Pedro Ramírez Vázquez

Pedro Ramírez Vázquez (April 16, 1919 – April 16, 2013) was a Mexican late twentieth century architect.

He was born in Mexico City.

He was persuaded to study architecture by writer and poet Carlos Pellicer.

Ramírez Vázquez earned a Bachelor of Architecture degree from UNAM in 1943.

He was responsible for the construction of some of Mexico's most emblematic buildings.

He was a modern architect with influences from the European modern movement, Latin American modern architects and precolumbian cultures.

Concrete is the material he used most often.

He developed a system to construct schools in rural areas, constructing thousands of schools in Mexico and abroad.

The UNICEF has used such system.

This activity began in the 1950s, with the design of a wooden chair with leather.

He was the president of the organizing committee of the Mexico City Olympics in 1968 and the World Cup in 1970.

He was a member of the International Olympic Committee.

The 1968 Summer Olympics were the first in which a woman lit the Olympic fire in the stadium.

He managed that the then West Germany and East Germany, participated under one anthem, and under the same flag, in the context of a Cold War with radically opposing positions, Ramírez Vázquez managed to find common ground between them, and because of this, the Mexico 1968 Olympics were the only time during the period of the Cold War, that the two German Nations were united in their identity elements, which were their official anthem and flag.

He also managed that the Spanish Olympic Committee delegation participated in the games, when Mexico had no relations with the government of Francisco Franco and the Spanish Republican Government in exile, laid in Mexico City.

This was able, thanks and through Ramírez Vázquez´s management with the Republican government in exile.

He organized the children's painting festival for children around the world to come together and express themselves through art.

He organized the youth camp for the young people around the world so that they could come together with the purpose of enriching each other by understanding their traditions, so that they would know each other better than they did before.

He also organized numerous events of coexistence, and cultural enrichment for the youth and human genetics program.

The exhibition space of knowledge and exposure on the application of nuclear energy to the welfare of mankind, so that young people knew of the cultures of young people from other parts of the world, and achieved thus better understand each other.

He organized the exhibition of popular atesanías, the world festival of folklore, international gathering of poets, meeting the international festival of arts, international meeting of sculptors, and exhibition of masterpieces of world art.

It organized a film festival whose theme was the "mission of youth".

In 1968, he chaired in Mexico Pro Defense Committee of the Jewish minority in the Soviet Union.

As president of the International Cultural Commission of the International Olympic Committee, he proposed in said organism, the rescue of the Olympic Truce, and proposed to invite Nobel Peace Prize winners to the Olympic Games.

Restoration work on the Cathedral and Sacred Metropolitano.

The urban landscape project included works to restore the integrity of the facades, and construction levels.

Another issue that was addressed was the valuable monuments of the Historical Center, who saw their integrity affected by differential subsidence of soil, for example, the Temple of the Most Holy, the Loreto, the La Soledad, the church of Santa Teresa Antigua, and the group of the temples of San Juan de Dios, and the Plaza de la Santa Veracruz.

Some relevant projects include:

The creative spirit of Pedro Ramírez Vázquez was not limited to architecture, because it also included furniture design, both indoors as urban furniture.

In the early 1970s, he developed a line of furniture in steel plate with different finishes, covering indoor and outdoor chairs, coffee tables and dining room tables.

He won several awards including the National Arts Award in 1973, Cemex Award in 2003 and IDSA's Special Award in 1969 for notable results, creative and innovative concepts and long-term benefits to the industrial design profession, its educational functions and society at large.

He was minister of public infrastructure and human settlements during president's José López Portillo government.

He was founder and rector of the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana.

He was part of the faculty of the UNAM and received various honorary degrees (doctor honoris causa) granted by several universities including the UNAM.

The Los Angeles Times wrote that "Ramirez Vazquez was known for stunningly original designs that blended a European modernist sensibility with pre-Columbia aesthetics."

Pedro Ramirez Vazquez has focused his professional activity as a form of service that enriches the lives of its recipients with his architectural work, his dreams, or with his activity in other areas as organizer of the Olympic Games, as a public servant or person humanist conviction.

In the Olympics created the advertising program for peace and identity link between the cultures of young people participating countries.

He thought it was more important to leave a legacy of peace in which young people would identify the traits that unite them and that they meet not only to compete, but to appreciate how every aspect and resources of their time are likely to be applied to keep hope alive for peace; for this reason, among others, Ramírez Vázquez promoted and managed that the International Olympic Committee withdrew the invitation for the Olympic Committee of South Africa to participate in the games in solidarity with the marginalized minority of people who lived in that country.

He included in the official movie game (produced by the organizing committee), the scene of the award of the 200 freestyle planes in which Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised his fist in protest, demanding greater equality for the human rights of the African American population in the United States (this against the wishes of the President of the International Olympic Committee, and the then Mexican members of that body).

In the Olympics for the first time, Pedro Ramírez Vázquez wanted to give women an important place in the celebration of the games.