GranHotel de la Cuidad Mexico

Description

The Gran Hotel Ciudad de México Art Nouveau interior, built in 1918 by Jacques Grüber

At the end of the 19th century, Mexico made strides to modernize; one way of doing this was by introducing new building techniques. It was the first building built using the « Chicago » technique, using iron and concrete and was home to one of the first department stores in Mexico City.

 Its entrance and façade is located on 16 de Septiembre and not the Zócalo. For that reason, its façade is the original Neoclassical and not the neocolonial mandated by the government to unify the appearance of the Zócalo. Only the side of the building facing the Zócalo itself has been redone in this fashion.

The interior of the hotel maintains most of the original decor created for when it was a department store. It is decorated lavishly in the Art Nouveau style.

It had an undulating and enveloping stairway, which was a replica of the one from the Au Bon Marché store in Paris, but it was lost in 1966.

However, the cage-like elevators and the stained-glass ceiling designed by French artisan Jacques Grüber are all originals.

The pattern of the glass ceiling is meant to evoke the railroad, at that time the symbol of modernity. At the center of the domed glass are three medallions

The building was converted to a hotel in 1968 to accommodate crowds attending the 1968 Summer Olympi It has been featured in multiple films, including the James Bond films Licence to Kill and Spectre and the Palme d’Or-winning political drama Missing, in which it doubles for the Hotel Carrera in Santiago