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"View Slideshow\n\nUnder its purple jacaranda canopies and along its picturesque historic streets, Mexico City is in the midst of a cultural transformation. Led by a united front of gallerists, hoteliers, designers, and restaurateurs, the Mexican capital's thriving creative class has spent the past decade breathing new life into neighborhoods filled with previously down-at-the-heels Art Deco and Beaux Arts buildings. Meanwhile, progressive philanthropists and architects are erecting dynamic museums and skyscrapers at a bracing clip. This city of nearly 20 million, where crime and political upheaval are no longer front and center, is becoming a thoroughly modern metropolis\u2014a seductive second home to jet-setters from Paris to Buenos Aires and an enticing destination for savvy travelers.\n\n\"It's a return to the glamorous vibe of the 1920s, '30s, and '40s, where the artistic community is closely knit and trying to make a name for itself,\" says Mexico City native Annette Stephens, cofounder of the trendy jewelry-and-accessories label Anndra Neen with her sister Phoebe, who adds, \"A lot of people are starting to feel that and invest here.\"\n\nNot since the days of Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo has the Distrito Federal\u2014or D.F., as the city is known\u2014received such attention as an international art center. Partial credit goes to the rapidly growing contemporary-art fair Zona Maco, which celebrated its tenth anniversary this spring and is moving up its dates to February in 2014. Nowhere is the capital's art-world prominence more evident than in Plaza Carso, a former auto-manufacturing area in the Nuevo Polanco neighborhood that is fast becoming an architectural wonderland.\n\nThe latest addition is the highly anticipated Museo Jumex, the brainchild of Eugenio Lo\u0301pez Alonso, heir to the Grupo Jumex fruit-juice empire and arbiter of the company's stellar contemporary-art collection, widely considered one of the best in Latin America. Opening in November, the five-story travertine-clad museum tower, topped with a skylit saw-tooth roof, is architect David Chipperfield's first project in the region. Leading Mexican architect Fernando Romero designed the neighboring aluminum-tiled Museo Soumaya, completed in 2011, to accommodate the extensive holdings\u2014including a number of Riveras and Rodins\u2014of one of the world's richest men, Carlos Slim He\u0301lu. The plaza is also getting an underground theater, the Teatro Telcel, that will stage Broadway plays beneath a cantilevered metal canopy. The innovative structure, devised by the Madrid-based architecture firm Ensamble Studio, will be \"the most avant-garde theater in the country,\" Romero says.\n\nTo the south of Nuevo Polanco, across the Avenida Eje\u0301rcito Nacional, lies the city's commercial hub, Polanco, with its California Colonial\u2013style mansions, which house many of the city's best shops and restaurants, including chef Enrique Olvera's Pujol. Currently ranked 17th on S.Pellegrino's World's 50 Best Restaurants list, it specializes in elevated Mexican fare, such as suckling-lamb tacos and chili-infused blackberry sorbet. The area is also home to the D.F.'s most tranquil getaway, the 35-room Las Alcobas hotel. \"It's like you're staying at someone's amazing apartment,\" says Bertha Gonza\u0301lez Nieves, cofounder and CEO of the tequila brand Casa Dragones. A few blocks west is the namesake boutique of ascendant fashion designer Carla Ferna\u0301ndez, whose modern twist on indigenous textiles is described as \"ethnic with an edge\" by Carlos Couturier, cofounder of the hotel firm Grupo Habita. Vintage furniture abounds at neighboring Decada, while Pirwi stocks innovative pieces by regional designers like Emiliano Godoy and Cecilia Leo\u0301n de la Barra.\n\nDesign aficionados will also want to journey to Celeste Concept Store, just east of Polanco, for cutting-edge accents and furnishings as well as clothing and accessories from a smart roster of international and local fashion lines. In the northern Ana\u0301huac district is Chic by Accident, the well-curated emporium of French-born antiques dealer and designer Emmanuel Picault.\n\nSoutheast of Polanco in the Roma neighborhood, the vibe gets more bohemian. At lunchtime favorite Contramar, the ahi and the sea-urchin tostadas inspire cross-continental cravings. \"It's a classic spot\u2014the place for sobremesas,\" says Mexican artist Jose Da\u0301vila, referring to the tradition of long, lingering afternoon meals. A short walk away, off the Plaza de Ri\u0301o de Janeiro, is Galeri\u0301a OMR, a pioneering contemporary-art gallery, which recently opened an elegant shop carrying artist editions, design pieces, and the sculptural baubles of Anndra Neen. The Stephens sisters swear by the gourmand scene just south of the plaza, specifically chef Elena Reygadas's always-packed Mexican-infused Italian eatery Rosetta(011-52-55-5533-7804) and its bakery offshoot, Panaderi\u0301a Rosetta(011-52-55-5207-2976). The sisters also frequent Roma's Avenida A\u0301lvaro Obrego\u0301n, where the cozy tapas bar Fe\u0301lix pairs sliders with mojitos and the Art Deco restaurant Romita Comedor (011-52-55-5525-8975) serves up excellent fish tacos and ceviche under a dramatic glass roof.\n\nIn the slightly posher Condesa district, just west of Roma, Grupo Habita's 40-room Condesa DF looks out on the petite Parque Espan\u0303a. The 1928 Deco-inflected hotel has interiors by designer India Mahdavi, sparked by the work of architect Luis Barraga\u0301n. From Condesa, follow the locals to Roma Norte, where New York transplant Hamish Anderson whips up jerk-chicken tacos at the just-opened Latitud(011-52-55-6390-0295).\n\nFor more insight into the city's art scene, venture west to San Miguel Chapultepec, to find top gallery Kurimanzutto, cofounded by artist Gabriel Kuri's brother, Jose\u0301. Archivo Disen\u0303o y Arquitectura, the new museum devoted to Fernando Romero's design collection (ranging from Jean Prouve\u0301 chairs to Tinkertoys) is several blocks over, next to the buzzed-about upstart art gallery Labor. Nearby Bosque de Chapultepec park boasts two important institutions, the recently renovated Museo Tamayo and the Pedro Rami\u0301rez Va\u0301zquez-designed Museo Nacional de Antropologi\u0301a.\n\nThe city's original center, the Centro Histo\u0301rico district, is a UNESCO World Heritage site anchored by the Plaza de la Constitucio\u0301n, also known as the Zo\u0301calo. One of the largest plazas in the world, it is set among handsome historic buildings, including the Palacio Nacional, which is filled with some of Rivera's finest murals (though at press time an ongoing protest was preventing visitor access). The nearby Museo Nacional de Arte is also a must-see.\n\nSeveral blocks north of the Zo\u0301calo is La Lagunilla flea market, a treasure trove for design enthusiasts. \"Every time we need furniture for one of our properties, that's where we go,\" Couturier says. Last year his Grupo Habita brought the Zo\u0301calo area a stylish new 17-room hotel, Downtown Me\u0301xico, housed in a restored 17th-century residence, its courtyard enlivened with a restaurant by local chef Ricardo Mun\u0303oz Zurita.\n\nWhatever part of the city you visit, says Eugenio Lo\u0301pez Alonso, \"come with an open mind and purge the stereotypes that have been created by the media.\" It's a notion Bertha Gonza\u0301lez Nieves seconds. \"Mexico City is in total efflorescence,\" she says. \"You have to be open to see this transformation happening right in front of you.\"\n\nClick here to view the slide show of the can't-miss restaurants, museums and hotels in Mexico City, Mexico."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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