Cine Las Américas

Construction and cinema years

The complex was built in 1952 to a design by Villagrán García, an architect and theorist, at a crossing that was already an important one on Insurgentes. Some sources give 1952 as the opening year, but the avant-première was held on 30 December 1953. The building, in the Rationalist style, had its main entrance at the corner of Insurgentes and Baja California, opposite what is now the Chilpancingo stop of the Metrobús. The hall seated 3,400^: 92 and had a large curved screen.

The ground floor of the complex was open to the street. An interior shopping plaza, through which audiences entered the cinema, connected the surrounding streets, so pedestrians could cut across the block and browse the shops along the way. Parking was on the upper floor, reached by a ramp from Chilpancingo Street.^{: 85, 116–117, 126}

For many years it was a major neighborhood cinema. In 1990 COTSA reopened it divided into three screens. The cinema later closed as a result of the company's mismanagement and bankruptcy.^: 101

PlayCity casino and abandonment

Once it stopped showing films, the former hall was converted into a PlayCity casino.^: 116 The conversion turned the interior shopping area that had served as the cinema's entrance into a machinery and loading area, and the block could no longer be crossed on foot. The old service entrance on Tlaxcala was split into the casino's main entrance and a delivery entrance for a Vips restaurant. The entrance on Baja California was closed off and its glass facade covered with a false wall.^{: 110, 116–117}

The shopping arcade remained in business with shops facing the street, and for a time it was considered the first gay shopping center in Latin America.^: 115 Santoyo Morales attributes the complex's decline to the crossing becoming a transport interchange after the opening of Chilpancingo metro station on Line 9 of the Metro in 1988 and Metrobús Line 1 in 2005, and to the spread of street stalls along all four sides of the block.^{: 89–92, 118} The building is not within a designated heritage conservation area.^: 96

Before its conversion into a concert venue, the casino premises on Tlaxcala stood empty and the hall was disused.^{: 108, 120} The building remained abandoned for several years.

Auditorio Blackberry / Auditorio BB

In 2012 the architecture firm Estudio Atemporal converted the former cinema into a 4,931-square-metre (53,080 sq ft) venue for concerts and events. The design kept the original structure and layout of the building and made them visible in the common and service areas; the interior of the hall was lined with a wooden skin to improve its acoustics. The seated upper level has retractable panels that close when only the ground floor is in use, to keep sound from reverberating.

The venue began operating in March 2012 and was formally presented on 25 April that year at an event attended by executives from BlackBerry and OCESA and by members of Café Tacvba, Molotov and Motel. Acts that played there in its first weeks included the French duo Cassius, the Misfits, Röyksopp, Jarabe de Palo, James Blake and Babasónicos.

The venue holds 4,000 people: a standing floor for about 2,750 and tiered seating for 1,250, plus a mezzanine with bars, a lobby with a cloakroom and an open-air terrace. The 12-meter stage can be extended to 15 meters. Although the official address is Insurgentes Sur 453, the main public entrance is on Tlaxcala.

Of the original complex, the commercial section now operates as the Puerta Condesa Las Américas shopping center, which wraps around the auditorium and keeps the old cinema's name, while the hall itself is the Auditorio BB.