BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

Throughout the 20th century, several factors contributed to Buenos Aires’s architectural
significance. In the early decades of the century, when Buenos Aires was the capital of
one of the wealthiest countries in the world, architects were commissioned to design
luxurious residences and institutional buildings, many influenced by French and Italian
styles. Later, different immigrant groups looking for status constructed important
examples that followed European traits of Viennese secession, Italian liberty, and Catalan
modernism. The rationalist architecture of the early 1930s and 1940s in Buenos Aires is
one the most significant of the world. This era of architecture greatly influenced the
present profile of the city. Also relevant are the examples of Brutalist architecture. The
last decades of the century have been characterized by an interest in preserving this rich
architectural heritage and by new architectural interventions related to the existing urban
fabric.
Buenos Aires is situated by the estuary of the Rio de la Plata and the plains. The city
became a federal district in 1880 and since then has gained more political, financial, and
administrative power. In 1910 the mayor, Torcuato de Alvear, inspired by the Beaux-Arts
influence and the Parisian example of Baron von Haussmann in the 1850s, provided the
city with a framework of avenues, plazas, and parks.
In the early 20th century, the city consisted of a basic infrastructure of institutional
buildings and magnificent private residences following Italian academic styles. Carlos
Morra designed the former National Library (1901) and Victor Meano and Julio Dormal
the Colon Theater (1908). Later, French influence dominated the city. Alexander
Christophersen designed the Anchorena Palace (1909; today the Palace of Foreign
Affairs). The Frenchman René Sergent designed three large residences, among them the
Errazuriz Palace (1911). Utilitarian architecture followed English influence. Retiro
(1914), the major train station, was designed by Conder, Conder, Farmer, and Follet, with
the metallic structure produced by Morton and Co. in Liverpool. The opening of avenues
such as May Avenue and North Diagonal completed a scheme that transformed Buenos
Aires into the “Paris of South America.”
In the 1920s, academic dominance was affected by two other tendencies, namely the
importation of European-derived Art Nouveau and the reemergence of pride in the
Spanish heritage and the Ibero-American roots of the city. Immigrants who found a taste
of economic power sought expressions for their new status. Italians such as Mario
Palenti, who designed Pasaje Barolo (1923), expressed this reaction against academic
architecture; Joaquín García Núñez designed for the Spanish colony; and Martin Noel
designed a residence that today houses the Museum Fernandez Blanco (1916), a neo-
Colonial building with Spanish decoration and details. Also inspired by the Spanish High
Renaissance is the Cervantes Theater (1921) by Aranda and Repetto. In the 1920s, Art
Deco challenged the preference for traditional academic architecture. Deco details were
Entries A–F 343
linked to modern buildings: cinemas, parking garages, banks, and apartments. An
important representative of this tendency is Alejandro Virasoro, who designed the House
of Theater (1927), the Santander Bank (1926), and the Equitativa del Plata (1929).
Le Corbusier visited Buenos Aires in 1929 and gave a series of ten lectures, the most
comprehensive of his career. Werner Hegemann followed him in 1931. Although both
spoke of a harmonious synthesis, they offered different approaches to resolve the
problems of the growing metropolis. Le Corbusier’s influence was felt a decade later with
the creation of the Austral Group and with the Plan for Buenos Aires (1938, in
collaboration with Ferrari Hardoy and Kurchan). His enduring influence was felt also in
many Brutalist projects in the following decades.
As a result of his visit, Le Corbusier was inspired by the gigantic landscape and wrote
his book, Precis ions of the Present State o f Architectu re and City Plann ing (1930). Similarly, Hegemann’s ideas influenced the urbanist Carlos della
Paolera and some projects by Jorge Kalnay.
Several factors, such as the academic influence, the Beaux-Arts model for the
education of the architect, the German-language influence, and the Art Deco materials
and detail, generated a series of buildings between the late 1930s and 1940s that has been
characterized as part of the “School of Buenos Aires.” At this time, major avenues helped
define the city as a metropolis—Corrientes, Santa Fe, 9 de Julio, and General Paz—and
the city acquired a more cosmopolitan atmosphere.
Alejandro Bustillo was the architect of the first modernist building of Buenos Aires,
Maison Ocampo (1929). Yet, showing the eclectic nature of the time, he later developed
a classical language, as in the headquarters of the Argentinean Central Bank (1939). Two
important buildings are the COMEGA (1932) by Alfredo Joselevich and Enrique Douillet
and the SAFICO (1934) by Walter Moll. By the early 1940s, modernism triumphed as the
dominant style. The Kavanagh Apartment Building (1936) by Sánchez, Lagos and de la
Torre, for example, evinces an extraordinary modernist silhouette within the urban
landscape. This 30-story building won an Award of the American Society of Engineering
(1994). Moreover, the Grand Rex Cinema (1937) by Alberto Prebish exhibits purist
modern lines and architectural economy, and his Obelisk (1936), located at the
intersection of three major avenues, remains a landmark and symbol of the city.
