The project was planned 1897, and the government allocated 5 million pesos for it. Since the building was a major public project, there was a competition to design it, ultimately won by a Frenchman, Émile Bénard.[3] The government's selection of a Frenchman as architect, who produced a neoclassical design with "characteristic touches of the French renaissance,",[4] points to government officials' aim to demonstrate Mexico's rightful place as an advanced nation. Díaz laid the first stone in 1910 during the centennial celebrations of Independence, when Díaz also inaugurated the Monument to Mexican Independence ("The Angel").[5] Rather than local Mexican materials used in the stone façade, the design called for Italian marble and Norwegian granite.[6]