Santa Fe is a business district and edge city in the west of Mexico City. It is part of the alcaldías (boroughs) of Cuajimalpa and Álvaro Obregón. Santa Fe consists mainly of luxury highrise buildings surrounding Centro Santa Fe, which is the largest mall in Latin America. The district includes a residential area and three university campuses.

Paseo de la Reforma is a wide avenue that runs diagonally across the heart of Mexico City. It was designed at the behest of Emperor Maximilian by Ferdinand von Rosenzweig during the era of the Second Mexican Empire and modeled after the great boulevards of Europe, such as the Ringstraße in Vienna and the Champs-Élysées in Paris. The planned grand avenue was to link the National Palace with the imperial residence, Chapultepec Castle, which was then on the southwestern edge of town. The project was originally named Paseo de la Emperatriz in honor of Maximilian's consort Empress Carlota. After the fall of the Empire and Maximilian's subsequent execution, the Restored Republic renamed the Paseo in honor of the La Reforma.