«o Planning Latin America’s Capital Cities, 1850-1950 cs

edited by Arturo Almandoz First published 2002 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE

Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge, 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001

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© 2002 Selection and editorial matter: Arturo Almandoz; individual chapters: the contributors

Typeset in Garamond by PNR Design, Didcot, Oxfordshire Printed and bound in Great Britain by St Edmundsbury Press, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

This book was commissioned and edited by Alexandrine Press, Oxford

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ISBN 0-415-27265-3 ca Contents *o

Foreword by Anthony Sutcliffe vii

The Contributors ix

Acknowledgements xi

1 Introduction 1 Arturo Almandoz

2 Urbanization and Urbanism in Latin America: from Haussmann to CIAM 13 Arturo Almandoz

I CAPITALS OF THE BOOMING ECONOMIES

3 Buenos Aires, A Great European City 45 Ramón Gutiérrez

4 The Time of the Capitals. Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo: Words, Actors and Plans 75 Margaretb da Silva Pereira

5 Cities within the City: Urban and Architectural Transfers in Santiago de Chile, 1840-1940 109 Fernando Pérez Oyarzun and José Rosas Vera

II EARLY VICEREGAL CAPITALS

6 The Urban Development of Mexico City, 1850-1930 139 Carol McMichael Reese

7 The Script of Urban Surgery: Lima, 1850-1940 170 Gabriel Ramón III THE CARIBBEAN RIM AND CENTRAL AMERICA

8 Havana, from Tacón to Forestier 193 Roberto Segre

9 Caracas: Territory, Architecture and Urban Space 214 Lorenzo González Casas

10 Urbanism, Architecture, and Cultural Transformations in San José, Costa Rica, 1850-1930 241 Florencia Quesada

11 Conclusions 271 Arturo Almandoz

Index 275 Chapter 3

Buenos Aires, A Great European City

Ramón Gutiérrez

‘Buenos Aires, a great European city’ - these This chapter describes the way in which words, spoken by George Clemençeau in 1911, this vision was achieved, tracing the ideas and would mark the climax of the efforts made by work which have led to Buenos Aires being Argentina’s elite leaders in their search to achieve recognized even today as the most European a vision which was civilized and ultimately city in Latin America. unmistakeably European.1

B u en o s A ir e s : F r o m t h e C apita l o f t h e V ic e r o y a l t y o f Rio d e L a P la ta t o t h e ‘G ra n Al d e a ’

The city of Santa María de los Buenos Aires, colonies and Brazil. As the capital of this vice­ founded for the second time in 1580 on its royalty, the city would serve as the site for present site, became the politicial capital of important public buildings bringing together the viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, which had governmental bodies and public amenities been created by the Spanish Crown in 1776 such as "the Aduana (Customs), Correos (Post (figure 3.1). As political capital, the city’s Office),‘Renta de Tobaco (Tobacco Tax Office), strategic, importance as a port would be in­ the Consulado de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires creased and it would be in a position to deal Consulate), Colegios;Reales-(Royal Colleges), with the serious border conflicts which the Plaza de'Toros'fthe Bull-Ring),-the Corral existed in the region between the kings of de Comedias~(Comedy Theatre) and the Recova Spain and Portugal.2 de Comercio (Trading Market). These helped The creation of this viceroyalty was intended to enhance a modest| urban landscape where to strengthen urban growth, and therefore the the main recreation site was the short tree-lined openness granted by the Free Trade Ordinace avenue along the river and beside the old fort, of 1778 was needed to legalize methods of at that time the residence of the Viceroys. exchange and so put paid to the traditional The rapid mercantile expansion that brought smuggling carried out between the Spanish about the opening of the port, together with Figure 3.1 Buenos Aires in 1650. Plan by a French spy named Massiac, who gave it to Vauban. Published by Charlevoix in 1756. (Source-. Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL)

the geopolitical importance of the enclave for Although reminders of the war were the dominance of the southern part of the evident in Buenos Aires during the first years continent - demonstrated by two unsuccessful after Independence, the city soon began to attempts at invasion by the British in 1806 establish itself, successively extending its internal and 1807 - made possible the emergence of a borders onto those of the indigenous people, Creole sector who would rapidly seize their which at the end of the colonial era were Independence from the Spanish crown - as little more than 40 kilometres from the city. soon as Napoleon’s invasion led to the fall of King Fernando VII in 1808.

Urban Projects of the Nineteenth Century

For several of the leaders of the newly inde­ Departamento de Ingenieros y Agrimensores pendent country the Spanish grid layout rep­ (Engineering and Surveying Department) resented an obstacle that should be modified sought ‘scientific’ prestige in its geometrical while, paradoxically, the recently created designs.3 It is also curious that the urban expansion of European cities in the nine­ large part of Bernardino Rivadavia’s muni­ teenth century followed the positive experience cipal administration as Minister and President of the American checkerboard design (for (1826-1827), and that of the groups searching example Plan Castro in Madrid and Plan Cerdá for political unification. They aimed at repro­ in Barcelona). ducing in Buenos Aires the image of a country The grid as an urban symbol became part they aspired to be more progressive, even if of nineteenth-century planning thought and that meant that it might become smaller. At of the first development projects in Buenos that time thoughts such as ‘the bad thing Aires on the Río de la Plata; for example that about the country is its size . . .’ or ‘. . . carried out by the English businessman beyond the port, progress is impossible’ were Micklejohn in 1824, which showed signs of voiced. In the midst of such debate (between the desire to ‘square’ that curious ‘new town’. unionists, federalists and oligarchs), Buenos The idea of Buenos Aires as the centre was Aires was confirmed as the prestigious icon of accepted and, at the same time, a new and spec­ an Europeanized elite. ulative division of the land into lots introduced.4 In the second decade of the nineteenth However, the ambitions of the leaders to century, the arrival of English, French and transform the city into a mirror image of a Italian technicians brought in by Rivadavia, European metropolis, prevailed during a would emphasize this desire to create a

Figure 3.2 Conventillo located in a southern neighborhood in Buenos Aires by 1890. (Source-. Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL) European and cosmopolitan country, and this which reveals the squat nature of the city would, in itself, ensure progress and overcome whose urban landscape was still dominated colonial backwardness. A plan drawn by James by church towers and domes. The example of Bevans around 1828, reveals a city with a industrial architecture was introduced in checkerboard design, rectangular blocks and 1857 when the roof of the Teatro Colón (Colon several plazas designed diagonally. This was a Theatre) was imported from Dublin. Carlos foretaste of the imagery or vision of the new Enrique Pellegrini, the French engineer who cultural leaders. However, a large part of this conceived this plan, indicated that from then enthusiasm for the renewal of the urban on the country’s progress would be measured image was shipwrecked on the stormy seas of by its consumption of iron. the local bureaucracies, political discontinuity, The scarcity of basic urban services was the civil wars, and the lack of funds to carry notorious. The search for a supply of potable out some of the models coming from abroad, water from artesian wells went on for decades which showed little viability in the Argentine without being able to meet the demands of a context. city with rapid commercial growth and a There are obvious signs by which to large immigrant population from 1860. From measure the slowness of certain technological 1856, with the municipal organization transformations and to explain why these centralized, work on the cutting, surfacing changes were barely started in the second half and paving of the streets began. Nevertheless, of the nineteenth century. The first three- problems vital for the city, such as adequate storey house was built in Buenos Aires in 1838, port installations, were still unsolved.5

Transformations of the Urban Fabric

In the meantime, the city grew dramatically, the southern area of the port became densely with the surrounding territory being divided occupied, and this led to a type of building into square plots, subdividing the colonial known as the conventillo (tenement) or the parcelas (plots) and defining new types of neighbourhood house where each room housed housing. The old, large colonial houses were a family (figure 3.2). Although initially the divided, creating the half-courtyard house (casa situation was one of improvisation, it was chorizo or sausage house as it is known in seen by speculative sectors as an adequate Argentina) in which the generous space of the solution for immigrant housing and, as a result, family living room was replaced by a modest grew exponentially in the last decades of the patio with functions being redistributed towards nineteenth century. Some groups of immigrants the interior rooms. This loss of private domestic would create more spontaneous settlements space was compensated for by a more open with singular architectural types. Such was the urban life outside the home, helped by the case of the Genovese who, with their skills as growing availability of new buildings such as river boat builders and carpenters, would clubs and cafés, and new meeting places in populate the Boca del Riachuelo area with public spaces and thoroughfares. buildings made of wood and iron sheets. At the same time, many colonial houses in Towards 1860, the parcelling of the city in the central area reflected these changes due to careful listing of the owners, reveals the trans­ the hereditary subdivision of plots or functional formation of the old colonial urban fabric with­ alteration of activities, with the clear predomi­ out any specific interruption of the original nance of the casa chorizo. The Beare catastro, urban layout.6 a land census carried out in that year with the

