Landscape Information
Named for the Nahuatl word meaning “the place where the flowers are grown,” this 684-acre park, approximately fifteen miles south of Mexico City, is nestled within a 7413-acre cultural landscape distinguished by lagoons and chinampas—an ancient agricultural system of floating, artificial islands. In the late 1980s the city undertook a large-scale rehabilitation of the lake zone, engaging landscape architect Mario Schjetnan and his firm, Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), to design Xochimilco Ecological Park (Parque Ecológico de Xochimilco). Built between 1990–1993 the park is divided into two sections by the Anillo Periférico highway.
Xochimilco’s southern part abuts the chinampas system, and includes two artificial lakes, wetlands, and canals designed by Schjetnan that collect stormwater and provides habitat for diverse ecological communities, including more than 200 species of native birds and fauna. Main access is provided where the lakes meet: an expansive plaza carpeted in a grid of walkways framing square grass panels. On axis is a visitor center that offers exhibition space, a restaurant, and—accessible from inside or out (via an exterior ramp)—a roof deck providing panoramic views of the park, mountainscape, and distant hills. Off axis is an elevated, helix-shaped water tower.
At the plaza’s western edge, seven aqueducts cascade treated water into the western-most lake. A network of curvilinear paths extends from the plaza; one marked by a sequence of arbors that leads to docked trajineras (gondolas)—based on precolonial, flat- bottom boats.
Central to the northern section is an expansive, 27 acre triangular-shaped, flower-and-plant market with 1,400 stalls. North of this precinct are wetlands, ponds, and extensive recreational amenities, including basketball courts and soccer fields. From 2010–2021 GDU rehabilitated the park, improving water quality, planting trees, and designing a new chinampa.
In 1987 Xochimilco cultural landscape was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site that “constitutes the only reminder of traditional Pre-Hispanic land-use in the lagoons of the Mexico City.” In 2024 it received the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) Landmark Award.
