Architecture and Urbanism in Viceregal Mexico

Juan Luis Burke is Assistant Professor of Architectural and Urban History at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research is centered on Mexican and Latin American architecture and urbanism, and its interactions with Europe, particularly Italy and Spain.

"Turning our gaze away from Mexico City and from conventional art historical stylistic accounts, this remarkable scholarly study offers an important corrective to our understanding of colonial architecture and urbanism in Mexico. The book discusses the cultural and intellectual primary sources behind the impulses that crystallized in the urban design and major architecture of Puebla de los Ángeles, an important paradigm for Viceregal Mexico."Dr. Alberto Pérez-Gómez, Bronfman Professor of the History of Architecture, McGill University, Montreal"Today’s debates in architecture are finally revisiting the role that our discipline played in the mechanisms of colonization. Burke’s discussion of Puebla, Mexico, is a significant step in that direction for the author dissects how the built environment was an integral part of the process of colonizing spaces and peoples of the Americas."Fernando Luiz Lara, Professor and Director of PhD Program in Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin"Mythically founded by angels as an embodiment of Heavenly Jerusalem, the town of Puebla soon became a complex multicultural city in need of constantly reimagining its utopian origins through the medium of building. In synthetically retelling its story from perspectives that range from theology to architectural theory, Burke has made an invaluable contribution to the study of early-modern age urbanism."Juan Manuel Heredia, Associate Professor of Architecture, Portland State University

• Introduction; 1. The Creation of a Town: Puebla de los Ángeles as an Urban and Theological Experiment (c. 1530s–1580s); 2. The Grid and the Hill: Puebla’s Urban Form (c. 1530s–1610s); 3. Urban Palaces and Architectural Treatises: A New World Renaissance in Puebla (c. 1570s–1630s); 4. The Bishop and his Cathedral: Juan de Palafox’s Ideal Christian Republic (c. 1600s–1650s); 5. Decline and Splendor: Puebla de los Ángeles’ Baroque Era (c. 1660s–1790s); Bibliography; Index