Table of Contents

• Authors' Note
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One. The Primordial Sea: Forming Open Space in Mesoamerica
  • Mesoamerican Concept of Space
  • Mountains and Altepetls
  • Caves, Quatrefoils, and Sunken Courts
  • Types of Open Space in Mesoamerica
    • Triad Centering
    • U-shaped Courts
    • Quadrangles
  • Quincunx: Symbol of the Cosmos
  • Ballcourts
  • The Sunken Court of TeopantecuanitlÁn
  • The Dallas Plaque: A Cosmogram
• Chapter Two. Forming Spanish Towns in Mesoamerican Culture
  • People and Ideas
  • The Invasion
  • The Europeans Making Contact
  • European Plazas in the Early Sixteenth Century
  • Origins of the Plaza
  • Building New World Towns
    • Types of Towns
    • First Acts and Encounters
  • Laws of the Indies
  • Conversion
  • Quincunx Patios
  • Relaciones GeogrÁficas
• Chapter Three. Sixteenth-Century Communal Open Spaces (Five Hundred Years Later)
  • Caves and Crevices
    • Amecameca, State of MÉxico
    • Zoquizoquipan, Hidalgo
    • Valladolid, YucatÁn
  • Quincunxial Arrangements
    • Atlatlahuacan, Morelos
    • Huejotzingo, Puebla
    • Huaquechula, Puebla
    • Zacualpan de Amilpas, Morelos
  • Terraced Mountains
    • Molango, Hidalgo
    • Achiutla, Oaxaca
    • YanhuitlÁn, Oaxaca
  • Sunken Courts
    • TepoztlÁn, Morelos
    • Tochimilco, Puebla
    • Calpan, Puebla
  • Ballcourts and Bullrings
    • Villa DÍaz Ordaz, Oaxaca
    • Tlanalapa, Hidalgo
    • Tepeapulco, Hidalgo
  • Open Space Ensembles
    • Tlaxiaco, Oaxaca
    • Tlacolula, Oaxaca
    • Otumba de GÓmez FarÍas, State of MÉxico
    • Tlacochahuaya, Oaxaca
    • Tepeaca, Puebla
    • Etla, Oaxaca
  • Bishop Quiroga's Utopias in MichoacÁn
    • Tzintzuntzan, MichoacÁn
    • PÁtzcuaro, MichoacÁn
    • Santa Fe de la Laguna, MichoacÁn
    • ErongarÍcuaro, MichoacÁn
    • Angahuan, MichoacÁn
  • Visible Overlays and Deliberate Alignments
    • Mitla, Oaxaca
    • Hacienda Xaaga, Oaxaca
    • Teposcolula, Oaxaca
    • Coixtlahuaca, Oaxaca
    • Epazoyucan, Hidalgo
  • The YucatÁn Experience
    • YotholÍn, YucatÁn
    • TibolÓn, YucatÁn
    • Izamal, YucatÁn
• Chapter Four. Origins and Evolution
• Epilogue: Plazas in the Twenty-first Century
  • The San Miguel Example
  • Qualities of Successful Plazas
  • Sprawl and the American Myth
• Appendix. Measured Drawings: Plans of Towns
• Notes
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index

Promotional Information

Extensively illustrated with detailed site plans and photographs, this architectural history of the Mexican plaza reveals why this central public space has been the heart of the community from ancient Mesoamerican times until the present

About the Author

Logan Wagner, who grew up in Mexico, is an architect, author, and teacher of architectural design, architectural history, and vernacular building techniques. He coauthored Contemporary Mexican Design and Architecture.

The late Hal Box was Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Texas at Austin. He was named Dean Emeritus before his passing in 2011. His fifty years’ experience in teaching and practicing architecture included work on schools, churches, office and commercial buildings, dormitories, and residences, as well as urban design projects. He was the author of Think Like an Architect.

Susan Kline Morehead holds an M.A. in architectural history and theory from the University of Texas at Austin, and she has spent nearly thirty years directing nonprofit arts organizations at the city, state, and national levels. She regularly lectures on sixteenth-century Mexican architecture and iconography.

Reviews

"Drawing on extensive and detailed surveys of nearly 100 Mexican town centers, which were carried out by teams of volunteers led by the authors, this book challenges the Eurocentric interpretation of colonial town planning in the New World as solely influenced by European theories and traditions. The authors instead argue that the open urban spaces and associated building ensembles of early colonial Mexico were envisioned and functioned as what Sam Edgerton has termed 'Theaters of Conversions' syncretizing elements of two distinct cultural traditions in order to foster integration and acculturation." - Hispanic American Historical Review "Ancient Origins of the Mexican Plaza: From Primordial Sea to Public Space is lavishly illustrated, richly documented, and conceptually limited. The result of a dozen years of field research, the authors draw on a valuable archive of digital images, photographs, and plans of 90 town centers in Mexico... The authors present a wealth of information about Mexican plazas. Adding to their own observations and photographs, the authors include extraordinary images of early colonial towns illustrated in the Relaciones Geograficas held in the Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas, Austin - American Anthropologist