Adamo Boari and Mexico, a bittersweet story

October 22, 2020 at 13:27 p.m.

 

The architect Adamo Boari imprinted his mastery and artistic ability on an emblem of national identity: the Palace of Fine Arts; However, due to the country's internal problems and the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution failed to see his finished work.

The construction of this architectural icon began in 1904 and ended in 1934, after resuming its construction in 1928 under the guidance of Federico Mariscal.

Also, according to the article of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana "Chance and coincidences of the architect Adamo Boari", which cites the architect Víctor Jiménez, the emblem built at the intersection of Eje Central and Avenida Juárez, was "The ugly duckling of national architecture, and lasted several years in a 'long purgatory of discredit'".

And he emphasizes that, at the popular level, it was said that Fine Arts was a birthday cake.

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Of Italian origin, Boari was born on October 22, 1863 in the Papal States and completed his university studies as a civil engineer and architect at the Ferrara University and University of Bologna.

After working and living in different countries of the American continent, including Brazil, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, New York and Chicago, he arrived at Mexico in 1899 during the government of the president Porfirio Diaz.

Noted for his work in the National Architecture Exhibition in Turin, Boari was commissioned to build several venues in different parts of the Mexican territory.

Before reaching the peak of popularity in Mexico with the execution of The Fifth Post Office (1902-1907), also known as Palacio Postal and Palacio de Bellas Artes, the artist devised the architecture of the Matehuala Parish in San Luis Potosí and the Atoning temple of Guadalajara, and directed the remodeling of the National Theatre and National Palace.

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Inspired by the characteristics of European design and art nouveau, Boari also won the admiration of the famous American architect, Frank Lloyd Wright.

Who dedicated a few lines in his will to Boari: “I remember a boiling Italian, Boari with his last name, who had won the competition to build the great National Opera House in Mexico City ...

He stopped by our attic temporarily to make the plans for said building. He was remote from all of us, but he was observant, curious, and lively. He would look at some of what I was doing and say with a well-intentioned groan: 'Ah, austere architecture!', he would turn on his heels with another groan and return to his Italian Renaissance ruff, as I said in retaliation.

Although Adamo Boari left Mexico around 1816, he built a house in the Roma colony, whose characteristics defined it as a avant-garde construction of the first decade of the XNUMXth century.

This property, located on Jalisco and Veracruz avenues, today Álvaro Obregón and Insurgentes, was a reinforced concrete structure and integral formwork; However, upon the architect's death, the house was sold by his daughter Elita, who received it as an inheritance.

Years later, after its demolition, a residential and commercial building was erected there, which disappeared in the 1985 earthquake.

A year later, that place was used to house a garden in memory of the writer Juan Rulfo and, currently, it is a scene that goes unnoticed by passersby.

In this sense, Boari's home in Mexico does not lie in his choice to live, but in the one in which he had his maximum creative potential: Fine Arts.

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