González de León, Teodoro

González de León, Teodoro, 1926–2016, Mexican architect, b. Mexico City. After studying at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (1942–47), he was a draftsman (1948–49) in Le Corbusier's studio and assisted with the Unité d'Habitation housing complex in Marseille. Noted as a designer of monumental public buildings, he reinterpreted European modernism in a Mexican context, fusing it with pre-Hispanic and colonial elements. His light-filled buildings were most often made of exposed concrete and designed around spacious plazas. Among his works are the College of Mexico (1976) the Rufino Tamayo Museum of Contemporary Art (1981), and the renovation of the National Auditorium (1991), all in the Mexico City area and collaborations with the Polish-Mexican architect Abraham Zabludovsky. His University Museum of Contemporary Art (2008) also is in the capital. González de León designed public buildings in other Mexican cities and Mexican embassies in several countries as well.

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