BUENOS AIRES GOVERNMENT BUILDING

Dr. Fernando de la Rua received casas & gente magazine in this historic place

Dr. Fernando de la Rúa is an outstanding politician with a solid career behind him. He is head of the Buenos Aires City Government and a candidate for the Argentine presidency. About his candidacy he told us “Even if the polls are indicating that the Fernando de la Rúa-Carlos Alvarez ticket is likely to win, the real decision will be made when the Argentine people go to the voting booths. So we are careful not to go around claiming victory before the votes come in, even if we are convinced that all the hard work we have been doing must bear fruit. I hope the Argentine people will give us a majority vote that will define the political situation in the first electoral round.” Dr. de la Rúa, married with three children, was born in Córdoba, Argentina, in 1937. Having obtained a law degree with honors at the age of 21, he sat on the Ministry of the Interior cabinet at 26. In 1973 he was elected senator by the Federal Capital and that same year nominated as candidate for the nation’s vicepresidency on the Ricardo Balbín ticket. In 1983 and 1992 he was again elected senator and in 1991 was appointed president of the Radical Civic Union bloc of National Deputies. In 1996 Dr. de la Rúa was elected Head of the Buenos Aires City Government, where he has been until now. The Buenos Aires City Government Building is a stately French-style mansion, built between 1891 and 1902 by engineer Juan María Cagnoni, to the design of architect Juan Antonio Buschiazzo. Some magnificent materials went into the construction—-mosaics, marble and glass taken from the expropriated and demolished residence of a wealthy family in a nearby street. The facades of the building are a mixture of neo-Italian Renaissance with Germanic touches, crowned with traditional French attics. The main entrance, on Bolivar Street, is by a grand red-carpeted, white marble staircase. On the landing is a reproduction of the Virgin of Buenos Aires (and of Navigators) that Alejo Fernández painted for the chapel in Seville’s Casa de Contratación, probably sometime between 1531 and 1536. This copy dates from 1924. Other important paintings include Benito Quinquella Martín’s “Preparations for Departure” and José Moreno Carbonero’s “Founding of Buenos Aires,” both in the fabulous White Room. A certain amount of reconstruction work was needed after two fires damaged the building a few years ago. In 1993 the government bought the adjacent building that belonged to the La Prensa newspaper; now both buildings are joined by the Ana Díaz walkway. In 1996, in a move toward democracy, the head of local Buenos Aires government was no longer chosen by the nation’s President, but elected by popular vote for the first time. And the people’s choice was Fernando de la Rúa.

TEATRO COLON

History, art and pride of Buenos Aires

Anyone who has ever visited Buenos Aires must have seen one of the two most traditional venues of lyric art in the Americas. We mean that exquisite eclectic theater with touches of the Italian Renaissance which opened in 1908 with an inaugural performance of Verdi’s Aida. Actually, there had been an earlier Teatro Colón on Plaza de Mayo in the mid-nineteenth century, where for 30 years fans flocked to hear their favorite operas. The new Colón was built on Arturo Toscanini Street with the proceeds from the sale of the former, but took close to 20 years to erect because the first two architects commissioned with the project died before its completion. The world’s leading opera singers, conductors, musicians and critics all acclaim the wonderful accoustics of the horseshoe-shaped auditorium. The shape, materials used and the dimensions are such that any vibration is diverted high into the cupola and thus mitigated. Credit for this accoustic achievement goes to Julio Dolmal, the third and final architect. The main entrance on Calle Libertad to the orchestra floor and boxes is through a red marble foyer of striated Greek-style columns and white Carrara marble staircase with two magnificent stained-glass windows by Gaudin of Paris on the landing. A second entrance on Arturo Toscanini Street is to levels 4 and 5, while another on Tucumán Street leads to the “gods” on levels 6 and 7. The theater has two extra salons: Los Bustos, off the main foyer, flaunting figures of Beethoven, Bellini, Bizet, Gounoud, Mozart, Rossini, Verdi and Wagner carved into its ornate gold-leaf cornice; and the 400-sq-m Salon Dorado used for conferences, concerts and exhibitions—-an elegant ambience of pink-upholstered French furniture and mirrors emulating those in Versailles.

