Kavanagh Building and Art Deco Skyscraper Prowess
Why is it significant?
Looking up from the foot of Calle Florida, your eyes climb the dramatic stepped setbacks of the Edificio Kavanagh, one of the most celebrated Art Deco skyscrapers in the world.
Key Facts
| Place | Kavanagh Building and Art Deco Skyscraper Prowess |
|---|---|
| Address | Florida 1065, C1005 CABA, Argentina |
| Geo Coordinates | -34.59550, -58.37480 |
| Part of Walk | Puerto Madero, Retiro, and Costanera Sur: Century Docks to Modern Riverfront |
| Generated | Generated |
Looking up from the foot of Calle Florida, your eyes climb the dramatic stepped setbacks of the Edificio Kavanagh, one of the most celebrated Art Deco skyscrapers in the world. Commissioned in 1934 by wealthy heiress Corina Kavanagh and designed by visionary Argentine architects Gregorio Sánchez, Ernesto Lagos, and Luis María de la Torre, this one-hundred-and-twenty-meter tower was completed in just fourteen months, opening in January 1936. At the moment of its completion, it reigned as the tallest reinforced concrete building in the world and the tallest skyscraper in South America.
Notice how the building tapers like the prow of a mighty ocean liner: its thirty-one floors feature no external ornamentation, relying solely on streamlined vertical stepped volumes and polished travertine surfaces.
Beyond its architectural triumph, the Kavanagh is celebrated in Porteño lore for a legendary tale of aristocratic revenge. Legend recounts that Corina Kavanagh, a wealthy woman of newly minted Irish-Argentine fortune, fell deeply in love with the son of Mercedes Castellanos de Anchorena, the undisputed matriarch of Argentine high society. The snobbish Anchorenas fiercely opposed the marriage, considering Corina a social parvenu, and broke the engagement. Vowing revenge, Corina spent a fortune to build this colossal tower on the single parcel of land directly opposite the Anchorenas' family church, the Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento. By positioning the massive central skyscraper wing exactly where she did, Corina permanently blocked the view of the church from the Anchorena palace windows, ensuring that the matriarch could never see her family church without staring at Corina's monumental skyscraper.
Recognized by UNESCO in 1999 as a Historic Monument of World Engineering, the Kavanagh remains an enduring icon of modern Buenos Aires elegance. Looking up at its streamlined limestone terraces from the foot of Plaza San Martín, you appreciate the daring artistic vision that brought avant-garde skyscraper design to South America.
Walk around the base of the tower along Calle San Martín to reach the Basílica del Santísimo Sacramento.