Presidente Masaryk Avenue is located in the central area of Mexico City, in Polanco, a neighborhood that was designed in the third decade of the XXth century as a middle income residential area, and has become the more exclusive commercial avenue in Mexico and probably the most important in Latin America. In the last years it has had to compete commercially with the mall’s system: horizontal vs vertical development, open vs close space, parking in the street vs parking building, open to anyone 24 hours vs restricted access, besides of the usual city problems (security, traffic, informal commerce, etcetera).
The project for Masaryk focused on: recuperation of public space, widening the sidewalk and removing cars from it. Allowing car drops so people can descent from vehicles without interfering traffic; guaranteeing universal accesibility in its 3kms length; increasing security by placing cameras; putting all electrical and telecommunication infrastructure underground foreseeing its grow for the next decades and improving their capacities – feeding lines for around 20% of the city run under this avenue – as well as new more efficient lighting; new water and sewage to avoid leaks or floods in the area and increasing the treated water availability; using concrete pavements for the road – a study demonstrate this pavement reduces pollution and emissions by increasing the efficiency of the vehicles – and high resistance materials, granite in light grey color for the sidewalk to reduce the heat island effect; new urban furniture; and by increasing and substituting the trees species to improve the environmental design of the area; rainwater reuse was discarded because a study showed that Mexico City rain is acid and polluted and requires a special treatment before reuse. This project is an example of public-private cooperation, in urban regeneration that can be achieved in a short-time period improving not only Masaryk avenue but the neighborhood.
