If the Legislative House of the City of Buenos Aires passes the law draft by the member of the Parliament, Marta Varela, the Callao avenue, along its twenty blocks, will be declared “Area de protección histórica” (APH: Area of historical protection).

Callao was, at a moment, the boundary of the city. When the high class families left the southern part of Buenos Aires–due to the yellow fever, in 1871–and they moved to the highest neighbourhood of the city’s northern part, Callao, from Recoleta to Downtown, many mansions in French and Italian styles were built.
85 of these constructions are included in the law draft by Varela, who intends to protect their demolition–an increasing danger because of the real estate industry–and modifications of their facades.

The APH category also regulates the building materials and measures of streets and sidewalks, shelters, awnings and advertising signals. Among the 85 buildings included in the law, we can enumerate the building Banco Nación (Callao 101), the bookstore Clásica y Moderna (Callao 892) and a work by the architect Alejandro Virasoro, one of the art decó pioneers in Buenos Aires, at Callao 1405.

Furthermore, there are people who are against these laws which protect the architectural patrimony. They think that these norms stop the development of the city and make Buenos Aires seem artificially old-fashioned.
What do you think about the idea of protecting Callao? Do you know other buildings along this avenue?

Esta entrada fue escrita el Viernes, Mayo 9, 2008 a las 12:56 y esta en la categoría General, Neighbourhoods, Buildings. Puede seguir los comentarios de esta entrada mediante RSS 2.0. Puede escribir un comentario, o trackback desde su sitio.