Roma: The District the Earthquake Saved · 2
An Elite District Drawn by a President’s Era
Ep.2 · The Porfiriato and a planned Roma
FitTrip Editor · 2026.07.21
Colonia Roma was laid out in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, during the Porfiriato — the rule of President Porfirio Díaz — as an upscale residence for urban elites and industrialists. It had the latest infrastructure of the day: running water, plumbing and Parisian-style boulevards. The project was led by businessmen including Edward Walter Orrin, Pedro Lascuráin and Cassius Lamm, and backed by the money of the political elite of the time. Roma, in other words, is not an old centre that formed naturally but a planned city drawn from the start by one era’s European orientation and capital. That character explains both the architecture of Ep.3 and the preservation of Ep.5 — because it was built in one unified period, what it had to lose and to save was a single whole.
Walk Roma and you get the odd sense that the buildings resemble one another. That is no accident. This district is a picture one era drew all at once.
A president’s taste
Colonia Roma was laid out during the rule of President Porfirio Díaz — the Porfiriato — as an upscale residence for urban elites and industrialists Fact. The period was marked by a modernising policy oriented toward Europe, especially France, and Roma is that taste realised as a city Estimate. The latest infrastructure — running water, plumbing, Parisian-style boulevards — was laid from the start Fact.
Who drew it
The project was led by businessmen including Edward Walter Orrin, Pedro Lascuráin and Cassius Lamm, and backed by money from the political elite of the time Fact. It was a commercial residential development aimed at the wealthy Estimate. In this Roma is the opposite of districts built up by labour and migration, like Dadaocheng or Choryang — it was drawn top-down.
The condition the plan left
Why does this matter? Because Roma was planned all at once in one unified period, what it had to lose and what it had to save were a single whole Estimate. The consistent grain of the architecture in Ep.3 and the condition of preservation in Ep.5 both come from here. And the 1985 earthquake struck exactly that single whole head on (Ep.4).
FAQ
- What was the Porfiriato?
- The period when President Porfirio Díaz ruled Mexico (roughly 1876–1911). It was marked by a modernising policy oriented toward Europe, especially France, and Colonia Roma is a leading case of that taste realised as a city.
- Who made Roma?
- Businessmen including Edward Walter Orrin, Pedro Lascuráin and Cassius Lamm led the development, backed by money from the political elite of the time. It was a commercial residential development aimed at the wealthy.
- Why does this matter?
- Because Roma being planned in one unified period explains everything that follows. The consistency of its architecture (Ep.3) and what fell and survived in the 1985 quake (Ep.4, 5) all come from its character as a planned city.
Checklist
- Laid out during the Porfiriato (1876–1911) as a plan
- Led by businessmen (Orrin, Lascuráin, Lamm) with political-elite money
- Parisian boulevards and running water from the very start
- A unified-period plan → the root of its architectural consistency and preservation
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