Coming Up Roses: Fernando Romero

Fernando Romero heads up the Laboratorio de la Ciudad de Mexico, a research firm that investigates urban problems and possibilities.

Meghan Edwards -- Interior Design, 1/1/2009

Pittsburgh's Carnegie Museum of Art heats up this winter, starting February 28, with "Laboratory of Architecture/Fernando Romero." The first half of the exhibition title is the name of a Mexican firm; the 37-year-old who founded it is of course the second half. After cutting his chops in the Netherlands, working at Rem Koolhaas's Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Romero returned to his native Mexico City to establish an office near the home of the late Luis Barragán—which may explain the pink tint of a bridge-teahouse that Romero recently built in China. He's also working in Poland and the U.S. as well as Mexico and, simultaneously, heading up the Laboratorio de la Ciudad de Mexico, which investigates urban problems and possibilities.