Florida Street
Encyclopedia
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. A pedestrian street since 1971, some stretches have been pedestrianized since 1913.
The pedestrian
Walkability
Walkability is a measure of how friendly an area is to walking. Walkability has many health, environmental, and economic benefits. Factors influencing walkability include the presence or absence and quality of footpaths, sidewalks or other pedestrian right-of-ways, traffic and road conditions,...
section as such starts at the intersection of Perú Street and Avenida de Mayo
Avenida de Mayo
Avenida de Mayo , is an avenue in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina. It connects the Plaza de Mayo with Congressional Plaza, and extends in a west-east direction before merging into Avenida Rivadavia.-History and overview:...
, a block north of the Plaza de Mayo
Plaza de Mayo
The Plaza de Mayo is the main square in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is flanked by Hipólito Yrigoyen, Balcarce, Rivadavia and Bolívar streets....
; Perú Street crosses Rivadavia Avenue
Rivadavia Avenue
Avenida Rivadavia is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires, Argentina, extending from downtown Buenos Aires to the western suburb of Merlo.-History:...
, and becomes Florida Street. Florida Street runs northwards for approximately one kilometer to Plaza San Martín
Plaza San Martín (Buenos Aires)
Plaza San Martín is a park located in the Retiro neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Situated at the northern end of pedestrianized Florida Street, the park is bounded by Libertador Ave. , Maipú St. , Santa Fe Avenue , and Leandro Alem Av....
, in the Retiro
Retiro, Buenos Aires
Retiro is a barrio in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Located in the northeast end of the city, Retiro is bordered on the south by the Puerto Madero and San Nicolás wards, and on the west by the Recoleta ward.-Urban character:...
area. It intersects Buenos Aires's other pedestrian street, Lavalle, traditionally the heart of the cinema district.
Florida is one of the city's leading tourist
Tourism in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is in the midst of a tourism boom, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, it reveals strong growth for Argentina Travel and Tourism in 2007...
attractions. Florida Street bustles with shoppers, vendors, and office workers alike because of its proximity to the financial district
San Nicolás, Buenos Aires
San Nicolás is one of the neighbourhoods of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina, sharing most of the city and national government structure with neighboring Montserrat and home to much of Buenos Aires' financial sector...
. By evening, the pace relaxes as street performers flock to the area, including tango
Tango music
Tango is a style of ballroom dance music in 2/4 or 4/4 time that originated among European immigrant populations of Argentina and Uruguay . It is traditionally played by a sextet, known as the orquesta típica, which includes two violins, piano, double bass, and two bandoneons...
singers and dancers, living statue
Living statue
The term living statue refers to a mime artist who poses like a statue or mannequin, usually with realistic statue-like makeup, sometimes for hours at a time....
s, and comedy acts. Its variety of retail stores, shopping arcades, and restaurants
Cuisine of Argentina
Argentine cuisine may be described as a cultural blending of indigenous Mediterranean influences with the wide scope of livestock and agricultural products that are abundant in the country...
became of greater interest to foreign tourists and business travelers following the devaluation of the Argentine peso
Argentine peso
The peso is the currency of Argentina, identified by the symbol $ preceding the amount in the same way as many countries using dollar currencies. It is subdivided into 100 centavos. Its ISO 4217 code is ARS...
in 2002.
San Telmo
San Telmo
San Telmo is the oldest barrio of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is a well-preserved area of the Argentine metropolis and is characterized by its colonial buildings. Cafes, tango parlors and antique shops line the cobblestone streets, which are often filled with artists and dancers.San Telmo's...
and all other attractions in or near downtown Buenos Aires are a short walk away.
History
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata —sometimes rendered River Plate in British English and the Commonwealth, and occasionally rendered [La] Plata River in other English-speaking countries—is the river and estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River on the border between Argentina and...
. Its first official name was "San José," enacted by Governor Miguel de Salcedo in 1734. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the street was known popularly as "the Post" in reference to said structure located on a corner along what later became Perú Street (the southern continuation of Florida Street). It was also later known as Empedrado (cobbled street). Improved with boulders brought from Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
beginning in 1789, it became the first paved street in the city (a section of the original cobblestone pavement is displayed behind the entrance to the Cathedral Station
Catedral (Buenos Aires Metro)
Catedral is a terminal station of the Line D of the Buenos Aires Metro. From here, passengers may transfer to the Perú station on Line A and the Bolívar station on Line E. It is located at the intersection of Roque Sáenz Peña Avenue and Florida Street, which gave the original name of the station...
on Diagonal Norte Avenue). Following the British invasions of the Río de la Plata
British invasions of the Río de la Plata
The British invasions of the Río de la Plata were a series of unsuccessful British attempts to seize control of the Spanish colonies located around the La Plata Basin in South America . The invasions took place between 1806 and 1807, as part of the Napoleonic Wars, when Spain was an ally of...
in 1808, the street was called Baltasar Unquera, in homage to an aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
to Viceroy Santiago de Liniers
Santiago de Liniers
Jacques de Liniers was a French officer in the Spanish military service, and a viceroy of the Spanish colonies of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. He is more widely known by the Spanish form of his name, Santiago de Liniers...
