Oct 302017
 

Pedro Castellanos Lambley is one of several distinguished Mexican architects who designed and built the fine old homes in Chapala that now give the town its architecturally-eclectic appeal.

Castellanos was the architect of Villa Ferrara, at Hidalgo 240, in Chapala. This elegant dwelling was photographed in the mid-1930s by American photographer-architect Esther Baum Born during her travels across Mexico documenting the rise of Mexican modernist architecture.

Castellanos was born in Guadalajara on 26 January 1902 into a high society family that excelled in literature and politics. His grandmother was the poet Esther Tapia de Castellanos. His father was Luis Castellanos Tapia who was governor of the state of Jalisco, 1919-1920, and his mother was Carolina Lambley Magaña.

The young Castellanos completed his basic education in the U.K. and at a military school in the U.S. before returning to Guadalajara to enter the city’s Escuela Libre de Ingenieros, then run by Ambrosio Ulloa. Fellow students in the engineering school included several other noteworthy Guadalajara architects including the internationally renowned Luis Barragán Morfín.

By the time Castellanos graduated in 1924, Barragán was working on projects with his brother, Juan José Barragán, who was a prominent builder. When Luis Barragán left the partnership to start his own architectural practice, Castellanos succeeded him as Juan José Barragán’s lead designer.

Several years later, in about 1931, Castellanos and engineer Enrique Martinez Negrete started their own practice – Castellanos and Negrete – which quickly gained an enviable reputation for appealing and successful designs representative of early Modernism.

Villa Ferrara, Chapala. ca 1950. Architect: Pedro Castellanos Lambley. Postcard: González.

Villa Ferrara, Chapala. ca 1950. Architect: Pedro Castellanos Lambley. Postcard: J. González.

Among Castellanos’ most famous designs from this time are Villa Ferrara in Chapala and several stately family homes in Guadalajara, as well as the city’s old San Juan de Dios market (which was replaced in the 1950s).

Between 1935 and 1940, Castellanos partnered with Juan Palomar y Arias to propose an ambitious plan they referred to as “El Plano Loco” (“The Mad Plan”) for a utopian, visionary and futuristic Guadalajara. It called for the creation of a 120-meter-wide ring of circulation around the city. Districts would be divided by broad boulevards and linear parks and walkways would link to a massive green space in the center to produce a genuinely ecological city. On the city’s northern edge, they proposed the creation of a Parque de la Barranca.

Castellanos had become one of Guadalajara’s most successful and highly respected architects when he switched tracks in 1938 and entered the Franciscan order in Aguascalientes, after which he focused exclusively on designing ecclesiastical buildings. Castellanos was on the diocesan Art Commission from 1940 and designed the chapel at Ciudad Granja, the Templo de Nuestra Señora del Sagrado Rosario in Guadalajara and several other temples in small towns. He also designed the tower and entrance to the church of San Miguel Arcángel in La Manzanilla de la Paz south of Lake Chapala.

Pedro Castellanos Lambley died in his native Guadalajara on 25 September 1961.

Sources:

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  3 Responses to “Modernist architect Pedro Castellanos Lambley designed the Villa Ferrara in Chapala”

  1. Hola Tony: You Know? i have never visited this wonderful site, it´s amazing all the research you have done.
    Enrique Martínez Negrete was my uncle, he was an enginer and the brother of my Grand father Fernando Martínez Negrete. Enrique was the partner with Pedro Castellanos and they also build my grandparents house in Guadalajara. So i think they were the ones that build Villa Ferrara.

    He also had a brother Luis but he was more younger than Pedro Castellanos and he went to Mexico City where with his oldest brother Francisco Martínez Negrete Palomar build a lot of houses and buldings in CDMX.

    Thank you again for this wonderful site.

    • Jorge, Thanks for your very valuable correction. The relevant posts have been amended. I truly appreciate your help in improving them. Thanks again, un abrazo, Tony.

  2. Hola, buenos días,

    Les escribe Luis Castellanos, y sabia que Pedro Catellanos lambley estabade socio de Martinez Negrete, que veo que es tu tío. te comento y hago una correcion ya que en otras páginas e he encontrado algunos errores, el hermano de Pedro no era Luis, era Guillermos Castellanos Lambley ( mi abuelo), y tenia una hermana Eperanza – creo la más pequeña-, creo que fallecio la más grande Luisa. Luis castellanos y Esther Tapia tuvieron 3 hijos vivos. Guillermo, Pedro y Esperanza.

    espero sirva de ayuda, en algunas paginas ponen al padre de Pedro Guillerno, y ese era su hermano, no su Papá.

    Saludos,

    Luis Castellanos R.

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