Kavanagh Building
Introduction
The Kavanagh building is an apartment tower located at 1065 Florida Street, in front of Plaza San Martín "Plaza General San Martín (Buenos Aires)"), in the Retiro neighborhood "Retiro (Buenos Aires)") of the City of Buenos Aires. An emblematic work of modern architecture in Buenos Aires, it is one of the iconic buildings of the city,[1] considered a clear example of the art deco style.[2].
Inaugurated on January 3, 1936, with its 120 meters it was, from its completion until 1947, the tallest building in Latin America,[3] the first building in the world built with reinforced concrete and the first residential building in Buenos Aires that had centralized air conditioning equipment provided by the American firm Carrier[4] and a central heating system by boilers.
History
The idea to build this tower came from the rich rancher Corina Kavanagh, who financed it and gave it her name.
It was designed by the Sánchez, Lagos y de la Torre studio.[5] The concrete structure was awarded to the Empresa Argentina de Cemento Armado, E.A.C.A. The tender was carried out based on a preliminary project prepared by the well-known structural engineer Carlos Laucher. The final project of the structure was executed by the Technical Office of the aforementioned company headed by engineer Fernando Schwarz.[6] The works began on April 16, 1934 and the structure reached its maximum height on November 3 of that same year.
In 1934, when it was still under construction, the upper façade was used to place a white cross several stories high in support of the 1934 International Eucharistic Congress held in Buenos Aires.
Architecture
Its staggered construction gave rise to garden terraces. It has a shape similar to the bow of a ship, and the orientation of the building gives rise to the similarity of it pointing towards the Río de la Plata. Curiously, the building does not have garages or an electric intercom: each visitor must announce themselves at the "Reception (hospitality)" reception, which notifies the corresponding department by telephone (in total it has 105). According to a survey carried out by the newspaper Clarín to 600 people not specialized in architecture, in 2013, it was chosen as the most beautiful building in Buenos Aires.[7].