Casa Lamm

[3] The house was originally constructed as part of Colonia Roma, which was a development in the late 19th and early 20th century on a former horse farm owned by Pedro Lascurain.

Like others built during this time, the architecture broke with that of the colonial period, heavily influenced by European, especially French, trends of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Upon Lamm’s death in 1939, his widow sold the property to the García Collantes family who kept it until 1990, keeping the house from being demolished like many of the Colonia in the latter 20th century for redevelopment.

Beatriz Espejo inaugurated the space dedicated to literature, which as hosted names such as Guillermo Arreola, Álvaro Mutis and Octavio Paz .

[5] It was part of a larger project to make Colonia Roma a center for the visual arts in Mexico and attract more galleries, artists and others to set up shop here.

However, security problems and lack of maintenance of public areas in the colonia by the city government have sometimes made it difficult to attract or keep artists and institutions.

[5] In 2010, the Center held over fifteen exhibitions related to painting, photography and other disciplines, including those by Jacinto de Marín, and Francisco Toledo .

It contains works by pioneers such as Charles Gerard, William Henry Fox Talbot, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Kati Horna, Karl Blossfeldt, Man Ray, Guillermo Kahlo, Edward Weston, Tina Modotti, Graciela Iturbide, Pablo Ortiz Monasterio and Rafael Doniz as well as by Alvarez Bravo himself.

It has a wide variety wines from various countries but the menu is not extensive containing international cuisine with Mexican touches such as huitlacoche, epazote and tamarind.