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March - April 2000

A city’s Golden Age
How Buenos Aires got its European architecture



By PAUL CONSTANCE

In 1880, when Buenos Aires officially became the capital of Argentina, the city still betrayed its origins as a modest entrepot that had only recently emerged from the shadow of Lima and other centers of colonial power. There were few paved streets or multistory buildings. The primitive port required passengers and cargo to be carted up a muddy bank to dry land.

A view of Avenida de Mayo in 1910 (Photo: Courtesy of Pablo Guiraldes)

But during the next 50 years, the city’s fortune took a rapid turn for the better. European investment and immigration exploded as Argentina’s fertile pampas became one of the world’s principal sources of beef and leather. The sudden prosperity launched a building boom that would come to define the city’s architectural personality. According to Pablo Guiraldes, an Argentine architect and lecturer at the University of Maryland School of Architecture who recently spoke at IDB headquarters in Washington, D.C., Buenos Aires’ landed elites set out to transform the city based on an unabashedly European ideal. "They wanted to show that Buenos Aires was as big, as magnificent and as elegant as the most important capitals of the world," Guiraldes said.

The ruling class hired the services of some of the best European urban planners and architects, along with thousands of craftsmen. A state-of-the-art port, known as Puerto Madero, was one of the first undertakings. The English contractors responsible for building most of Argentina’s immense rail system also constructed the soaring Retiro terminal.

Streetcars line up by the Constitución train terminal in 1910. Today, taxis and buses do. (Photo: Courtesy of Pablo Guiraldes)

Francisco Tamburini, a noted Italian architect, designed the presidential palace, known as Casa Rosada, and the Colón Theater, still considered one of the world’s finest opera houses. The imposing National Congress and the Courts were also built during this period.

City planners also sought to fill Buenos Aires with broad avenues and parks. The 10-block long Avenida de Mayo, built in the 1880s, connects the Casa Rosada and the Congress. French landscape architect Charles Thays, Buenos Aires parks director from 1891 to 1911, designed the city’s Botanical Gardens and numerous plazas.

Guiraldes ended his lecture by describing a rebirth of local interest in Buenos Aires’ architectural history. As an example he mentioned Puerto Madero, which was abandoned years ago when its docks became obsolete. Today, the old port’s magnificent brick warehouses have been refurbished and converted into a fashionable waterfront.



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