The First Projects to affect the Checkerboard Design

The first attempts to change the city’s design recurrent idea of filling in and dividing the on the basis of the opening of new roadways river or, in its place, constructing islands.8 can be attributed to the Rivadaviano period, The lack of services in the city and the when avenues were laid down to help solve dynamic growth of slums in the central area - the new traffic problems (figure 3.3). How­ the old Barrio Sud (Southern district) - would ever, these would take a century to be com­ pleted, revealing the protracted nature of urban design compared to short-term governmental enthusiasm. Some attempts to move away from the colonial tradition can be found in the third part of the nineteenth century with the cir­ cular avenue designs proposed by José María Lagos in 1869, and those made by Carranza y Soler in 1872, which ran from the Plaza de Mayo to the Plaza Once. Of special importance was the project by Felipe Senillosa, which had been published in Paris, in which diagonal avenues were placed into the grid design of the port, in so doing complying with the new expropriation legislation. Senillosa declared that ‘. . . the rich build their homes in districts far from the commercial centres . . .’, and that if attention was paid to his proposal, ‘. . . these would be the elected scenery, the “el rendez-vous” of the most select population’.7 During this period, there were also pro­ jects for the reorganization of the port zone, especially after the construction of the Nueva Aduana (New Customs house) in 1859 and the Muelle de Pasajeros (Passenger Dock) in Figure 3.3 Calle Perú (Peru Street) in Buenos Aires 1855. Some of these projects were under­ in 1886. (Source: Archivo del Centro de Documenta­ taken by private businesses and included the ción de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL) end tragically in 1871 with thousands of deaths and an image of suburban houses surrounded from the yellow fever epidemic. The outcry by gardens, this new district marked the aban­ which arose as a result would lead to multiple donment of the historic city as a residential changes, from the public commitment to boost area for the port aristocracy. The historic city sanitary works and water supply, to the migra­ was developing into a popular district and, tion of those people with greater economic along with other areas near the Plaza de Mayo, resources who founded a new district to the was taken over by tertiary activities until it north of the city. became the commercial and financial district With a more generous parcelling of land, of the city (figure 3.4).

Buenos Aires, Capital of Argentina

Once the political divisions had been overcome, Buenos Aires would be the dominant centre the province of Buenos Aires ceded the city of of the political and economic power that the Buenos Aires to the nation in 1880 to be the provinces had questioned for decades. At that capital of the country. To meet the demands time, its port and customs had the conditions for a provincial capital, La Plata, located some needed for the country to enter the world 50 km from the Federal capital, would be market hand in hand with the British Empire. founded in 1882. The next fifty years would see the develop-

Figure 3.4 Plaza de Mayo in 1880. In the background, the Colón Theatre (Teatro Colón) built by Carlos Enrique Pellegrini in 1857. (Source: Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL) ment of Argentina’s economy, culminating in political power which would control the 1933 with the explicit recognition through a country from 1880 to 1916 when, through a trade and investment pact between the foreign universal and secret vote, these elites would offices of Britain and Argentina. be replaced by a new bourgeoisie with a wide, Spurred on by the British, whose capital popular base. investment in Argentina was almost a third of The ideas from the generation which would the total overseas capital investment made by ‘modernize’ the country were mirrored in the Great Britain between 1889 and 1930, the argument elaborated by one of its most emi­ territory would be restructured with a railway nent thinkers, Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, network linking the most remote parts of the who put forward an exclusive option between country to Buenos Aires and its port. Under ‘Civilization’ (Europe) or ‘Barbarism’ (America). the ‘primary-exporter’ model agricultural and In this context, the desire for change was ranching products from the Argentinean plains the essential motive which would make new were exchanged for British manufactured economic and cultural development possible. products.9 The governing aristocracy and the Buenos Aires would obviously be the privi­ new commercial bourgeoisie wisely followed leged laboratory for this venture.10 the British plan and formed the conservative

css T h e M o d e r n M e t r o p o l is , 1880-1930 st>

With Buenos Aires as the national capital, that would be carried out in the last two there was the need to find construction solu­ decades of the century." This initial choice of tions to the requirements of the new national professionals from Italy would give way, administration. This would lead to the hiring towards the end of the nineteenth century, to of technicians and professionals in Europe an unchallenged preference for French tech­ who would be able to fulfil the needs of the nicians, reflecting the high regard in which State. Francisco Tamburini and his assistant the Baron Haussmann’s public works in Paris Victor Meano, from Italy, would be called to were held. take charge of a large part of the public works

The Paris of America

In the imagination of those leaders fascinated Once this institutional vision had taken by the possibility of creating great public root at the national and municipal level works and changing the face of the city from (figure 3.5), all efforts to achieve it seemed the vision of the Gran Aldea (Great Village) - thoroughly justifiable. In the decades towards an expression made popular by Lucio V. the end of the nineteenth century, the López in his novel of the same name (1882) - changes in the city under the auspices of this to the ‘Modern Metropolis’, Paris became the renewal project were evident. Some measures unquestionable model. were in fact taken as a result of the grave Figure 3.5 Palacio de Correos y Telégrafos (Mail and Telegraphs Palace) in 1908. Designed by the French architect Norbert Maillart. (Source: Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL)

crisis brought about by the yellow fever technicians, participated in the installation of epidemic of 1871, which not only caused running water and sanitation services; ‘that great thousands of deaths but, as mentioned above, show of cosmopolitanism filled the porteños (port also led to wealthier sectors of the population inhabitants) with pride to think that they were moving from the historic city to a new district ‘more European than the inhabitants of any to the north. The proposals put forward by European country’, because they were Germans, the health campaigners indicated the urgent English, Italians, French, Spanish and many other need to carry out sanitary works, to eliminate nations, all these nationalities at the same time.12 the conventillos with their residential over­ The developments in infrastructure were crowding (12 per cent of the population lived accompanied by the creation of large green there according to the 1887 census), and to spaces and plazas. The Bosque de Palermo create ample, open, green spaces which would mimicked the Parisian Bois de Boulogne and bring oxygen to the city. It is worth mention­ soon professionals from the Municipality ing the studies carried out by Emile Coni, Progrès began to push for urban changes which they de l’hygiène dans la République Argentine, pub­ considered to be close to the Haussmannic lished in Paris in 1887, and that by the French model. Through their designs for parks and doctor Samuel Gaché in Les logements ouvriers plazas, the French landscape designers à Buenos Aires, published in Paris in 1900. Eugenio Courtois and Carlos Thays, would From 1874, English companies, jointly with play an outstanding role in the approach to Swedish, Norwegian, Belgian and French the Parisian model.13 The impact of the railroad and the major Riachuelo, which although the natural port works carried out at the port in the last of the city, was far from the idea of ‘central­ decade of the nineteenth century reflected the ity’ determined by the location of the sectors euphoria unleashed by the enormous British in power. Following the design by the Ger­ investments in the infrastructure which man Fernando Moog, the Mercado Proveedor would make the union of the country to the de Frutos (Fruit Supply Market) was built on world market possible.14 Works at the port the outskirts of the city, in Avellaneda; it was included the construction of Puerto Madero, the largest area in the world under an iron an unnecessary and costly undertaking which roof.13 had replaced the idea of dredging the

The Expansion and Formation of the Districts

The development of public transport, mainly this pattern of development with the provision trams first drawn by animals and later powered of schools and other public facilities and infra­ by electricity, would play an important role structure.18 The construction of schools clearly within the city. The tram car companies quickly marked one of the modernization policies of boosted urban development by acquiring vacant these governments who pushed literacy to a suburban land and extending their services there. level unsurpassed by other Latin American Once accessible, this land was auctioned in countries at that time. To achieve this, teachers parcels for development at a correspondingly and teaching equipment were imported from higher price.16 the United States.19 Urban expansion was clearly marked in Initially, the railway ran around the out­ 1887, when the jurisdiction of the Federal skirts of the city, with the stations connecting Capital, extended to include Buenos Aires and the old arrival points of the wagons from the the old towns of Belgrano and Flores, was countryside (Plaza Once or Constitution). How­ legalized. This set out clear plans to fill in the ever, urban expansion quickly surrounded empty spaces between these towns, then later the railway lines, which acted as barriers that to expand the urban spread towards the new marked the limits of new districts, thus limits with the province of Buenos Aires causing accessibility problems.20 This urban (figure 3.6).17 growth increased the traffic problems caused 'The poor sanitary and housing conditions by the new transport systems, particularly the - lack of potable water networks and over­ carriages and tram cars. The streets of the old crowded conventillos - together with the colonial city were too narrow to accommo­ persistence of immigration in the southern date the large flow of pedestrians and vehicles. part of the city, favoured the extension in In the light of this, it is not surprising that other areas of residential concentration. This proposals to widen the streets, making new gave rise to a city made up of districts each avenues and creating the ‘boulevards’ with with its own characteristics in terms of urban circulation in opposite directions allowing for landscape, ethnicity and social class. The steps tree-lined spaces, were quickly accepted. taken by the municipality tended to strengthen Figure 3.6 Plan of Buenos Aires with the expansion including the old Municipalities of Flores and Belgrano, 1888. (Source: Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL)

