It was also created to be a kind of human habitat and includes artwork such as murals and green spaces such as the Santiago Tlatelolco Garden.

Originally, the complex was designed to house people from different economic social strata, but today almost all residents are of middle to middle-low income.

The complex was ordered built by the administration of President Adolfo López Mateos, between 1960 and 1965, with financing and condominium administration provided by the Banco Nacional Hipotecario, Urbano y de Obras Publicas, S.A.[2][3] The area has been an urban center since the pre-Hispanic period, when it began as an independent city state on an island in Lake Texcoco.

[4] In the late 19th and early 20th century, the area was a train yard for the Ferrocarriles Nacionales de México.

[5] It surrounds the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, a place that symbolizes the synthesis of Mexico's pre-Hispanic and colonial pasts with the modern day.

[3] The project involved a total of 130 buildings over an area of 1,200,000 square metres (13,000,000 sq ft),[3] with schools, hospitals, markets, businesses, church and police stations.

This was built in the form of a triangle or lance point (to resist earthquakes) 127 meters high with 24 floors.

Access is through a number of arched entryways, on gray and red stone paths which join in the center.

This same artist also created other works here including Tlatelolco, raíz y expresión de México (1998), Homenaje a la mujer (1999) and 1985: Sismo y resurrección (2000) .

[4][7][9] Born in 1911, Mario Pani was a Mexican architect who mostly grew up in Europe and obtained his degree in architecture from the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1934.

Pani's work focused on major residential centers such as large apartment buildings and condominiums.

[2] Quality of life in the area diminished after the Tlatelolco massacre on 2 October 1968, which occurred on the Plaza de las Tres Culturas.

[7] The area's only fire station closed during that year and police presence began to diminish, leading to rising crime.

[7] Before 19 September 1985, the complex consisted of 102 apartment buildings, seven medical facilities, twenty two schools, and about 500 small businesses serving the 80,000 residents living there.

[13] The complex is located in the Cuauhtémoc borough, which is considered to be a high risk area for earthquake activity most of it lies on former lakebed, with its soft, waterlogged soils.

The complex is in a “dynamic amplification” zone, where the shockwaves of a quake over 7 on the Richter scale become strongly amplified.

[14] During the 90 seconds the ground shook on that day, two of the three sections of the Nuevo León building fell with about 500 dead, more than 200 missing and 27 orphans.

[12] The severe damage to this and to the Mulifamiliar Juàrez made for a large percentage of the 3,000 housing units lost on that day.

[3] The reconstruction contract the city government signed promised to return residents to their units in two years.

[12] Many, who could not afford to wait further, sold their units at bargain prices, often to those politically connected, or just abandoned them altogether, allowing squatters to move in.

[2] Despite repair work being officially declared finished in 1995, buildings were left with large cracks in the wall, loose wiring, half done projects, unhinged door, inoperable elevators and more.

[18] Since 1985, a number of preventative measures have been taken in the surviving buildings including inspections and the removal of accessory or decorative features that may be in danger of falling off.

Others also blame residents’ failure to identify themselves as part of a community and as owners of or responsible for the complex's common spaces.

[21] Of the six mini police stations there, three are abandoned or used as storage, and the remaining three do not have telephone lines to allow residents to call directly.

[21] Structural problems include the relatively fragile state of the remaining buildings and their susceptibility to further damage.