Art News

Architect Ricardo Legorreta, who combined vibrant color with geometric shapes, dies at 80

MEXICO CITY.- Mexican architect Ricardo Legorreta has died at the age of 80. Legorreta’s best-known work is Mexico City’s Camino Real hotel, which was built in 1968. He also oversaw the remodeling of Los Angeles’ Pershing Square in 1993. The hallmark of Legorreta’s work was the use of color. He placed a 10-story purple bell tower in the middle of Pershing Square and covered the Camino Real’s front exterior walls in pink and yellow. Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department and National Arts Council said Legorreta died Friday, but did not give the cause of death. Legorreta continued the tradition of architect Luis Barragan, who died in 1988. Like Barragan, Legorreta used bright colors, massive solid walls, courtyards and geometric cutout windows