Urban Intervention. Plaza and Avenida de Mayo

The transformation of the Plaza de Mayo - a form the Casa de Gobierno (Government highly symbolic space for the city - was just House). At that time, the façade and tower of the starting point in the search for a new the old Cabildo building (Town Hall) was urban identity. Juan Antonio Buschiazzo, an changed to meet with the demands of the Italian who had studied architecture in Argentina, new academic fashion.22 was the person chosen by the Intendente (Mayor), The idea of opening the Avenida Norte- Torcuato de Alvear, to undertake these great Sur (North-South avenue), which would con­ urban changes.21 To do so, Buschiazzo pro­ nect the train stations at Constitución with posed joining the spaces between the two plazas those at Retiro, was proposed in 1889. How­ - Plaza de Mayo and the open area in front of ever, it was the success of the ‘modern’ image the fort - then divided by the Recova, an of the city of La Plata, founded in 1882, which arched building of shops that had been con­ was to spur major urban reconstruction in structed at the end of the colonial period. Buenos Aires.23 This building was demolished in 1886 at the Around 1870, Sarmiento had proposed the same time that Tamburini, on the side nearest opening of a large avenue starting at Plaza de to the river, joined two existing buildings to Mayo and ending at Plaza Lorea (part of the Congress) so providing a promenade for the metre wide boulevard with central islands for city. Torcuato de Alvear joined Buschiazzo in pedestrians, originally with trees and broad obtaining political agreement to these ideas paths some 6 metres wide, which would and to the costly acquisition of land. Between allow space for cafes and pedestrian meeting 1890 and 1896, these works shaped the spots. It was seen as the great salon of the city image of the new metropolis and led the where different social groups could show city’s inhabitants to believe that anything was themselves off and watch the passing car­ possible with power and money. riages or the social events which made up the The new avenue was conceived as a 32- city’s cosmopolitan life.24

The French Presence

Perceived as a model, the Haussmannic in­ Meanwhile, the more important buildings fluence became embodied in a group of design were isolated according to that monumental trademarks worshipped by followers of the vision of a new urban scenery that high­ late nineteenth-century ‘building aesthetic’. A lighted the reference landmarks following the new network of widened streets and diagonal old baroque tradition (figure 3.7). avenues that linked the city’s main reference This was a design with geometric axes and points for improving its internal control, ‘compositions’ which coincided ideologically would emerge over the old city design. All with the precepts of academicism found in these avenues and nodes articulated the com­ architecture and revived the ideas of monu- munication centres, the new railway stations, mentality and hierarchy in public works. Added the plazas and public meeting places. to this, was the nuance of the authoritarian

Figure 3.7 Ortiz Basualdo and Anchorena Palaces from when Buenos Aires wanted to be the ‘American Paris’. (Source: Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL) exercise of power which allowed this type of solution to be imposed on a population regarded as spectators in such urban decisions. The works of the first mayor of Buenos Aires, Torcuato de Alvear, corresponded to this profile of an enlightened governor. But this trend in urban planning and design was stimulated by the predominance of a French cultural ambience which led the elite governing class to imitate French tastes, lifestyle and customs (figure 3.8). If Anatole France or Georges Clemençeau perceived this universal validity of the French spirit around 1910, its essence had, undoubtedly, been shaped in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Clemençeau enthusiastically claimed: ‘with regard to the language, there is no dif­ ficulty. Everyone understands French, it is read, and spoken like the speaker and their actions show that all shades of meaning in the discourse have been acquired. What more can be desired? Through the grace of the diffused Figure 3.8 Errazuriz Palace. Designed by the archi­ word the spirit of our France has emigrated tect René Sergent in Paris, without visiting Buenos Aires. (Source: Archivo del Centro de Documentación to a land beyond the ocean’.25 de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL).

Joseph Bouvard in the Vision of an Urban Renewal

Joseph Bouvard, the urbanist from Paris, would of the land into square blocks which, if they make his first, swift and dynamic visit to Buenos were to remain that way, would in a short Aires in 1907 to present Mayor Carlos T. de time turn the city into an enormous exten­ Alvear with a plan for future avenues. The sion, antiaesthetic from all points’.27 Haussmannic stamp would make a strong im­ Bouvard warned of the need to implement pression on the city through the potential a gradual plan which would ensure steps in irruption of 60 kilometres of artery and thirty- the same direction as well as continuity, thus two diagonal roads which would lead to the avoiding short-term decisions being made. Never­ destruction of the old foundation square.26 theless, this alleged scientific approach hid the Basically, this was what it was about. misleading, if not unprincipled, nature of cer­ According to the mayor, the plan would tain definitions of the new urban designs which allow the ‘correction of the flaw in the strict were being proposed. Although the opposi­ parallelism of narrow streets and the division tion questioned the proposals put forward by Figure 3.9 French landscape design contemporary with the hygiene proposals. Rodriguez Peña Square. (Source-. Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL)

Bouvard for their high degree of flippancy, panacea which would break from the unbear­ the non-existence of prior studies and the able monotony of the old design, ‘thus giving consequences they might have on the city, the the ensemble a more picturesque, varied and official sector not only approved the carrying enjoyable appearance’25 was also needed. out of the plan, but also entrusted other In his report in 1910, Bouvard proposed urban projects to Bouvard. Among these were the construction of 15 squares, following the the transformation of the Quinta Hale in the guidelines set down in Forestier’s treaty pub­ Recoleta area, an urban design for the impor­ lished in 1905 (figure 3.9). At the same time, tant Plaza del Congreso, the layout of the the construction of wide avenues which joined land for the Exposición del Centenario the parks was encouraged. The communi­ (Centenary Exhibition) in Palermo, and the cation roadways were placed in hierarchical construction of a 200-bed hospital.28 Such was order based on their functionality and the the high esteem that he enjoyed, that the visit importance of the points they connected. In would be repeated in 1909 to promote new so doing they attempted to avoid crossroads projects. as well as to increase access to public places Meanwhile, a Municipal Commission made and commercial centres. The diagonal roads up of Thays along with other officials and created a network which set a stage for the even including an auctioneer, gave their opinion public monuments on a stage and encouraged with regard to Bouvard’s proposals. They the construction of new buildings which would pointed out the need to change the checker­ complement the wide avenues, consciously board design as had been done in other areas, but amply deployed by the visiting architect in an attempt to create ‘convergent and con­ in a compact and densely populated city such centric roads in certain important points’. The as Buenos Aires, which by 1907 had more design of diagonal roads, a new urban than a million inhabitants.30 Local Reaction