The apartments of Libertador and Lafinur (1937) by Sánchez, Lagos and de la Torre
constituted a signpost of modern architecture in Argentina. The ateliers of Suipacha and
Paraguay (1938) by Antonio Bonet, Vera Barros, and Lopez Chas suggest the flexibility,
open plan, and experimentation with material but also mark one the first buildings to be
distanced from orthodox rationalism in Buenos Aires.
Antonio Ubaldo Vilar produced works combining functionality and a pure
formal language, namely the Central Headquarters (1943) of the
Automobile Club of Argentina. With the arrival of Peron (1946–52 and
1952–55), industrialization and legislation to improve social conditions
marked a new period in Buenos Aires. The city attracted immigrants from
the interior of the country, requiring the populist regime to provide large housing complexes and
infrastructure as well as buildings to meet needs for health care, education, and
recreation.
At the middle of the century, Amancio Williams designed an unrealized proposal
(1945) for an airport for the city designed to stand over the river on immense Le
Corbusian pilotis. The study of the Regulatory Plan for the city (1947–49), done by Kurchan
and Hardoy in collaboration with Le Corbusier, marks the Modern movement’s maturity.
The most important work of the 1950s is the Theater General San Martin (1953–60)-
by Mario Roberto Alvarez and Macedonio Ruiz and, connected to it, the Cultural Center
San Martin (1960–64) by Alvarez and Associates. Detailed with refinement and quality
of materials, this building denotes the influences of the International Style.
In the 1960s, the work of Clorindo Testa, as in the Bank of London (1966), indicates a
significant turning point in the city’s architecture. Aesthetically derived from Le
Corbusier’s principles of reductivism and lack of ornamentation, the bank’s exterior
reflects the Brutalist use of concrete for rationalist ends. The Headquarters of the Bank of
the City of Buenos Aires (1967) by Manteola, Sánchez Gómez, Santos, Solsona, and
Viñoly is also significant: a box of glass bricks framed by a metallic structure, it was one
of the first examples of recycled architecture in Buenos Aires.
A significant building of the 1970s is the ATC Argentina Televisora Color (1978) by
Manteola, Sánchez Gómez, Santos, Solsona, and Viñoly, associated with Salaberry and
Tarsitano, a landmark in the urban landscape. The National Library (contest won in 1962,
Entries A–F 345
construction began in 1972, and completed in 1992) by Testa, Bulrich, and Cazzaniga
was remarkable for its underground storage of books and sculptured and elevated reading
areas. Also characteristic of this period is the work of Jorge Roberto Alvarez and
Associates, who produced works known for their durability, order, and asceticism.
Among their buildings, SOMISA (1975) met a technological challenge to design all the
building’s parts within a tolerance of three millimeters.
In 1972 Catalinas Norte, in the Retiro area, began again to incorporate the river into
the life of the city. The Conurban building (1973) by the Kocourek studio with
Katzenstein and Llorens uses a curtain wall in the facade facing the river and brick in the
facade looking to the city and is one of the best of the whole complex.
The Cultural Center (1980) in the Recoleta area by Bedel, Benedit, and Testa, a
recycled Franciscan monastery, is today an active popular center of contemporary art,
experimental art galleries, and shops. The complex was completed with the more
whimsical Buenos Aires Design Center (1994) by Testa, Genoud, and Graci.
Since 1991 the Madero docks area (built in 1887–97) has been rehabilitated in one of
the most successful urban interventions in the city’s recent history. The utilitarian
buildings of the dock have been recycled as apartments, restaurants, and shops as a
natural extension of the center of the city. Several new towers have changed the profile of
the city’s skyline. The twin towers (1997) of High Palermo Plaza by Urgell, Fazio, and
Penedo and the studio of Sanchez Gomez, Manteola, and Santos Solsona present an
urban doorway to the Palermo area, enlivened by the Postmodernist and ornamental Alto
Palermo Shopping (1990) by Juan Lopez.
Buenos Aires enters the 21st century immersed in the revolutionary changes in
technology and the process of globalization. The city has successfully implemented new
programs to recuperate areas of the city, open the city to its river, and rehabilitate
buildings in Mayo, Rivadavia, and Corrientes Avenues. In addition, historical
neighborhoods, such as San Telmo and Monserrat, have begun to be rebuilt. All these
actions indicate that Buenos Aires is as interested in preserving its past as it is in
constructing its future. The city, once called the “Paris of South America,” is still
recognized for its European heritage and remains one of the great metropolises of the
world.

