Lomas de Chapultepec

Lomas de Chapultepec facing from Periférico towards Bosques de las Lomas.

Las Lomas is the common name of a residential district in Mexico City located in the delegación (borough) of Miguel Hidalgo. Its real name is Lomas de Chapultepec and dates back from around 1930, when it was founded with the name Chapultepec Heights. Home to some of the biggest mansions and wealthiest people in Mexico, it is located in northwestern Mexico City. In recent years commercial and business areas have been created in the district. Its main entrance is through Paseo de la Reforma.

History

Las Lomas was founded in the early 1920s by American, British and local investors, as an expansion of Mexico City. It was created on the hills in the west side of the valley. It was professionally planned by American landscape architects and engineers in the Olmstead "Garden City fashion", with large lots and large gardened yards, wide winding streets and gardened boulevards, scattered small shopping areas within walking distances from homes; the early settlers attracted to the area were young professionals and some of the nouveau riche revolutionaries, bureaucrats and the new business class of Mexico City, small cottages were built on the side streets and mostly large houses on Paseo de la Reforma and Paseo de Las Palmas, the two main avenues.

Many of the early houses were built in the "Californian Colonial" style with imitation stone carvings around windows and doors and pitched roofs, later on began they began to build modern houses designed by the big name architects. Many of the houses built during that time, including the modest house of Mexico's richest man (Carlos Slim Helú), are still standing in the area and constitute the largest mansions in the entire Lomas Area.

First came Lomas de Chapultepec, later on in the early 50's, riding on Lomas' success and the glitter on its name, other developers opened subdivisions further out into the adjacent Estado de Mexico with names including the magic word "Lomas", such as Lomas de Tecamachalco, Lomas de la Herradura, Lomas Altas and Bosques de Las Lomas (where President Lopez Portillo built his gigantic estate - La Colina del Perro).

The area grew in size, being mostly inhabited by the upper class and the European immigrants that arrived to Mexico in the early 20th century.

Today, Lomas is defending itself from the onslaught of the automobiles residing in its badly designed neighbouring developments, the lack of adequate public transportation and street infrastructure thus creating a destroying force, putting the Lomas street infrastructure under pressure to an otherwise calm, beautiful and well designed urban space that Lomas is.

Geography

Lomas de Chapultepec is located in the northwestern hills of Mexico City valley and was mostly created following the contour of the terrain, leaving the natural drainage as open space. The developed area was planted with large number and variety of trees, and now is one of the most wooded areas in the city.

The area was well planned and designed by some of the best professionals of the time, its main avenues run the crests of the hills while the streets follow the gently curves of the terrain, thus affording varying points of view and some magnificent vistas of the city on the flat part of the valley.

The Name "Lomas"

Because "Lomas de Chapultepec" (originally called Chapultepec Heights) constituted a very successful small and neat neighborhood along with Bosques de las Lomas, further urban upscale developments in the surrounding areas took the name "Lomas" -Spanish for hills- to steal its glamour and induce people to think they were part of the "Lomas" complex and concept, and expanded the Lomas area into several new nearby neighborhoods. Some of the neighborhoods that stemmed from these expansions are Lomas de Tecamachalco, Lomas de la Herradura, Lomas de las Palmas, Lomas Anahuac, Lomas Altas, Lomas de Bezares, Lomas de Santa Fe and Lomas de Vistahermosa, with Lomas de Chapultepec being the original name and the best designed, planned and developed subdivision among them.

Today, the area encompassing Lomas and neghboring developments is sometimes incorrectly generally referred to as Lomas, though locals specify where they live in, be it Tecamachalco, Herradura, etc.

Economy

Interjet has its headquarters in Lomas de Chapultepec.^[1]

See also

Mexico portal

• Polanco (Mexico)

References

1. ^ "privacy." Interjet. Retrieved on November 4, 2010. "If you do not want your information to be shared with any third party or not to receive any information or required to clarify or modify the information provided, you have the right to send your written instructions/request to ABC Aerolíneas, SA de CV, residing at Prado Sur 230, First Floor, Colonia Lomas de Chapultepec, CP 11000, Mexico City, D.F. or via the email address or phone number provided on this page for user contact."