However, the proposals put forward by the As a reasonable precaution against the French urban planner were countered by those unstemmed real estate speculation, Jaeschke of the Argentinean architect Victor Jaeschke, advocated that no new housing developments a graduate of the Technische Hochschule be authorized on the outskirts of the city unless (Technical High School) in Munich, who had they had basic services and infrastructure. From been promoting building improvements in the start, he had questioned the seriousness of the city and who, in 1904, had already pro­ the Bouvard plan which had been carried out posed the need for a Ley de Expropiación as a result of a six-week visit to Buenos Aires. (Expropriation Law) to make the creation of He saw the famous plan as a series of sketches new roads and plazas possible. A declared and outlines which were not a solid project enemy of the ‘grid’, Jaeschke preferred diago­ and warned of the spending of millions of nals which he considered as being ‘essential’ pesos as a result of decisions which had not for improvements in buildings and transit.31 been carefully considered.32 Jaeschke concurred with Bouvard in his Jaeschke’s objections to Bouvard’s rond- disdain for the historic city and proposed that points, or meeting points of fast roads around the existing buildings be torn down to widen certain monuments were added to a direct the streets and avenues to form a new Muni­ criticism of the tendency to flatten topo­ cipal border. This process, he believed, would graphical differences (Alvear Avenue) or to give the city a new and modern look in 50 straighten designs which had potential urban years. He imagined commercial streets with design value (Quinta de Hale, the Escalinatas arcades and covered galleries, like those which area). Having led to twelve diagonal roads had been created by Pellegrini in the lower and avenues being concentrated in the Plaza areas of Avenida Aient and Paseo Colón since del Congreso, the supreme abuse of new 1860. roads was an example of the contradictory His interventions on the layout suffered value of what it would mean to improve from the same oversimplification. He suggested substantially urban transit.33 that the streets be oblique or curved, never Jaeschke’s criticism also included the straight, and that instead of a line of continu­ rejection of the banal dependence on what ous buildings, there should be dentados came from abroad. As Jorge Tartarini pointed (recessed façades) with gardens. This model out, Carlos Altgelt, who had also studied in was totally different from the urban tradition Germany, shared this view. Altgelt wrote to in Buenos Aires. He also proposed that the Jaeschke: design of the blocks be subdivided into two You and I are Argentineans. We are not from Paris. or three parts, with narrow lots and gardens Paris in whose boulevards and entertainment centres in the centre. He naively believed that in this like those of all big capitals, you meet ten times more way the tenement buildings and the neighbour­ stupid people than talented ones, where many go with hood houses would disappear while these were, their traveling chests and return with a cigarette case, and when we were in the Mecca, we did not become in fact, part of the real estate business, bosom buddies of the pilgrims who in South America stemming from the growth of the immigrant control the puppets of national, provincial, community population. and commercial politics.’4 It is interesting to note, however, that prestigious models, led to the creation of Jaeschke’s criticism was not made from those plans which the harsh reality of daily another ideological and urbanistic stand, but life would lead toward failure. From these, rather from the same idea of major inter­ we are left with the first underground train vention in the city. Jaeschke did not hesitate (1913), the Diagonal Norte (North Diagonal in proposing the demolition of convents and road), the Avenida 9 de Julio (with another colonial temples, while advocating the creation width and design) and, as mentioned earlier, of other avenues and diagonal roadways. He a part of the Diagonal Sur. The other thirty insisted on the need for studies and thought, diagonal roads proposed by Bouvard and a but his proposals, like Bouvard’s, would open large part of his fifteen plazas would remain deep scars in the old Spanish design. Nor did on paper only. he oppose the European urban models but in­ Kept alive by professional and administra­ sisted on the same positivist view, that any tive groups, the conservative vision of academic proposal for Buenos Aires should be sup­ urbanism continued, beyond the nuances, ported by ‘reason, logic and truth’ and by those advocating a static city, under geometric norms, which were in themselves impossible, ‘immutable balances and symmetries. In short, a city that, scientific and artistic principles’. put together in these perfect sketches, would Perhaps Bouvard’s lack of knowledge of be frozen forever. This model was so far from the city, the priority Jaeschke gave to solving true city life that, had all the resources and the transit problems before the aesthetic ones, political will been available to carry it through, and the preference for the foreigner above it would have been a resounding failure. those who had been struggling for a long time The overwhelming French presence in the in the city, explain the harsh criticism by the urban planning and architecture of Buenos Aires Argentinean urban planner. Jaeschkle’s pro­ would, however, produce other reactions. Some posals for avenues were made in a context of of these came from the professional front, as obtaining lower expropriation costs. This, how­ a result of the clash between the ‘national’ ever, did not prevent Congress from approving, architects (graduates from the capital’s Archi­ in 1912, the proposal made by Represen­ tecture School, which was attached to the tative Louro in 1909 for work on the Avenida Faculty of Science at the University of Buenos Norte Sur, which would become 9 de Julio Aires), and the foreign architects (with degrees (9th of July), and that made by Bouvard for which had or had not been recognized) who the North and South diagonal roads. These worked freely and controlled the Sociedad would be carried out piecemeal during the Central de Arquitectos (Central Society of second third of the century and some, like the Architects), founded in 1886. This would Diagonal Sur (South Diagonal), would lead to the threat of formation of a parallel remain unfinished.35 organization, a problem that would be solved As Tartarini also points out, the stream of after long discussions and concession making.36 governors who had decided to go down in In a wider context, the presence of a Latin history for their public works, the ‘specula­ American movement had been gaining tors disguised as councillors’ who Jaeschke ground in the field of literature with Rubén condemned, and the weakness of a ‘cosmetic’ Darío, José Martí and José Enrique Rodó. urban planning which tried to imitate the This was seen in Buenos Aires in 1909 with the publishing of ‘The Nationalist Restoration’ and the Córdoba University Reform (1918) by Ricardo Rojas and texts by Manuel were Latin American and European events which Ugarte. This new thought led to conflicts in left a deep mark on Argentinean society.38 These the minds of the new breed of intellectuals ideas were taken up by the architectural tired of mimicry and cultural underestimating students in Buenos Aires, who published the by the enlightened Euro-centrics.37 first issue of La Revista de Arquitectura in The upheaval of the Mexican agricultural 1915. In the editorial, ‘Rumbos nuevos’ (New revolution in 1910, the uprising of indigenous directions) the idea of an architectural and movements in different countries, the Euro­ urban horizon centred on Latin American pean crisis produced by the World War I space was proposed.39 (1914-1918), the Russian Revolution (1917)

The Urban Conflict and the Political Reply

We have mentioned the attacks made by the Municipal (Municipal Palace) and eventually architect Jaeschke on the proposals put forward the control of the work.41 by Bouvard and the same could be said with re­ In the political debate, the prior experience gard to the objections raised by Altegelt when was accepted as being an ‘extremely costly the designs for large public buildings were handed contract between Mr. Bouvard, who did no over to Norbert Maillart. But these did not more than propose initiatives that had already affect the promoters of the Parisian model. been found in individual projects’. Councillor In this context, we can understand the Canale said: ‘Barely a year or so ago, Mr. conflict that arose in June 1912, when the Bouvard’s projects were accepted and already Concejo Deliberante (Deliberative Council) of we are thinking of bringing another famous Buenos Aires hired Francisco Benjamin Chausse- foreigner to repeat precisely the same mistake miche, an Austrian architect resident in Paris, that we made the last time’. who would be called upon to head the Muni­ It was then that, as an additional benefit, cipal department responsible for implement­ Chaussemiche was offered the opportunity to ing the urban planning which would definitely create a School of Architecture and, if in 1916 achieve the desired aesthetic transformation.40 the government should decide to stage any Argentina’s representative for the Austrian- public art exhibition, the plans and manage­ Hungarian Empire, had been the one to han­ ment of these would also be given to him. dle this ‘exotic’ contract. Chaussemiche had That is to say that funds from the city’s future remarked that he ‘had no problem in coming administration, as well as from the national to the capital for a six year contract’ for the one, were being compromised. sum of 60,000 francs per year, with the trip Councillor Canale pointed out to the paid for and besides ‘with the power to Mayor that neither of them knew the famous charge for certain commissions apart from Chaussemiche personally and that both trusted these professional fees’. Among these ‘addi­ Dr. Pérez, the diplomat responsible for the tional’ services were no less than the Palacio contract, but in view of past experience, Canale needed to express his feelings. ‘This gentle­ fying and transforming of the cities’. The for­ man is as intelligent as can be, famous, the mer Intendente Guerrico insisted: T am not last word in the field, but I must frankly say saying that there are no intelligent that I am tired of these wise foreigners and Argentineans, but here among us there is no would like to know a little about the wise public art school because there is no environ­ people who live here and have the same ideas ment like that found in the great European and artistic production’. He indicated that cities. Which is the best, the most beautiful most of the plans that were to be given to city on earth? Paris. Well then, a gentleman Chaussemiche were already underway and has to be brought from Paris who has been that a School of Architecture already existed outstanding in beautifying cities’. The im­ ‘of which the country is proud’. He ended by promptu nature of the proposal was. brought asking: ‘Is there ^©"Countryman with as much to light when a councillor asked: ‘What plans intelligence as this gentleman who can pro­ are there for the Municipal Palace if nothing duce something artistic for us?’ has yet been solved? We don’t know its site The official view was explained by the or if we are going to have enough money to Secretary of Public Works, Atanasio Iturbe, carry it out’. Finally, ‘Operation Chaussemiche’ when, on endorsing the contract, he pointed was rejected by the majority of voters on the out that in Buenos Aires ‘until now no one Buenos Aires Council. This was the first time has dedicated himself to study the questions that a battle had been won in the long quest which refer essentially to public art, the beauti­ to obtain autonomous planning.

More Ideas for Buenos Aires. The Landscape Designer Forestier and the Plan for Building Aesthetic

A decade after Chaussemiche, it was the turn Forestier himself stressed his complete of the landscaper Forestier, whose presence ignorance of the local urban situation but also led to harsh debates which, although insisted on the importance of gardens in city they did not prevent his arrival, were enough life. After travelling around Buenos Aires and to put a stop to a large part of his proposals. meeting with Carlos Thays Jr., he announced, In 1923, during the Municipal government to win local public opinion, that ‘there was of Carlos Noel (a graduate of the Ecole des no boulevard in Paris which could be com­ Hautes Etudes des Sciences Sociales in Paris), pared to our winter gardens and the Rosedal’. it was proposed that Jean-Claude Nicholas A master in the art of eloquence, after a Forestier, at that time Director of Avenues in month in Buenos Aires, Forestier announced: Paris, be hired as ‘Municipal consultant for ‘In this city, I feel as if I were in Paris, as there the Plan Edilicio (Building plan) to be devel­ is such a similarity in the surroundings that if oped in the Federal capital’. This was a very differences were to be found, they would controversial decision, for the same reasons only be with regard to details’.43 This was pre­ of improvisation and cultural dependence cisely what the officials who had hired him which had been discussed in the debate a wanted to hear. decade earlier.42 On returning to Paris to design the gardens for the Arts Décoratifs Exposition of 1925, 14 per cent of the total area. To achieve this, Forestier left a summary of his ideas where he he proposed suburban parks on the outskirts expressed the need to increase the green areas, of the city, large urban parks, open commons joining them to the large avenues, to eradicate (fields and groves) following the British style the cemeteries from the city and work on the for Avenida de Circunvalación (Ring Road coastal area, constructing promenades and sea­ Avenue), which in 1936 would become side resorts. In 1924, Forestier sent the plans General Paez Avenue (figure 3.10). and the report on his work which would be He also suggested gardens for children and incorporated into the Plan de Estética Edilicia workers and cemetery parks. But Forestier’s (Building Aesthetic Plan), to be published by expertise was more that of a landscape the Municipal Council a year later. designer than an urban planner. His vision of Forestier proposed ideas for Buenos Aires the avenues and boulevards which would run which had been developed in 1905 in his work ‘between the peaceful villas, bursting with Grandes villes et systèmes de parcs.44- Sonia greenery and flowers’, were undoubtedly a Berjman analysed the characteristics of his bucolic version of the booming metropolis, proposal which included an increase in the but would have meant the destruction of con­ green areas in the city from 6 per cent to the solidated urban areas.

