On the Street, Uruguay

In the Ciudad Viejo or old city of Montevideo was this artwork depicting Candombe musicians, a traditional Uruguayan rhythm of African descent.

Pasaje General Paz

Walking along the street Ciudad de la Paz today to get to my doctors appointment, this building blew me away. Imagine living here and walking through this amazing arch every day!

I found a couple of photos that show it off a little better, from a blog in Spanish called Palo Architecture. There are some great photos from the suburb of Colegiales, so take a look!

Above photos from http://paloarq.com.ar

Casa Vieja

This old house in Palermo Hollywood caught my eye the other day, it has some great details if you look closely.

The Soda Bottle

In Argentina you can order these soda bottles at some of the more old-school restaurants, and you often see old men drinking red wine with soda water (and at some places you cannot only order a soda bottle, you have to order wine or a whisky too!). You can also get them delivered to your door; the trucks that deliver the 20L bottles of spring water always have crates of soda bottles next to them. I have wanted to get onto the delivery list for soda for some time now, but need to do some more research about how to find one of the companies who still offer it. This is the Argentina that I love.

Virginio Colombo Part #2

The amazing Venetian-style building by architect Virginio Colombo across the street from his more well-known building the Casa Calise in the suburb of Balvanera in Buenos Aires.

Casa Calise, Virginio Colombo

 

Virginio Colombo is another of Buenos Aires' Art Nouveau architects. Born in Milan in 1885, he came to Argentina when he was 21 and produced almost 50 buildings before his death in 1927 at the age of just 42. Two of his most iconic buildings are located in the neighborhood of Balvanera: The Casa de los Pavos Reales at Rivadavia 3216 and the Casa Calise at Hipolito Yrigoyen 2562, the latter depicted in these photos.

The Casa Calise is hidden in the backstreets, away from the tourist circuit. The facade features many decorative features such as cherubs, sculptures, lion heads, the use of different textures and ironwork, and has become one of the iconic examples of the Art Nouveau movement in Buenos Aires.

In order to build this new style of building that broke away from traditional architecture, Colombo purchased the land facing the Casa Calise so that nobody could object to his style. The building that now stands across the street was also built by Colombo and is quite different but incredibly beautiful. Such amazing history in the same narrow street!

 It is extremely difficult to photograph this building as the street is so narrow and there are trees that block the lower half!

Bookstore, Avenida de Mayo

A couple of weeks ago on an excursion with my architecture class, we stumbled upon this bookstore located inside one of the Art Nouveau buildings we were all admiring. The owner invited us inside to look at the building and her shop, which turned out to be quite amazing for two reasons: the collection of vintage books and Argentine memorabilia and the building itself with an amazing ceiling and other architectural details.

The bookshop is called La Calesita and I am definitely planning a return visit in the near future.