BANK OF LONDON AND SOUTH AMERICA, BUENOS AIRES

Designed by Clorinda Testa; completed 1966
The Bank of London and South America, located on a congested corner of Bartolomé
Mitre in Buenos Aires, is one of the most significant buildings in Argentina and a
landmark achievement in concrete construction. Designed by Clorindo Testa in
association with SEPRA architects, the introverted building presents a robust concrete
facade that belies a seductive and subdued labyrinthine interior. Set within a context of
formal neoclassical architecture from the 19th century, the cleverly orchestrated design
mediates between the busy and crowded Argentinian streets and the methodical operation
of the bank headquarters. It compliments the urban fabric in a manner that is both
charismatic and controlled.
The building was constructed at a time of tremendous economic turbulence in
Argentina, resulting from political changes internally and the rampant tension across
Latin America that had culminated in the Cuban revolution of 1959. The election of
Arturo Frondizi as president of Argentina in 1958 had introduced sweeping reforms to
the economic, political, and cultural policy of the country, designed to dispel discontent
and to reform the inward-looking Argentine economy. Frondizi instigated an urgent
program of westernization, targeting rapid development through increased levels of
foreign investment and the growth of local industry. The new headquarters for the Bank
of London and South America was the first by-product of this new economic policy. The
Entries A–F 197
building was to represent a rekindling of ties between Britain and Argentina that had
gradually been eroded since the beginning of World War II. As a mark of sincerity
toward this objective, the foundation stone for the building was laid by Prince Philip, the
Duke of Edinburgh, in March 1962.
The building already on the site, the former headquarters of the bank (designed in
1867 by the architects Hunt and Schroeder), was demolished in May 1961. The first stage
of construction was begun in December 1962, and the inauguration of the building took
place in August 1966. The design of the building was the outcome of an invited
competition undertaken by four Argentinian practices between January and May 1960.
The commission was awarded to the well-established local firm SEPRA (Santiago
Sanchez Elia, Fredrico Peralta Ramos, and Alfredo Agostini), who had collaborated with
the local artist and architect Clorindo Testa in their design proposal. Testa, who was more
than a decade younger than the other three members of the design team, had previously
worked with SEPRA on numerous urban projects for the city and became instrumental in
the design and realization of the finished building.
Occupying the corner of a busy intersection in the historical business district of
Buenos Aires, the building responds to the demanding neoclassical context by filling the
rectangular site with a chiseled, extruded block measuring 45 by 75 meters in plan. The
massive structure is hewn from concrete, which, unlike steel, could be produced locally
and required a less-skilled workforce. The two public facades of the building are
protected by monolithic, layered concrete screens that curve outward at the top, providing
a more generous pedestrian area at the base. The fluid concrete walls are punctuated by
seductive rounded openings to allow light to enter. This acts as a curtain providing a
mediation between the narrow street and the cavernous interior of the bank. Behind the
dramatic concrete curtains, which carry the structural load of the massive roof, is another
layer of glazing, which provides a climatic and acoustic barrier from the street. The two
imposing skirts fold back at the corner to reveal the glazed curtain wall that marks the
entrance to the building. A large, unadorned concrete blade wall folds over at the roof
level in the manner of a giant eyelid, enclosing the outdoor foyer space and revealing the
underside of the vaulted canopy, providing a shaded undercarriage as a refuge from the
busy and confined street space beyond. The gesture at the corner addresses not only the
entry but also the opposing buildings of the intersection, disappearing seamlessly into the
urban context.
The building houses 1,500 employees of the bank and provides office space in excess
of 10,000 meters squared. The complex yet sculptural interior layout, dominated by
floating mezzanines and the powerful mass of the circulation cores, distributes the office
space over six levels. Services and car parking are contained in three subterranean floors.
The palette of materials consists of richly formatted reinforced concrete throughout, light
timber trimmings, and a deep red painted finish.
The interior of the building is open and uncluttered by structural supports. The floating
floor slabs are supported by the concrete core of the lift shafts, the separate banks of
stairs, and the sculpted columns that support the exterior walls, tapering at both the base
and apex. This adds a legibility to the structural system and also frees the plan of
intermediate supports, allowing for a fluid and unobstructed spatiality inside the building.
The fluid concrete beams on the underside of the floating intermediate levels taper back
to elegantly house lighting and airconditioning ducts.
Encyclopedia of 20th-century architecture 198
The monumental simplicity of the building has played an important role in the context
of architectural history not only in Argentina but across the world. The sculptural
building can be seen as influential to avant-garde movements such as Archigram,
Metabolism, and the Brutalism of Paul Rudolph and, more recently in the curvilinear
geometries of Neil Denari. In the last decade, the building, like Clorindo Testa himself,
has been the subject of international critical reappraisal, elevating the profile of the
building and its architect.