- Urban Renewal of the N-W Area of the Historic Center and the Alameda Corridor of Mexico City.    666 kb by    Greene, Fernando | fgreene@correo.posgrado.unam.mx    Short Outline This paper evaluates the restoration necessary to solve the damage due to obsolescence and the 1985 earthquake of the Historic Center and the Alameda Corridor, conducted by the government and the private sector. Abstract In 1985 a very intensive earthquake hit Mexico City with a toll superior to 20,000 deaths. Many buildings and infrastructures of the Historic Center and its surrounding areas were severely damaged. This fact speed up the degradation of this zone which started in the fifties, caused by the descentralization of political, financial, comercial and educational activities. The earthquake accelerated many demolitions in this area. Four of the more important hotels of the city and many big buildings were demolished, reason why, for many years big lots remained vacant and a notable degradation acompanied by the occupation of street vendors took place. From 1950 to the earthquake, three urban renewal programs were implemented, all of them with emphasis in urban landscape and pavements and without rebuilding hidden infrastructures of water, sewarage, gas and electricity. From 2001 the current government of the city decided to intervene the Historic Center and the Alameda Corridor. This research evaluates this intervention, different from prior ones, because it is an integral restoration which takes care of all hidden infrastrucutres, pavements, urban landscape in all public spaces, and promotes a situation in which the government with its actions creates synergies which encourage the private sector to participate in the construction of all kinds of new buildings. These actions have contributed to the population recovery and increase of visitors attracted by the advantage of renovated spaces and the centrality of the area. Public spaces were totally remodeled in just four years freeing them from street vendors. The answer of the private sector in conjunction with the Federal and Local Governments, remodeling or constructing new buildings, has been of prime importance. The image and quality of these areas have notably changed, reason why this program is considered hihgly succesful and therefore subject to an evaluation like the one presented in this paper. Keywords Urban Renewal, goverment intervention Historic Center Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2005: Making Spaces for the Creative Economy   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper