Environment News 28.9.14 Part V: Another Example of Economic Expansion and Free Trade Gone Feral in the Destruction of Old Buenos Aires... Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, is internationally known as the Paris of South America - a multicultural city with wide elegant avenues that rivalled the planets major capitals in cultural refinement and modern conveniences. A century ago bountiful grain and beef exports made Argentina the eighth wealthiest nation on Earth and it was so rich that Buenos Aires could afford to hire the best architects in the world to design buildings fit for a leading nation. The hope of becoming as rich as an Argentinian also acted as such a powerful magnet and, by 1914 half of the city’s 1.6m inhabitants had been born outside Argentina, most of them in Europe. But Argentina sadly failed to live up to its early promise and, by the 1950s the country had crashed into the railings. Turmoil hit again last month when Argentina was declared in default by international credit rating agencies after a US court ruled the nation must pay $1.3bn to foreign debt holders. Part of the plan to pay them back is to increase economic growth and this, in turn, is putting pressure on Buenos Aires to knock down some of its old buildings and become more modernized. The ideology has always been: this is America, everything needs to be new, says journalist, Sergio Kiernan. That attitude is still prevalent in sectors of government today. But recently a combination of specialists such as the Heritage Commission’s Teresa Anchorena and grassroots groups alarmed at the rapid pace of destruction have become a major headache for developers, as well as for the citys authorities. When that old glory faded, the city was left with remarkable landmarks such as the Colón opera house [the third best in the world, according to National Geographic] that no longer correspond to the citys ranking, says Anchorena. But at the same time that contrast is part of what makes Buenos Aires such a unique and complex, super-attractive, pulsating city today, so we should try our hardest to preserve what remains of that formidable past. Music teacher Santiago Pusso agrees and, in 2007 he set up the tiny group Basta de Demoler (Stop the Demolition) with like-minded neighbours. We decided to go to the courts, says Pusso. This David and Goliath fight would be impossible otherwise. Among the major projects stopped by Pusso was an 18-storey hotel approved by city planners next to the church of Santa Catalina, built in 1745, whose gardens, open to the public, are an oasis of peace in the downtown area. Other fights have not been so successful however, and the antique Belgian-built cars that, up until this year, were used by the city’s underground transit system have recently been taken out of service because their maintenance was inadequate and they are considered dangerous. “They want to modernize and expand, but they haven’t considered how the trains move people emotionally,” said Gerardo Gómez Coronado, who oversees architectural protection at the city’s planning department. Preservationists agree adding that illegal demolitions, chronic underinvestment and unimaginative architecture is replacing the historic buildings and are threatening to erase the city’s heritage. “Argentina promised to be a very, very important country,” said Anchorena. “But now, Argentina’s broken promise is reflected in its buildings.” theguardian/world/2014/sep/27/buenos-aires-citizens-courts-paris-architecture-heritage
Posted on: Sat, 27 Sep 2014 23:36:22 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015