Mexico City’s “Bosque de Chapultepec” is the largest urban park in Latin America. This popular park provides not only an invaluable ecosystem to the city but it also has a critical role in the development of cultural and recreational activities.

The Urban Cultural Park [Parque de Cultura Urbana – PARCUR] restoration project is part of the greater Chapultepec’s eco-cultural development plan called “Construction of the Bosque de Chapultepec Cultural Complex”, under the leadership of the renowned Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco Félix.

The project restored two iconic facilities that had long been abandoned, the aquatic park “El Rollo”, opened in 1979, and “Atlantis”, the first commercial dolphin aquarium in Mexico City. These empty spaces were transformed into recreational and cultural venues that would encourage a wide range of activities and be accessible and inclusive to all people.

The landscape design team developed an inclusive plan to build a variety of amenities including a skate park (bowl and street plaza), footpaths, exhibition areas, a café, an open-air forum, an agora cinema, a parking area, restrooms and a great number of walls that welcome graffiti artists to create a site of artistic expression.

The first stage of the Urban Cultural Park was inaugurated in February 2022, during the “Primer Festival de Cultura Urbana” [First Urban Cultural Festival], offering a venue for large-scale art events and urban expression.

In October 2023, the project was completed with the construction of two large arched domes. Universal accessibility was a priority in the team’s schematics, as was environmental sustainability. Rainwater and wastewater processing plants were built and ecological diversity was insured through the planting of trees, shrubs, flowers, herbaceous plants as well as the creation of pollinator gardens.

Professional urban skateboarders and celebrated graffiti artists joined the project to incorporate their vision and experience in the construction of each space, to ensure their expertise and their sense of identity was expressed throughout the process. In a time of global ecological and political anxiety, creating spaces of community, culture, sport and artistry is needed to bring people together, and this is what the “Parque de Cultura Urbana” is all about.