The Layered Histories of Buildings
José Esparza Chong Cuy and Frida Escobedo

Curator José Esparza Chong Cuy and architect Frida Escobedo—longtime collaborators and friends—reflect on architecture as a palimpsest of time. Drawing on their shared interest in how the built environment is formed through social use over time, the conversation explores how buildings are not fixed in meaning but are constantly reinterpreted through memory, inhabitation, and shifting political and environmental contexts. From archaeological landscapes to modernist housing blocks, and from museum wings to ephemeral pavilions, Esparza Chong Cuy and Escobedo consider how architecture is not only shaped by design, but by the layered histories it holds—both personal and collective.

José Esparza Chong Cuy is a curator, architect, and writer from Mexico. His work explores the nuances of public life through the intersecting lens of art and architecture. He is the executive director and chief curator of Storefront for Art and Architecture in New York, where he develops exhibitions and public programs about the built environment with a global perspective. From 2019–2025 he was also a part of the curatorial council of the Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, where he curated an exhibition of the work of artist Petrit Halilaj. Before arriving at Storefront in 2018, he was associate curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, where he organized exhibitions featuring artists such as Jonathas de Andrade and Tania Pérez Córdova. He also served as associate curator of the Museo Jumex in Mexico City, co-curator of the 2013 Lisbon Architecture Triennial, research fellow at the New Museum in New York, and contributing editor at Domus magazine. He has also guest-curated exhibitions exhibitions by Damián Ortega at the Museo Palacio de Bellas Artes and MARCO in Mexico, as well by Lina Bo Bardi at MASP in Brazil, and by Álvaro Urbano at La Casa Encendida and by Bárbara Sánchez-Kane at Collegium in Spain. José is a graduate of Columbia University’s Masters of Science in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices in Architecture.

Frida Escobedo is a Mexican architect renowned for her inventive use of everyday materials and simple geometric forms in a practice spanning buildings, experimental conservation projects, public sculpture, installation, and exhibition design. In 2006, Escobedo established her eponymous studio in Mexico City, undertaking prizewinning national projects such as the Hotel Boca Chica, Acapulco (2008); the El Eco Pavilion, Mexico City (2010); and the expansion of La Tallera Siqueiros, Cuernavaca (2012). Escobedo achieved international acclaim with a design that merged elements of Mexican architectural archetypes with local materials for the 2018 Serpentine Pavilion in London, making her the youngest architect at that time and first woman to receive the commission. She is also the first female architect to design a building for Metropolitan Museum of Art—the Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art, prioritizing sustainability, accessibility, and connection to The Met’s historical architecture slated to open in 2030. Her work was featured at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2012 and 2014 and the Chicago Architecture Biennial in 2015 and 2017, among other notable exhibitions. Escobedo was a 2019 International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and is a recipient of the 2024 Le Prix Charlotte Perriand.