Exciting Things Happening in Medellín

Medellín, Colombia is better known for drug kingpins than architects, but a boom in exciting contemporary architecture with a humanitarian approach has both planners and designers flocking to the city.

May 11, 2010, 2pm PDT | Tim Halbur

Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne paid a visit to Medellín after hearing the hype and is a convert.

He writes, "The city's commitment to public architecture, spearheaded by former mayor Sergio Fajardo, has - as advertised - produced a number of exquisitely designed libraries, schools and parks. Rising in some of Medellín's roughest neighborhoods, these projects are the capstones of a broader civic rebirth that has seen murder rates tumble nearly 90% from their highs of the early 1990s."

Hawthorne sees what's happening in Medellín as a unique blend of the two camps of current architectural trends, the experimental and the humanitarian.

Full Story:

Medellín, Colombia's architectural renaissance

Published on Tuesday, May 11, 2010 in The Los Angeles Times