Plaza Lindavista Shopping Center

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The Plaza Lindavista is, in fact, the one that started it all. Ever since, Lindavista has been a major center for shopping and entertainment in the city’s north. Although a glance at the listings will show that it’s far from the only shopping center in the colonia, it’s still the original.

Enrique del Moral

The Plaza Lindavista opened in 1964 primarily to house a new Sears store. It was designed by the acclaimed and prolific architect from Irapuato, Enrique del Moral. His list of completed projects is almost too long to go into. He was instrumental in the entire “functionalist” movement. He’s primarily remembered for the role he played in designing and building the University City UNAM campus between 1947 and 1952. He worked there with architects Mario Pani and Salvador Ortega. His most famous work there is the Rectory Tower which is generally considered the centerpiece of the campus.

Few people today realize that the Plaza Lindavista was one of Moral’s projects. It’s far from the city arcades, and in Mexico City, the commercial pasillos, that preceded contemporary shopping malls. Still, one can see Moral’s long career designing hospitals in the passageways of this shopping center. (Moral designed more than 10 major hospitals.)

Badly damaged during the 1985 earthquake, parts of the shopping center took five years to rebuild. In the 35 years since then, the shopping center has suffered from fierce competition in the neighborhood, not least by its truly gigantic successor in the Parque Lindavista, just around the corner.  Still, the Plaza carries on. With about 80 retailers, eateries, cafes, and entertainment spots, for a 50+ year-old shopping center, it’s surprisingly with it.

• Visitors from countries where Sears has entirely disappeared should stop in and see what modest, smart, and contemporary retail purchasing can do for a retailer. There’s more on offer than you might imagine. And it’s not like in the 1980s.