Figure 3.10 Forestier’s landscape project for the Saavedra Park. (Source-. Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL) Analysed in detail, a large part of the were reintroduced by the Comisión boulevards and parks proposed by Forestier Municipal de Estética Edilicia (Municipal had already been included in the 1923 project Commission for Building Aesthetic) which by the Dirección de Paseos de Buenos Aires was appointed by the Intendente Carlos Noel. (Buenos Aires Department of Boulevards), under This Commission included the Frenchman, Carlos Thays, Jr. and the most innovative René Karman, the Italians Carlos Morra and proposal was that of the Costaneras (Coastal Sebastián Ghigliazza and the Argentinean avenues). These were of such great magnitude architect (who had studied in Paris) Martin that they could not be carried out with Noel.4S Municipality resources and Forestier used the As the name implies, the Commission’s already well-worn idea of gaining land from concern was focused on monumental inter­ the Plata river for urban developments for a ventions and fundamentally on the implementa­ sector which was both economically and tion of the avenues and diagonal roads, which socially privileged. His only proposal to sur­ were scattered all over the plan of the city, vive would be that of the effective use of the many times without joining well-developed river banks, as would be seen in the instal­ areas. As a result, this was seen as a game on lation of the resort on the Costanera Sur paper whose purpose was to achieve symmetry (Southern Coastal Area). and a compositional balance on the plan (fig­ During the government of Alvear (1922— ure 3.11). 1928), the ideas of applying French urban The relocation of groups of public build­ philosophy gained strength and the old pro­ ings and particularly those of the Municipality, posals made by Bouvard and Maillart, as well was one of the main tasks set out by these as the new ones put forward by Forestier, proposals based on the incipient decentrali-

Figure 3.11 René Villeminot’s project for the Comisión de Estética Edilicia. Proposal made in 1925. From the opening of Plaza de Mayo to Rio de La Plata. (Source: Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL) Figure 3.12 Transformation studies for the central area of Buenos Aires including systematization, big administrative towers and ‘promenades’ by the river. (Source: Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL)

zation which would allow the expanding city de la Rivera and another ‘Belgrano Beau to establish its territorial presence. At the Rivage’, divided by the presence of the fishing same time, buildings to house several ministries dock and some unfeasible hotels, restaurants would be located around the Plaza de Mayo, and casinos. thereby reaffirming the idea of centrality and This was the public administration’s final indicating the eclectic plurality of criteria attempt to put together an urban plan for (figure 3.12). The Commission’s project modi­ Buenos Aires which took into consideration fied Forestier’s proposals for the coastal avenues, the French urban planning ideas, after two establishing access through Sarmiento Avenue, decades of professional advice from technical in this way crossing the Palermo wood and consultants. breaking up the residential area into Parque

The Visit of Léon Jaussely in 1926

Léon Jaussely’s visit was slightly different, while shifting from the traditional fascination perhaps because through his former pupils, with Paris, still predicted that Buenos Aires the Uruguayans Mauricio Cravotto and Jorge ought to be the ‘New York of South America’.46 Hardoy, he was better acquainted with the Jaussely questioned the urban dimension local situation. This did not prevent him from of ‘a small city well extended’ and at the same insisting that his view of the future city as time foresaw the need for regional planning, being comparable to a foreign model that, dreaming of the El Tigre area transformed into the French Côte d’Azur. The hope of the I remember that in my international competition proj­ future lay, as always, in the port, ‘where ect in Barcelona, there as well, the eternal checkerboard plan was finally broken. This came from an era in activity is really intense and should be com­ which nothing related to urbanism was understood, at pletely confident of the future’, as its level of least not in Spain. I designed the new areas using a dif­ movements and trade were greater than that of ferent style but unifying them with the other parts of Paris and similar to that of Marseilles and the plan in such a natural way, even with the checker­ Antwerp. board, that the landscape from one part to another was seamless and the union was perfect. With the checker­ In his report of 1926, Jaussely went into board design nothing better can be done than what is more detail with regard to urban planning and done here, given the horror of its monotony. design than Forestier and underlined the con­ flict with the railroad in the city, favouring Today, it seems difficult to accept that at the underground trains. Fie criticized the expan­ time of Idelfonso Cerdá, ‘nothing of urban­ sion of the city through addition of territory ism was understood’, but the French arrogance where public pressure was, in fact, behind the always gave rise to long academic lecture. development of urban areas, thus reaffirming As translator of Raymond Unwin’s work, the Municipality’s active role in motivating Jaussely thought deeply about the aspects of the city’s growth through infrastructure and the garden city which ‘would be a charm in facilities development. England’ and proposed this example for To set aside the building aesthetic and con­ Buenos Aires, while almost at the same time, cern for central areas of the city, to tackle the from Spain there were suggestions to use Soria problems of transport and construction on y Mata’s design of the linear cities. Jaussely the outskirts, was a notorious break from the told the Municipality and the porteños that:

Municipal Commission’s plan described From now on you should propose to fill the spaces above. Jaussely stressed the obsolete nature of which are still free in your plan with new neighbour­ checkerboard urban planning which lacked hoods with a simpler design, be it curved or straight, the public policies needed to influence a city’s well proportioned lines, and gardens in front of ail houses, be they for the rich or less rich, as therein lies the beauty development by actively participating in its of modern cities. expansion process. This does not mean that the notion of a These ideas would form the basis for the ‘building aesthetic’ was not present. Jaussely was layout of the Barrio Parque Chas (Parque deeply bothered by the square and declared: Chas area), which was criticized by Carlos Della Paolera for the difficulties arising from I agree that having squared blocks is comfortable for the numbering of the undoubtedly long streets. But that combining the curved lines with an efficient this is the only ideal to be pursued, seems to me to be subdivision of the land. inadmissible. This shows a very narrow ideal for a In the old academic tradition, Léon building administration, an inexplicable ideal; contrary Jaussely centred his ideas on the location of to all beauty, all urban aesthetic value. It is the highest error committed. the public buildings recommending that they be placed in the ‘high parts of the city’ - Jaussely did not find any virtue in the grid which was somewhat difficult in a city on a other than enumeration, and this gratuitous plain. To accomplish this, he insisted on the reduction indicates the rejection a priori of need to give Buenos Aires ‘the public monu­ the Hispanic model. He added: mental character which it lacked and which was so necessary’. When considering zoning, in search of wider spaces where the buildings he put forward the idea of a university city could mingle with parks, and suggested moving away from the centre

