Adamo Boari began the design in 1904, and Porfirio Díaz laid the first stone that year. The article links the project to the centennial of Mexican Independence in 1910 and names no client. Work stalled by 1913 because of soft subsoil and the Mexican Revolution. Federico Mariscal resumed it in 1932, completed the interior in Art Deco, and the palace was inaugurated on November 29, 1934.
The exterior is primarily Art Nouveau and Neoclassical, and the interior is primarily Art Deco with pre-Hispanic motifs. The lower structure is beige marble from Morelos, the facades are white marble from Guerrero and Carrara, and the central roof is glass and iron. The article says the building has sunk some 13 feet (4 m) into the soft soil.
The theater seats 1,590. Its foldable stage curtain, attributed to Tiffany's, is made of nearly a million pieces of glass and weighs 24 tons. About 10,000 people visit each week.
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