The producer Metrovision had evaluated the Kavanagh as a special location to shoot some of the scenes of “Nada”, the miniseries starring Luis Brandoni and that will have a special participation of the legendary Hollywood actor Robert DeNiro. The proposal was more than interesting from the point of view of the international visibility that one of the icons of local architecture could have had. However, two thirds of the 107 owners of the property rejected it because they considered that the financial offer was too low. And, indirectly, the residents of the building maintained the historic low profile.
“The person who chooses to live in the Kavanagh is totally different from who chooses, for example, Puerto Madero. They are opposite profiles. The building does not have zoom, it does not have a swimming pool, ping-pong or any common space to hold events or socials”, says one of the current owners. A former neighbor adds: “Those who rent or buy there have something rather intellectual and not so much ‘nouveau riche’. Ostentation or bombast has nothing to do with that place.”
Located at 1000 Florida Street, in the Retiro neighborhood, the Kavanagh It was inaugurated on January 15, 1936. At 120 meters high, it used to be the tallest skyscraper in South America and the largest concrete structure in the world. Currently, it is considered one of the emblems in Argentina of architecture that combines art deco and rationalist styles. The stories of the building also include an urban legend that tells that Corina Kavanagha beautiful wealthy but not patrician woman, had the tower built to avenge the unaccepted romance between her daughter and a young man from the Anchorena family.
Some old owners insist that the insecurity in the area led several neighbors to decide to leave the building in recent years, and there are even those who speak of “the decline of the Kavanagh”. In any case, the place continues to preserve part of the Buenos Aires mystique. Hence, the vast majority have been planted against the proposal to shoot the miniseries.
Metrovision, with the endorsement of Star+, intended to work for two weeks in two of the building’s departments. As explained by the influencer Carlos Maslaton, one of the owners since 2012 and whose wife has an active participation in the consortium, the negotiation failed due to economic issues. The production company had offered to pay between 4 and 5 million pesos to film. However, according to the estimates of the neighbors, that work could not be worth less than $35 million.
Kavanagh: contactless neighbors
The Kavanagh It has a surface area of 28,000 square meters and 31 floors, which are accessed by five stairs and twelve elevators. The building has ten stores on the ground floor and 103 apartments, which are distributed in seven different and independent wings (from A to G), with their respective shields. In other words, it’s like seven buildings put together. “It is very rare to cross paths with neighbors. What’s more, there are people I know who live here but I’ve never seen”, says an owner.
Artists, businessmen, intellectuals or politicians… the Kavanagh it is a building for a diverse type of personalities. Among the prominent names that currently reside in the building, in addition to Maslatón, we can mention that of the former deputy and former ambassador of Venezuela, Alicia Castro; the businessman and CEO of Techint, Paolo Rocca; the journalist and columnist for La Nación, Joaquin Morales Solá; the director of Sotheby’s Argentina, Adela Mackinlay de Casal; or the outstanding pianist William Klein; one of the sisters of the former president of the Central Bank Mercedes Marco del Pont; or the founder of the Popular Conservative Party, Alberto Maria Fonrouge.
The building was declared in 1999 as World Heritage of Modernity Architecture by UNESCO. That same year it was declared a National Historic Monument, so all interventions or repairs must be in accordance with the aesthetic and building criteria that were imposed in 1936. However, some of the historic residents who decided to leave in recent years say that In recent decades, a good part of the departments began to collapse.
In the real estate world they maintain that the Kavanagh It is not a typical millionaire building and, on the contrary, being almost a century old, there are luxuriously remodeled units and others that are very simple. “That’s why the value varies so much between the properties,” said an auctioneer who rented homes there.
The current witness case that crosses the building is the 14th floor A, the most emblematic. The first to inhabit that property was Corina Kavanagh, then the house passed into the hands of the Roberts bankers and in 2003 it was bought by the English lord Alain Levenfeniche.
The department has 740 square meters, of which 475 are covered. It has a total of eight rooms, five bedrooms and five bathrooms and a unique 360-degree view of the City of Buenos Aires. However, the English lord who wanted to renovate the apartment to sell it at a much higher price, found himself with the problem that the value began to drop.
The first time it went on sale it had been listed for about $7,900,000. Due to the lack of interested parties, the price fell to US$6,000,000 and, after the pandemic, the real estate company Patagonia Synergia reported that the value was around US$3,400,000.
“What happened on 14 A is a clear example of what has been happening on the Kavanagh because this man remodeled it in such a way that it lost all its style”, says a former owner who saw the house. But, beyond those individual decisions of each owner, in his case he decided to leave due to the insecurity of the area. “I lived 21 years and left five years ago. Many of the great figures who were historical figures of the building made the same decision because Florida and Plaza San Martín became very dangerous places. One of the triggers for me was when a French journalist was murdered there,” says the man.
The variety of personalities who knew how to live in the Kavanagh throughout its history it included characters as dissimilar as the former economy minister of the dictatorship, Jose Martinez de Hozor consultant to international fashion and designer companies Robert Dovorik. Closer in time, in 2016, the journalist Jorge Lanata rented one of the units for about a year, after parting ways with Sarah Stewart Brown.
“It is a building that, since it was built, was designed to rent homes. That is why personalities of the highest aristocracy or millionaires never lived in the Kavanagh, but they were always people of very good standing and belonging to the enlightened elite of Buenos Aires”, says a current neighbor. In fact, he gives as an example of a “relatively accessible building” the value of the building expenses: by 2022 the value was around $265 per square meter, that is, a unit of about 220 square meters paid around $58,000 per month.
The mystique of the Kavanagh
The Kavanagh It was designed by the architects Gregorio Sánchez, Ernesto Lagos and Luis María de la Torre. According to the specialized site Platform Architecture, the work, which began on April 16, 1934, took only 14 months. The same year it was completed, the building won the Municipal Collective House and Facade Award and, later, a distinction from the American Institute of Architects. In addition, the American Society of Engineers gave it the same award as the Eiffel Tower, the Assuan Dam and the Panama Canal due to its technical characteristics.
The legend tells that Corina Kavanagh had an affair with one of the children of the Anchorena family. However, the Anchorenas had forced the break because she did not belong to a patrician family. It is said that Corina had the enormous building built to cover the view that the clan had from her house (the current Palacio San Martín, the Headquarters of the Chancellery). True or not, the myth was installed in Buenos Aires society.
