argentina
buenos aires: ciae-electricity timeline
Now that the timeline is complete, maybe I can concentrate enough to finish writing about the CIAE. I’ve been working steadily for the past two weeks on this series of posts, but it seems like the more I find out about the Compañía Italo-Argentina de Electricidad, the more JSTOR articles I want to read. Guess that’s always the case.
Read More »buenos aires: ciae-electricity timeline
feliz cumple!
Not just any birthday, today Argentina celebrates the 200th anniversary of breaking from the Spanish crown. Technically Spain was being run by Napoleon’s brother at the time so they broke away from the French as well… saying goodbye to two empires at once! Buenos Aires was not the first to reject Spanish authority, but it was the largest city to do so & the capital of a Viceroyalty. As such, the Revolución de Mayo marked the beginning of the end of Spanish control in the Americas.
Read More »feliz cumple!buenos aires: ministerio de obras públicas
[As requested by Señor F, this is the first of what will be several reposts from the first incarnation of Line of Sight. Originally published as “often overlooked” on 05 Apr 2007.]
Read More »buenos aires: ministerio de obras públicasfound: buenos aires photoshopped
Last year’s ad campaign for a new Hugo Boss cologne caught my eye… not only because Jonathan Rhys-Meyers appears front & center. Anyone who has been to Buenos Aires can easily recognize the background as Diagonal Sur as seen from Plaza de Mayo. My question is: why did they decide to erase the guys who strike the bell on the Siemens building?
Read More »found: buenos aires photoshopped
housing for the masses: barrio juan perón, 1949
Barrio Juan Perón • Saavedra
Andonaegui & Larralde
Wow. That took forever to draw… I guess it’s worth the effort since this 1949 project represents the first successful attempt to think outside the standard, Buenos Aires grid plan. No government-sponsored housing project had ever been attempted on such a large scale. The layout is not symmetrical, but it comes close. City limits obviously cramped the design since Avenida General Paz slices through the “U,” so planners extended the left (actually southwest) side slightly to compensate.
Read More »housing for the masses: barrio juan perón, 1949housing for the masses: barrio 1º de marzo, 1948
Barrio 1º de Marzo • Saavedra
Galván & Larralde
In the same year that the concrete blocks of Barrio Balbastro housed families in Bajo Flores, a completely new idea popped up in Saavedra: the chalet californiano, single story houses set back from the street with terracotta roofs & wooden shutters. Based on Jesuit missions in California, a certain sector of the upper class loved this imported & definitely foreign style. The Perón government brought it to the people.
Read More »housing for the masses: barrio 1º de marzo, 1948housing for the masses: barrio balbastro, 1948
Barrio Balbastro, 1948 • (Bajo) Flores
Balbastro & Rivera Indarte
Welcome to the Perón era. With only four projects built in the previous 20 years, no doubt a housing crisis for lower income workers affected Buenos Aires… and provided good enough reason to eliminate the CNCB. Perón’s support came from the working class, so it’s not surprising that he began to cater to their needs.
Read More »housing for the masses: barrio balbastro, 1948