c# T h e C it y ‘w it h o u t H o p e ’ : 1930-1940 so

The academic concept of ‘building aesthetic’ and Ferrari Hardoy, ‘little devils’ for trying to permeated a large part of 1920s opinion; work in urban planning in the Municipality under its influence, Forestier, Jaussely and of Buenos Aires, reminding them that there Alfred Agache, and then later, in another trend, they had not heard of urban planning until Le Corbusier, proposed different options for he, Le Corbusier, had passed by in 1929. This Buenos Aires. was the new functional version of history as The giddy, speculative growth of the city though the nearly 400-year-old city had not during the 1920s would lead to the creation existed until ‘he’ discovered it.47 of the Comisión de Urbanismo y Estética Edilicia Invited by the Sociedad de Estímulo de las (Urban Planning and Building Aesthetic Com­ Bellas Artes (Society for the Promotion of mission) of the Central Society of Architects, Fine Arts), Le Corbusier arrived in Buenos and the passing of the Código de Edificación Aires in 1929 without any direct relation with (Building Code) of 1928. The Commission was the professional sector and without really comprised of prestigious professionals such as making an impact on public opinion. The Alejandro Christophersen, the polemic Victor texts from his conferences, basically ‘Urban Jaeschke, Ernesto Vautier (recently returned planning in everything, architecture in every­ from Paris where he had studied with Tony thing’ were collected in the book which gave Gamier) and Alberto Geliy Cantilo. Many of details on his trips throughout Argentina, the projects and initiatives of this period would Uruguay and Brazil. If Le Corbusier said that be postponed when the economic Depression he was moved ‘by the great affection that I of 1930 crippled the dreams of aesthetic felt for things and people’, the city of Buenos grandiloquence, although the crisis did not Aires seemed to him to be ‘the most.inhuman prevent the signs of pharaoh-like monuments that I had ever known’.48 In a new vision, he which the local public offices developed. would propose the moving of the centre of As proof that there could be no doubt about business and administrative activities, thus the deep-rooted dependency on the French modifying the traditional centrality and model, in 1937 the Argentinean ambassador in creating an island with five skyscrapers which Paris contracted a professor (not necessarily would be the ‘city of business’. Concerned an architect) on behalf of the University, to with the extension of the city, which was direct the workshop at the School of Archi­ double that of Paris, he pointed out the need tecture when Monsieur René Karman retired. to revert the process by which the Avenida de A decade later, Le Corbusier, who had Mayo had cut the city into a rich north and appointed himself to ‘humanize a city with­ poor south. out hope’, in his always affable tone, called The proposed concentration would create his disciples, Antonio Bonet, Juan Kurchan a city of four million inhabitants located on an area a quarter of the size of what it had in disciples at the end of the decade, and which 1880, destroying in this way the entire weave would be published in 1947. The plan fol­ of barrios which was already one of the features lowed the scheme for urban planning of his of the city. A complementary ‘rural’ vision ‘Ville radieuse’ and of the CLAM, with all the then inserted woods, nurseries and small rigidity inherent in zoning, the elevated motor­ farms into those areas where the barrios had ways, the classic buildings on piles, and the been; this was a reiteration of the games of reorganization of civic centres differentiated urban planning on paper.49 for the Government, Municipality and even a These ideas were then developed in the potential ‘Centro Panamericano’ (Pan-American Plan Director (Master Plan) which would be Centre). Once again the exogenous model carried out by Le Corbusier’s Argentinean did not reflect the reality of the city.50

The Vision of Werner Hegemann

As with the invitation to Le Corbusier, the the many urban problems made it essential presence of the German urban planner was that the city limits be extended in order to sponsored by a private institution, Los Amigos tackle these problems in a unified and coherent de la Ciudad (The Friends of the City), which manner. Hegemann harshly criticized the fallacy took part in the urban debates of the 1930s. of the Código de Edificación, which would Werner Hegemann came from Berlin in allow the location of up to 30 million inhabi­ August 1931 and for four months held con­ tants in the city’s territory, and applauded the ferences in Buenos Aires, Rosario and Mar rationality of the typology of popular urban del Plata, leaving publications on these two housing.53 last cities.51 We know the content of Hegemann’s con­ As pointed out by Jorge Tartarini, Hegemann’s ferences from four articles which he published attitude was substantially different from that in the magazine Wasmutbs Monatshefte, on of the implementation of the modernist his return to Germany.54 Unlike Jaussely, Agache model which motivated the French planners, and other French urban planners, Hegemann or the ‘shock’ strategy proposed by Le liked the checkerboard design of the city of Corbusier. His starting point was the city as it Buenos Aires, to which he endorsed the values was, with, both its problems and its good of democratic conception, flexibility, openness points, and the search for the harmonic inte­ and rationality, although he made some obser­ gration of the urban planning instruments vations on its use in a residential context. which controlled its growth: the Urban Plan In this context and through his writings in and the Building Regulations or Building The American Vitruvius (1922), we can gain an Code.52 understanding of his criticism of the Hauss- He clearly perceived that the city should manesque diagonals which had been the be analysed in conjunction with the area of leitmotiv of urban planning in the building Gran Buenos Aires (jurisdictionally belonging aesthetic half a century earlier, and called on to the province of Buenos Aires and therefore public opinion to support enthusiastically the beyond the frontier of the Federal Capital), as ‘old and venerable system of the grid plan’. This point of departure coincided with the pre­ styles. The urban planner is interested in the diction of the Argentinean planner (educated tradition which has vitality’. in Paris), Carlos Della Paolera, with whom Hegemann supported the proposals made Hegemann formed a deep friendship until his by the Argentinean urban planners and death in 1936. He also made an impact on especially encouraged that incentive taken by the architect Martin Noel (also educated in Della Paolera from 1928 to formulate a Plano Paris) who in 1938 would promote the first Regulador (Development Control Plan) as an Ley de Urbanismo (Planning Law) and whose adequate instrument, due to its flexibility and library held works by Hegemann in both dynamic development, to adapt itself to the German and English. potential changes. His speech, with no arro­ Hegemann agreed with Forestier on the gance, was supported by evidence which had need to increase the green spaces and stated been taken from the cities of which he spoke. that Buenos Aires was ‘the biggest ocean of He gave his proposals time and reflection, he buildings with the greatest shortage of green valued them and thought deeply on their oasis I have known’; however, his park system strengths and weaknesses, offering alternatives was a structural element within the urban and which came from that reality without de­ regional plan he promoted in order to convert pending on symbolic and exogenous models. the outskirts into an articulated system of satellite This does not mean that Hegemann excluded cities. external references, but he did not use them One of the important themes which Hege­ as a starting point but rather in relation to the mann put forward was the reassessment of real city in which he would work. the single-family house with garden, as opposed His ideas were nevertheless dismissed in an to the proposal for collective and multi-family atmosphere where the modern vanguards housing which was being encouraged by Euro­ rejected all that meant the reappraisal of pean experts, especially the Germans and the tradition, and proposed the total renovation Austrians such as Steinhof, who had been in of the historic city as their goal. Only the Buenos Aires a few years earlier. Surprised by local urban planners were able to perceive the the quality of the yards and patios typical of deep wisdom of an urban planner who prag­ the vernacular porteña architecture, he agreed matically assumed the reality for what it was with Le Corbusier in the value of this type of and sought to transform the city to the highest residences and lucidly stated: T believe that standards which could be reached. Rationality urban planning has really a lot of interest in without rationalism and wisdom without the architectural traditions that must be kept simplification seem to have predominated in alive, but I interpret the growth of the tradi­ Hegemann’s dissertations. tions as being other than the copy of dead

The Pharaonic Projects for Buenos Aires

In marked contrast are the proposals for from the government’s architectural and urban interventions in Buenos Aires in the urban planning departments. Perhaps caught 1930s, both from private initiative as well as up in the great interventions of Mussolini and his ‘systematizations’, different government (Regulating Plan for Urban Planning and offices began remodelling projects in the central Extension), which would be directed by areas, demolishing and moving buildings and Carlos Della Paolera.56 monuments (even the most symbolic such as Probably the Congreso Argentino de the Cathedral, the Cabildo, the Government Urbanismo (Argentinean Urban Congress) House or the Municipal house), with the view held in 1935 urged the formulation of pro­ to creating new civic centres in different areas jects with major urban impact; but from 1932, of the city (figure 3.13).55 Bereterbide and Ernesto Vautier insisted on The principles were still drawn from the the moving of some of the administrative imagery of the City Beautiful. In 1927, the activities to a so-called ‘Centro Cívico’ (Civic Uruguayan Jorge Hardoy, educated in Paris, Centre), while Julio Oraola presented another proposed a major intervention in Avenida Alem project also aimed at diminishing the central and Paseo Colón to generate ‘an important value of the district around Plaza de Mayo.57 and grand composition, on a par with an All seemed to have been convinced that the incomparable “façade de ville”\ In 1932, the centre of the capital was passé and even the Exposición Municipal de Urbanismo (Munici­ Dirección Nacional de Arquitectura (National pal Exposition in Urban Planning) was held at Office of Architecture) studied the idea of the the same time as the creation of an office for Ciudad del Gobierno (Government City) the Plan Regulador de Urbanización y Extension moved to the Costanera Norte.58 These offices

Figure 3.13 Project by the Ministerio de Obras Públicas for the transformation of Plaza de Mayo, 1934. Demolition of the Cathedral, the C abildo and House of State. (Source: Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL) proposed the construction of two huge build­ configuration (figure 3.15). Della Paolera ings for the Ministerios de Guerra y Marina advocated the demolition of complete blocks (Ministries of War and Navy), of which only so as to create a parkway, as opposed to the one - fortunately - was built in the last and very minor cutbacks which the other tech­ most boring version of French academicism nical offices put forward. From this point of (figure 3.14). view, the high-handed gesture by the Ministerio Perhaps the most important work of the de Obras Públicas (Ministry of Public Works) decade was the opening of the Avenida 9 de in constructing its building (1933) in the middle Julio, proposed by Law from 1912, and sub­ of the planned route of the avenue, showed ject to arduous and slow discussions on its the latent ideological conflicts between powers.