PETER MARINO

Creates a unique floor at the top of New York

Celebrated interior decorator Peter Marino has just finished designing a unique floor with a simply gorgeous view of Manhattan for a young financial genius client of his. The location (42nd floor of the deluxe Hotel Pierre facing Central Park) is not the only thing that makes it unique though. The ultra-simple yet ultra-sophisticated ambience that reigns in its living room, dining room, library and two bedrooms, also counts. His client bought the space from the hotel, which will provide full hotel service to the new owner who, between flying visits to London, Berlin, Paris or Río, calls the Big Apple his home. Marino’s client was adamant that the apartment must first and foremost do justice to his art collection that includes works of Jean Michel Basquiat, Francesco Clemente and Andy Warhol. Natural materials—-lots of wood and cotton textiles—-are blended into a very masculine environment, where windows are key players and bring in the lights of New York’s night skyline.

PEREDA BUILDING

Home of the Brazilian embassy in Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires’ Plaza Carlos Pellegrini and its immediate environs show a marked influence of early-20th-century French architecture. One of the facades that gives the area its Parisian look is that of the residence that now houses the Brazilian Embassy. Brazil’s ties with Palacio Pereda go back to 1938, when President Getúlio Vargas, on an official visit to Argentina, was a guest at this mansion. So impressed was he with its luxury that in 1944 he authorized its purchase. Ever since, it has served as residence for some 20 ambassadors, the latest being Sebastiao do Rego Barros, appointed to the post in 1999. The story of how Palacio Pereda came to be built began around 1917 when an avant-garde hacienda owner Doctor Celedonio Pereda bought a piece of land on which to build his new residence. He commissioned French architect Louis Martín to copy the old Jacquemart-André building in Paris, but one year into construction switched to famous Belgian architect Julio Dormal after a difference of opinion with Martín over design details. The giant Corinthian columns, cylindrical main body and side pavillions are typical of Parisian mansions of that era, although the general composition tends to evoke the architecture at the end of the Second Empire. The rear facade overlooks the garden but, although retaining elements of the original, lacks perfect unity. The well-proportioned reception rooms have fine views of both the terraces on the street side and the garden at the back. The interior decor too is a replica of the Jacquemart-André residence which since 1913 has been open to the public as a museum of art and antiques collected by banker Edouard André and his artist wife Nelié Jacquemart (see Casas & Gente No. 124). Finally Pereda looked for a painter to complete the interior ambience of his home, and found him in Spanish artist José María Sert (1874-1945), after admiring works of his in London and Paris. In 1932 the artist sent his canvases to Buenos Aires and they were affixed to the ceilings of five rooms in the main area. Recognized as some of Sert’s best work for residences, their motifs range from Venetian and Mediterranean to Spanish and Oriental inspirations, portraying such mythical or popular scenes as Don Quixote in the dining room, tight-rope walkers in the hall, Diana the Huntress in the Salón Dorado and a spider’s web in the breakfast room.

THE HOME OF AMBASSADORS SUBIZA

Tasteful fantasy… objects with histories in a youthful ambience

On Avenida Alvear, in the Parisian quarter of Buenos Aires where the Brazilian and French embassies and the Jockey Club are located, we took a peek into María Laura and Héctor Subiza’s apartment to admire the antiques and objets d’art they have collected throughout a long diplomatic career that culminated in an ambassadorhip in Mexico. For example, one souvenir from their stay in China is a fine collection of small sang de boeuf vases and a collection of snuff bottles; and from Puebla, Mexico, a small bureau and desk of inlaid wood.

PETER MARINO

Creates a unique floor at the top of New York

Celebrated interior decorator Peter Marino has just finished designing a unique floor with a simply gorgeous view of Manhattan for a young financial genius client of his. The location (42nd floor of the deluxe Hotel Pierre facing Central Park) is not the only thing that makes it unique though. The ultra-simple yet ultra-sophisticated ambience that reigns in its living room, dining room, library and two bedrooms, also counts. His client bought the space from the hotel, which will provide full hotel service to the new owner who, between flying visits to London, Berlin, Paris or Río, calls the Big Apple his home. Marino’s client was adamant that the apartment must first and foremost do justice to his art collection that includes works of Jean Michel Basquiat, Francesco Clemente and Andy Warhol. Natural materials—-lots of wood and cotton textiles—-are blended into a very masculine environment, where windows are key players and bring in the lights of New York’s night skyline.