Today
Today, the Reforma is filled with tourist attractions, luxurious restaurants and hotels, office buildings, public art exhibitions, and new construction.
Reforma has become a traditional place for the Mexicans to celebrate or protest. Most protest rallies commonly go along Reforma from El Ángel to the Zócalo or from the Zócalo to Los Pinos. Many parades also make their way through Reforma. El Ángel roundabout is a traditional place for the celebration of the victories of the national football team, mostly during World Cups.
Since 2003, Mexico City's government started a renewal program for Paseo de la Reforma. It included the maintenance of the existent gardens and the creation of new ones, the intensive cleaning and sweeping of streets and sidewalks, the construction of new pink quarry sidewalks and benches, the creation of access bays in the Zoo, lake and Modern Art Museum for touristic and school buses, the installation of new lighting, the moving of the monument to Cuauhtémoc to the crossing of Insurgentes Avenue and Paseo de la Reforma, the construction of prism shaped concrete structures in the median which also have plants and flowers, the promotion of Reforma as a cultural walk organizing different expositions along the avenue sidewalks, and the maintenance of the monuments, sculptures and fountains. Also, a touristic route that goes from Chapultepec Park to the Historic Center along Reforma was established by a double deck bus called Turibus.
With the renewal project, new life has come to the avenue. It has become a main attraction of the city and the most expensive one to build on. However, after many of Mexico City's banks and business left Paseo de la Reforma for the Santa Fe business district in the last decade, the boulevard has been the center of a real state renaissance. Remarkable buildings built (or under construction) in recent years are Torre Mayor, Torre HSBC in the Ángel roundabout, Torre Libertad with St. Regis Hotel in the Diana fountain roundabout, and Reforma 222 designed by famous Mexican architect Teodoro González de León at Reforma and Havre St. Recently opened mix-used developments include a Ritz-Carlton Hotel & Residences and a Park Hyatt Hotel & Residences.
Read more about this topic: Paseo De La Reforma
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