Figure 3.14 Project by the National Government in the Costanera N orte. It includes the Cathedral, Archbishop’s Palace, House of Government, History Museum, Library, Public Records and Embassies. The historic centre of the city is being displaced. Designed by the architect Federico Laas in 1934. (Source: Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL) Figure 3.15 9 de Julio (North-South) Avenue project, with the design of the Civic Centre. Designed by the architects Fermín Bereterbide and Ernesto Vautier in 1933. (Source: Archivo del Centro de Documentación de Arquitectura Latinoamericana, CEDODAL)

Finally, the avenue was converted into ‘the structed by real estate speculation allows us widest in the world’, as the city inhabitants today to see the deplorable urban landscape like to say, due to a laudable decision taken which came with the half century which it by the Municipality which marked the begin­ took to construct the avenue.61 ning of the differentiation of competences Perhaps one should mention as the last between local decisions and the central govern­ endeavour of urban ideology, also neo­ ment’s interventions.59 conservative, the task encouraged by Guido The imagery of the new avenue was curi­ in his texts and projects for ‘the re- ous. It combined a landscape which was Argentinization of buildings through urban bucolically French, lacking joy, thought of by planning’. For the provincial cities of Salta Luro in 1909; an exaggerated neo-fascist inter­ and Tucumán, this ideology led to proposals vention in a monumental, Mussolini-like style, for major interventions which would alter with wide boulevards proposed by Angel their urban design and fabric, replacing the Guido; and the homogeneous illusion which French scenery with a neo-colonial one.62 The was put forward by Alberto Prebisch, author change of clothing did not mean a better of the Obelisk, the new symbol of the city in understanding of the historical city or of the 1936.60 The harsh reality of the city con­ true way of life of its inhabitants.

