circular glass window, plus a giant arched mirror and playful sculpted-wood “doughnuts” that bracket the main clothing rail to the paneled wall. The space is a true work of craftsmanship, just like the clothing it holds.

Here Are the Key Design Happenings Planned For Art Week

A suite of furniture made from Colombian and Mexican textiles by Lucia Echavarría, to be presented with UNNO Gallery during Mexico City Art Week.

Mexico City Art Week officially kicks off on Sunday, and we’re tracking all the most interesting happenings from afar. We may end up featuring some of these in upcoming newsletters, but for now, if you’re headed to CDMX next week, here’s your official design-show cheat sheet.

Studio84, which reps global design brands to the Mexican trade, is organizing a show at the iconic Ballet Folklórico de México building designed by Agustín Hernandez in 1973, featuring work presented by Unno Gallery, 6:AM Glass, and cc-tapis. Showing with Unno on the ballet’s main stage will be Alana Burns, Lucía Echavarría, and Andrea Vargas Dieppa. Worth going just to see the building.

Monolith Studio and Taller Batan are creating a listening room and cafe inside the historical Matsumoto Florería, a nursery founded in 1910.

Ago Projects will stage its second solo show of work by Lanza Atelier, who were just announced as designers of the 2026 Serpentine Pavilion, exploring the use of blue and green across cultures.

MASA gallery is teaming up with Modern Art gallery for a group exhibition, at MASA’s space, pairing works by artists and designers including Mark Manders, Eva Rothschild, Brian Thoreen, and Jose Davila.

The emerging design gallery Difane is hosting two exhibitions in its showroom, one group show and one exciting photography project by Alejandro Ramírez Orozco, who shot 14 objects by Mexican designers in four contemporary architecture projects across Mexico.

Get a peek inside another Modernist gem, Casa Alonso Rebaque — built in 1962 by Héctor Alonso Rebaque and Félix Candela — via a group exhibition that includes SU favorites Panorammma, Parafernalia, and ERM Studio.

Elise Durbecq is curating a show of works by Jimena Montemayor inside the old-school cantina Paris 16.

The multidisciplinary arts space Fábrica is creating a “living room” gallery in Tacubaya filled with works by 18 artists and designers, including Eny Lee Parker, Apapacho, Azotea, and more.

Sightseeing

Clockwise from top left: Casa Estudio Max Cetto, the Noguchi mural in a market, UNAM’s central library by Juan O’Gorman, the sculpture garden of Museo de Arte Moderno

IN MEXICO CITY

A few years back we made an official Sight Unseen Mexico City Google map, which was only available through our membership program, SU Friends. Now that the program has ended, we’ve decided to share the (heavily updated) map with all of you, as well as a few of my personal favorite CDMX attractions, below. Save the map to your Google Maps account for easy reference during your next trip, and of course don’t forget to take our Modernist Travel Guide with you as well — its Mexico City section features some special spots that are NOT on our map!

First things first: Never plan a trip to CDMX that doesn’t include a weekend. Saturdays are for the Pushkin flea market (smaller, more affordable) and Sundays are for Lagunilla (huge, more furniture and fancy things). See our map for locations.

Having visited all the Barragàns, plus Pedro Ramírez Vásquez’s home and studio, next on my list is the Casa Estudio Max Cetto, built by the German WWII refugee in 1949. Note that tour tickets book up in advance (hence why I haven’t been).

You may have heard that there’s a 1936 Socialist Noguchi mural in a public food market? It’s true and it’s amazing.

The city’s main modern art museum, Museo de Arte Moderno, built by Ramírez Vásquez in 1964, is no secret or anything, but I’m including it because I want to make sure everyone knows it’s great, and because I love the sculpture garden out back so much.

If you haven’t heard of Annex, it’s an umbrella business that helps run small designer guesthouses in Mexico, the US, and Japan. In Mexico City that means you can stay inside MASA gallery (the guesthouse there is called La Colorada) and the chocolate shop/bookstore Casa Bosques, who are also opening a second, brand-new pension as we speak.

An unmissable stop for design and art lovers is the campus of UNAM, which incorporates modernist buildings, murals, and art installations by Juan O’Gorman, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros and more. Ideally find a tour guide to take you through.

On my last trip to the city I checked out my now-favorite shopping rec: Banzo, a stunning (if pricey) clothing line by Camila Banzo, which includes other artisanal accessories she’s curated, as well as an excellent little vintage clothing shop in back called La Vintaje.

News

At Ago Projects’s new show, left, aluminum works by Pol Agustí, and right, flowers by Flores Cosmos and vessels by Kora Moya Rojo. Photos: Chris Grunder

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A little Mexico City in San Francisco: Opened during Fog earlier this month, Ago Projects has once again collaborated with Anthony Meier gallery in Mill Valley, staging a group show of three Mexico City designers, plus a floral installation by Flores Cosmos. Alana Burns (she’s everywhere!) has contributed mirrors and sculptures, Pol Agustí his first furniture series, and Kora Moya Rojo ceramic vases adorned with ceramic flowers. On view through February 27.

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I know I just hit you with an LA real estate tip last week, but this week the news was even more exciting: Ray Kappe’s own personal residence in the Pacific Palisades, which he built in the 1960s and which is family still owns, is on the market for the first time. It’s a major landmark for California Modernism and if you’ve got $11.5 million to burn (though it could go over asking I imagine), it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. Here are all the pics.

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A great primer on the work of Massimo and Lella Vignelli, ahead of a big retrospective at the Triennale museum in Milan opening next month. Favorite line: “In Designed by: Lella Vignelli, published in 2013 and marking five decades of their partnership, Massimo explicitly acknowledged the historical erasure of women’s contributions within mixed-gender studios.” I linked to the book (which is fully readable online) a few years ago on Sight Unseen’s Instagram but here it is again.

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Missed this in December but T Magazine rounded up all of their favorite house tours of last year. My vote is the upstate house by Charlap Hyman & Herrero.

From the Collection

ELEMENT BED BY KALON

The Element bed by Los Angeles studio Kalon marries the minimalist, chilled-out look of a platform bed with the more comfortable elevation of a traditional one, thanks to an aluminum base that floats the Douglas fir mattress plane aloft 12 inches. Even the mattress support slats inset underneath are solid wood, adding cushion without sacrificing quality. When we dream of the chic NYC artist’s loft we would have inhabited in the 1980s, this is the place we would have rested our heads, industrial and welcoming all at once.

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