This Tuesday, at the press conference in which the Government tried to explain how the new segmentation of subsidies for electricity, gas and water services will be, the president of Aysa Malena Galmarini He presented some examples, among which he exposed the inhabitants of the Kavanagh, the building of power in which the rich and famous live, in which the average water bill is $1,950. But, who inhabits that historic place?
Located at 1000 Florida Street, in the Retiro neighborhood, the Kavanagh was inaugurated on January 15, 1936. Its style combines art deco and rationalist styles. It has a surface area of 28,000 square meters distributed over 31 floors that are accessed by five stairs and twelve elevators, ten stores on the ground floor and 103 apartments.
Among its most prominent inhabitants are the lawyer Carlos Maslaton, 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; and the outstanding pianist William Klein.
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.
The Kavanagh was designed by architects Gregorio Sanchez, Ernesto Lagos Y Luis Maria 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 sons of the family Anchorena. 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.
Recently the Kavanagh almost became the setting for some scenes of “Nothing” the miniseries starring Louis Brandoni with the 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.
