CDMX's Gran Canal Linear Park was nominated for the Mies Crown Hall America Award

The Lineal Gran Canal Park, located in the vicinity of the Venustiano Carranza mayor's office and fully inaugurated in August 2021, received the nomination for the Prize Mies Crown Hall America (MCHAP), delivered by the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), which recognizes the most outstanding architectural works and includes those built between January 2018 and June 2021 in North and South America. The award ceremony will take place in spring 2023.

Conceived by IIT's Faculty of Architecture, the award has refined its criteria for the 2022 edition, considering “how projects integrate natural, built and human ecologies; create safe and new public spaces; engage communities as agents of change; use local labor and materials; improve life in challenged communities; and more,” according to Dirk Denison, member of the jury.

For the excellence of its design involving architecture, social contributions to families living in the area and environmental benefits, the park was considered to receive this award awarded to projects that contribute to improving the urban fabric and reducing social fragmentation; for what was a sewage today it is a park.

The jury for MCHAP 2022 is composed of: Sandra Barclay from Peru, Mónica Bertolino from Argentina, Alejandro Echeverri from Colombia and distinguished professor at TEC in Monterrey, Julie Eizenberg, Philip Kafka and Dirk Denison from the United States. The nominees are 200 works built, among them projects such as the remodeling and expansion of the Anahuacalli Museum, the Abasolo Distillery in Jilotepec and the Boys and Girls Club in Tecámac, among others. Recognition is awarded every two years within the Chicago-based organization's laboratory and mission control center.

The place has a public square, security cameras connected to the C5 and luminaires that are activated by photocells to save energy and take advantage of daylight. In addition, different species of trees and shrubs were planted; and an open-air theater was implemented. The investment was 184.8 million pesos to intervene 7.5 hectares, in which cycling, jogging, children's games, canine area, fountains, green areas and skatepark were set up.

According to the Government of Mexico City, the Gran Canal Lineal Park was built with the aim of recovering public spaces for its inhabitants as an act of social justice and today benefits approximately 100,000 families living in the neighborhoods near this place. It is part of the social program “Sowing Parks” during the administration of Claudia Sheinbaum.

The 1 km long strip that isolated more than 20 neighborhoods and almost 100,000 inhabitants does not exist today. The park has islands of activity made up of themed pavilions that seek to attract people of different ages; children, young people and older adults.

Sheinbaum recalled that the entire investment of the Grand Canal is historic because it is an infrastructure that was built more than 100 years ago, at the time of Porfirio Díaz, in order to improve the maintenance and passage of the water in the city; also, a few months ago he announced that the Sunday Walk Muévete by Bike was extended three kilometers, towards the Gran Canal Linear Park.

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