Balance and Reflections

This survey allows us to understand up to interest of European thought during the last what point the urban planning in Buenos half a century. Building Aesthetic, Fiygiene Aires was bound up with the centres of and Transport were the axes along which the discourse of this conservative modernity medio de las Empresas Particulares. París: Tipografía Best. flowed. Urban embellishment which was held 8. Pando, H. and others (1965) Arquitectura del Estado de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Instituto de Arre Americano- to the fore in discussions, never took into UBA. consideration the inhabitants, their lifestyles, 9. Ferrer, A. (1963) La economía argentina. Las etapas nor even the reality which existed.63 de su desarrollo y problemas. México: Fondo de Cultura Lacking historical support, the illusion of Económica. the enlightened thought projected its false light 10. Gutiérrez, R. (1983) Arquitectura y urbanismo en Iberoamérica. Madrid: Cátedra. on a vanishing model imported from abroad 11. Santini, S. and others (1997) La obra de Francisco which, in its various forms, always had at root Tamburini en Argentina. El espacio del poder. Iesi: the desire to deny the nation’s own identity.64 Comune de Iesi. However, something was achieved: Buenos 12. Tartarini, J. and Radovanovic, E. (1999) Agua y Aires shows this scenery - which today forms saneamiento en Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Aguas Argentinas. a privileged part of its patrimony - with the 13. Berjman, S. (1998) Plazas y parques de Buenos Aires. La obra de los paisajistas franceses. André, Courtois, Thays, proud certainty that it is the Americas’ most Bouvard, Forestier, 1860-1930. Buenos Aires: Gobierno European city. de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Fondo de Cultura Económica. 14. On the port of Buenos Aires, see Pinasco, E. (1942) El puerto de Buenos Aires. Contribución al estudio de su NOTES historia (1536-1898). Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos 1. Clemençeau, G. (1911) Notes de Voyage dans López; Pellegrini, C.E. (1853) Puerto de Buenos Aires. l’Amérique du Sud. Argentine, Uruguay, Brésil. Paris: Revista del Plata, 1, 2 and 3, pp. 3 -5 , 13, 21, 29 -3 0 ; Hachette et Cié. Huergo, L. (1904) Historia técnica del puerto de Buenos 2. For further information about colonial Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Editorial Revista Técnica. Aires, see Molinari, R.L. (1980) Buenos Aires 4 siglos. 15. Paula, A. de, Gutiérrez, R. and Viñuales, G. (1981) Buenos Aires: Tea; Peña, E. (1910) Documentos y Influencia alemana en la arquitectura argentina. planos relativos al período edilicio colonial de la ciudad Resistencia: UNNE. de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Municipalidad de 16. Jalikis, M. (1925) Historia de los medios de trans­ Buenos Aires; Taullard, A. (1940) Los planos más porte y de su influencia en el desarrollo urbano de la antiguos de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Peuser; ciudad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Compañía de Gutiérrez, R. (1992) Buenos Aires. Evolución histórica. Tranvías Anglo-Argentina. See also Viglione, L.A. Bogotá: Escala. (1878) Estudios sobre los tranways en la ciudad de 3 Gutiérrez, R. and Nicolini, A. (2000) La ciudad y sus Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Imprenta de Pablo Coni. transformaciones. Apartado de la nueva historia de la 17. See Iñigo Carreras, H. (1961) El pueblo de Nación Argentina. Buenos Aires: Academia Nacional de Belgrano. Notas y documentos para su historia. Buenos la Historia, Planeta, Vol. IV. Aires: Centro de Estudios Históricos del Pueblo de 4. Paula, A. de and Gutiérrez, R. (1974) Santiago Belgrano; Cunietti Ferrando, A.J. (1977) San José de Bevans y Carlos Enrique Pellegrini. La encrucijada de la Flores. El pueblo y el partido (1580-1880). Buenos arquitectura argentina. Resistencia: UNNE, pp. 33, 171. Aires: Junta de Estudios Históricos de San José de Flores. 5. See Balbín, V. (1873) Mejoras de las vías públicas de 18. Scobie, J.R. (1977) Buenos Aires. Del centro a los la ciudad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Imprenta del barrios, 1870-1910. Buenos Aires: Solar-Hachette. ’ Mercurio; Sourdeaux, A. (1862) Apuntes sobre la indus­ 19. Schávelzon, D. (1980) La arquitectura para la edu­ tria artesiana. Buenos Aires: Imprenta Berneim y cación en el siglo X IX , in Documentos para una historia Boneo; Pellegrini, C.E. (1854) Pozos artesianos. Revista de la arquitectura argentina. Período 5. Buenos Aires: del Plata, 6, p. 76. Summa, without pages in the original; Consejo 6. The Beare catastro (land registry) is kept at the Nacional de Educación (1886) Planos de las Escuelas Museo de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires. Comunes de la Capital construidas bajo la dirección del 7. Senillosa, F. (1875) Leyes de Espropiación necesarias Consejo Nacional de Educación. Buenos Aires: y embellecimiento de la ciudad de Buenos Aires por Litografía Stiller-Laas. 20. On the railways, see Dirección de Informaciones y Arquitecto no Ingeniero. DANA. D ocum entos de publicaciones ferroviarias (1946) Origen y desarrollo de Arquitectura Nacional y Americana, 24, pp. 7-14. los ferrocarriles argentinos. Buenos Aires: El Ateneo; 33. Bouvard, J. (1907) La futura Plaza del Congreso. La Scalabrini Ortiz, R. (1940) Historia de los ferrocarriles Prensa (June 27), p. 6. argentinos. Buenos Aires: Reconquista; Wright, W. 34. Jaeschke, V.J. (1927) Urbanismo. Edificación de la (1980) Los ferrocarriles ingleses en la Argentina. Buenos Diagonal Presidente Roque Saénz Peña con desprecio a Aires: Emecé. la higiene y a la estética. Revista de Arquitectura, 73, pp. 21. Córdoba, A.O. (1983) Juan Antonio Buschiazzo, 21-2 4 . arquitecto y urbanista de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: 35. Luro, P.O. (1911) Avenida de Norte a Sur. Proyecto Asociación Dante Alighieri. y diseño. Cámara de Diputados de la Nación. Buenos 22. Beccar Varela, A. (1926) Torcuato de Alvear. Aires: Imp. Tragant; Municipalidad de la Ciudad de Primer Intendente Municipal de la ciudad de Buenos Buenos Aires (1912) Avenida de Norte a Sur. Ley Aires. Su acción edilicia. Buenos Aires: Imp. Guillermo Nacional 8.855. Buenos Aires: lmp. G. Kraft. Kraft. 36. Gutiérrez, R., Tartarini, J. and others (1995) 23. On the La Plata and its urban proposals, see Burgos, Sociedad Central de Arquitectos. 100 años de compro­ J.M. (1882) La nueva Capital de la Provincia. Buenos miso con el país. (1886-1986). Buenos Aires: SCA. Aires: Imp. Pablo Coni; Nicolini, A. (1981) La Plata, la 37. Gutiérrez, R., Gutman, M. and Pérez Escolano, V. fundación de una capital. Construcción de la ciudad, (1994) El arquitecto Martín Noel. Su tiempo y su obra. 14, pp. 42—47; Paula, A. de (1986) La Plata. La ciudad Sevilla: Junta de Andalucía, Consejería de Cultura. y las tierras. Buenos Aires: Banco de la Provincia de Buenos Aires. 38. Gutiérrez, R. (ed.) (1998) Arquitectura latino­ americana del siglo XX. Barcelona: Lunwerg. 24. On the Avenida de Mayo, see Comisión Central de la Avenida de Mayo (1890) Memoria presentada a la 39. Gutiérrez, R. (1979) La búsqueda de lo nacional en Intendencia Municipal. Buenos Aires, Compañía la arquitectura. Revista Nacional de Cultura, 4, pp. Sudamericana de Billetes de Banco; Lianes, R. (1955) 35 -4 6 . La Avenida de Mayo, media centuria entre recuerdos y 40. Gutiérrez, R. (1995) Buenos Aires, modelo para ^ evocaciones. Buenos Aires: Kraft. armar (1910-1927). DANA. Documentos de Arquitectura v.__25.! Clemençeau, op. cit., p. 28. Nacional y Americana, 37/38, pp. 36-4 0 . 26. The urban ideas by the time of Bouvard’s arrival 41. (1912) La contratación del Arquitecto Chausse- can be seen in Desplats, M. (1906) Mejoras urbanas. miche. Revista del Centro de Estudiantes de Arquitectura, Buenos Aires: Talleres de la Penitenciaría; Chanourdie, 6, pp. 2 5 3 -2 6 6 . E. (1907) La transformación edilicia de Buenos Aires. /42. Berjman, S. (1992) J.C.N. Forestier y la ciudad de Arquitectura, 44, pp. 2 7 -3 0 . / Buenos Aires. DANA. Documentos de Arquitectura 27. (1907) La Prensa (June 23), p. 5. | Nacional y Americana, 31/32, pp. 8 4 -9 0 ; this work can be used as a reference on the subject. See also Berjman, 28. Berjman, S. (1995) Proyectos de Bouvard para la\ Plazas y parques de Buenos Aires . . ., loe. cit. Buenos Aires del Centenario: Barrio, plazas, hospital y Exposición. DANA. Documentos de Arquitectura 43. (1923) La transformación de Buenos Aires. La Nacional y Americana, 37/38, pp. 4 1 -5 3 . , Prensa (December 12), p. 8. 29. TartarinijJ. (1991) La polémica Bouvard-Jaeschke. 44. Forestier, J.C.N. (1905) Grandes villes et systèmes DANA' Documentos de Arquitectura Nacional y \des parcs. Paris: Hachette. Americana, 30, pp. 44 -5 2 . 45. Intendencia Municipal (1925) Proyecto orgánico 30. Bouvard, J. (1910) El nuevo plano de la ciudad de para la urbanización del Municipio. El plano regulador y Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Intendencia Municipal de de reforma de la Capital Federal. Buenos Aires: Talleres la Capital. Peuser. 31. Jaeschke, V.J. (1908) La primera avenida diagonal. 46. (1927) Las ideas del Profesor L. Jaussely sobre la urbanización de Buenos Aires. Revista Arquitectura, Trazado defectuoso y costoso. Revista Técnica, 47, pp. / 55-58. 110, pp. 6-8. 32. Tartarini, La polémica Bouvard-Jaeschke, loe. cit.; 47. Nicolini, A. (1995) Le Corbusier: Utopía y Buenos this work can be used as a reference on the subject. On Aires. DAN.A Documentos de Arquitectura Nacional y the local reactions to the arrival of the French Americana, 37/38, pp. 106-113. professionals, see Tartarini, J. (1987) Carlos Altgelt, 48. Sendra, R. (1982) Le Corbusier en Buenos Aires (1929). DANA. Documentos de Arquitectura Nacional y G., Bereterbide, F., Palazzo, P. and Vautier, E. (1936) Americana, 14, pp. 4 2 -4 8 . See also Le Corbusier (1930) Ubicación y construcción de los edificios públicos de la Précisions sur un état présent de l’architecture et de l’ur­ ciudad de Buenos Aires. Buenos Aires: Informe de la banisme. Paris: C.Grès et Cie. Comisión Especial. 49. Paula, A. de (1979) Le Corbusier y otros eventos en 58. Municipalidad de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (1939) la arquitectura argentina. Nuestra Arquitectura, 509, Il Exposición Municipal de Urbanismo. Buenos Aires: pp. 46-50. See also Collins, C.C. (1995) Urban Inter­ Dirección del Plan de Urbanización. See (1937-1938) change in the Southern Cone: Le Corbusier (1929) and Primer Congreso Argentino de Urbanismo. Buenos Aires: Werner Hegemann (1931) in Argentina. Journal o f the 3 Vols. In this congress, the landscape designer Benito Society o f Architectural Historians, 54(2), pp. 208-227. Carrasco presented a project for creating an Instituto de 50. Le Corbusier and others (1947) Plan Director para Altos Estudios Urbanos (Institute of High Urban Buenos Aires. La Arquitectura de Hoy, 4, pp. 4 -5 3 . See Studies). See Berjman, S. (1991) El pensamiento de also Borthagaray, J.M . (1981) El Plan Director de Buenos Benito Carrasco: Hacia una teoría paisajística argentina. Aires 1938-1940, in Le Corbusier y Buenos Aires. Buenos DANA Documentos de Arquitectura Nacional y Americana, Aires: CAYC, without pages in the original. 30, pp. 2 2 -3 0 . Having been presented in the congress (Vol. II, p. 130), Architect Laas’s project about the 51. Hegemann, W. (1931) Problemas urbanos de Rosario. decentralization and urbanization of central areas in Rosario: Municipalidad de Rosario; Hegemann, W. cities and communes had already been objected to by (1931) Mar del Plata, el balneario y el urbanismo mod­ Della Paolera, C.M. (1934) Opinión de la Muni­ erno. Buenos Aires: Comisión Pro Mar del Plata. cipalidad en el Proyecto relativo a la construcción de 52. Tartarini, J. (1995) La visita de Werner Hegemann ‘La Ciudad del Gobierno’. Boletín Municipal, 3518 a la Argentina en 1931. DANA. Documentos de (January 12), without pages in the original. Arquitectura Nacional y Americana, 37/38, pp. 54 -6 3 . 59. Municipalidad de la ciudad de Buenos Aires (1938) 53. Jorge Kálnay collaborated with Hegemann in real­ Avenida 9 de Julio. Leyes, Ordenanzas, Decretos, izing model exercises of the buildings allowed by the estudios, datos, informes referentes a su construcción. actual application of the Código de Edificación in force Buenos Aires: Municipalidad de la Ciudad de Buenos in Buenos Aires at that time. Aires. See also Della Paolera, C.M. (1937) La Avenida 54. Although they had been avoided in the French Nueve de Julio. Características y ventajas funcionales y urbanists’ proposals, Hegemann’s articles put before us económicas de su apertura en todo lo ancho de la questions such as housing, that were important in the manzana. Separata de La Ingeniería, 758. professional debate by the time other Europeans came 60. Gutiérrez, R. and others. (1999) Alberto Prebisch. to explain the projects of working-class housing in Una vanguardia con tradición. Buenos Aires: CEDODAL. Vienna and Berlin. See also Guido, A. (1941) Monumentalización fun­ 55. A detailed list of these projects can be seen in cional de la Avenida 9 de Julio. Conferencia en la Gutiérrez, R. and Berjman, S. (1995) La Plaza de Mayo, ciudad de Rosario del 25 de abril de 1941. Rosario. ^ escenario de la vida del país. Buenos Aires: Fundación 61. Gutman, M. and Hardoy, J.E. (1992) Buenos Aires. Banco Boston. Madrid: Mapfre-América. 56. Della Paolera, C.M. (1933) Publicación y Decreto 62. Guido, A. (1939) Reargentinización edilicia por el aprobatorio del Plan Regulador de Urbanización y urbanismo. Exposición auspiciada por los Amigos de la Extensión de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires presentado por Ciudad en ocasión de inaugurarse el Instituto Argentino el Ingeniero Urbanista Carlos M. Della Paolera. Buenos de Urbanismo. Buenos Aires: Amigos de la Ciudad. Aires: Los Amigos de la Ciudad. See also Della Paolera, 63. Hardoy, J.E. (1995) Teorías y prácticas urbanísticas C.M. (1977) Buenos Aires y sus problemas urbanos. en Europa entre 1850 y 1930. Su traslado a América Buenos Aires: Oikos, Buenos Aires; Bereterbide, F. Latina. DANA. Documentos de Arquitectura Nacional y (1931) Del Plan Regulador de la ciudad de Buenos Aires Americana, 37738, pp. 12-30. y sus alrededores. Buenos Aires: Archivo Cravotto, Montevideo. Typed copy. 64. Gutiérrez, R. (1996) Modelos e imaginarios europeos en el urbanismo americano, Revista de 57. Otaola, J.V. (1933) El Centro Cívico de la ciudad de Arquitectura, 8, pp. 2-3. Buenos Aires. Fundamentos de la división funcional. Buenos Aires: Talleres Gráficos Ferrari. See also Rocca,