, fallen in the fight against Admiral William Carr Beresford. The street was first named "Florida" in 1821. The name was designated in honor of the battle fought in 1814 in Upper Peru
Upper Peru
Upper Peru was the region in the Viceroyalty of Peru, and after 1776, the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, comprising the governorships of Potosí, La Paz, Cochabamba, Los Chiquitos, Moxos and Charcas...
against the royalists during the Argentine War of Independence
Argentine War of Independence
The Argentine War of Independence was fought from 1810 to 1818 by Argentine patriotic forces under Manuel Belgrano, Juan José Castelli and José de San Martín against royalist forces loyal to the Spanish crown...
. Governor Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas
Juan Manuel de Rosas , was an argentine militar and politician, who was elected governor of the province of Buenos Aires in 1829 to 1835, and then of the Argentine Confederation from 1835 until 1852...
renamed the street "Perú" in 1837, and in 1857, the name was returned to the present one.
The Argentine National Anthem
Argentine National Anthem
The Argentine National Anthem is the national anthem of Argentina. The name of the song originally was Marcha Patriótica , and was later renamed Canción Patriótica Nacional and finally Canción Patriótica . A copy published in 1847 called it Himno Nacional Argentino and the name has remained ever...
was first performed in 1813 at the Florida Street home of Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson
Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson
Mariquita Sánchez de Thompson y Mendeville , born María Josepha Petrona de Todos los Santos Sánchez de Velazco y Trillo, was a patriot from Buenos Aires and its leading salonnière, whose tertulia gathered all the leading personalities of her time...
, one of the city's most prominent citizens. Argentine elites began to leave the central and southern wards of the city mainly due to epidemics, especially the 1871 yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
outbreak. They decided to move to higher ground in the city and chose the area known as Retiro
Retiro, Buenos Aires
Retiro is a barrio in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Located in the northeast end of the city, Retiro is bordered on the south by the Puerto Madero and San Nicolás wards, and on the west by the Recoleta ward.-Urban character:...
. Florida Street, whose northern half is in the Retiro ward, became a shopping street in 1872, and would soon welcome pharmacies, furniture retailers, jewelers, and haberdasheries that offered the latest in European fashion. Numerous private mansions were also built along Florida Street in the 1880s and 1890s. The Parisian-inspired Bon Marché
Galerías Pacífico
Galerías Pacífico is a shopping centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, located at the intersection of Florida Street and Córdoba Avenue.-Overview:...
became the street's first large-scale shopping arcade in 1889, and the Argentine Jockey Club, the nation's most prestigious gentlemen's club
Gentlemen's club
A gentlemen's club is a members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for British upper class men in the eighteenth century, and popularised by English upper-middle class men and women in the late nineteenth century. Today, some are more open about the gender and social status of...
and horse racing
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
society, was inaugurated in 1897.
The Civic Youth Union, was organized in 1889 at the intersection with the Avenida Córdoba. This organization would foment the Revolution of the Park
Revolution of the Park
The Revolution of the Park was an uprising against the national government of Argentina that took place on 26 July 1890 and started with the takeover of the Buenos Aires Artillery Park. It was led by members of the Civic Union against the presidency of Miguel Juárez Celman...
in 1890, and from its ranks the Radical Civic Union
Radical Civic Union
The Radical Civic Union is a political party in Argentina. The party's positions on issues range from liberal to social democratic. The UCR is a member of the Socialist International. Founded in 1891 by radical liberals, it is the oldest political party active in Argentina...
(to whom six presidents would later belong during the twentieth century) would be established in 1891.
A tram
Tram
A tram is a passenger rail vehicle which runs on tracks along public urban streets and also sometimes on separate rights of way. It may also run between cities and/or towns , and/or partially grade separated even in the cities...
was installed along Florida Street in the 1890s, and it soon became a leading commercial artery in Buenos Aires. Vehicular traffic was barred during business hours in 1911 by request of the growing number of shop owners along Florida, and in 1913 the tram was dismantled to pedestrianize a section of the street. The 1914 inaugural of the Gath & Chaves department store
Department store
A department store is a retail establishment which satisfies a wide range of the consumer's personal and residential durable goods product needs; and at the same time offering the consumer a choice of multiple merchandise lines, at variable price points, in all product categories...
coincided with the inaugural of Harrods Buenos Aires
Harrods Buenos Aires
Harrods Buenos Aires is a historic commercial building in Buenos Aires, Argentina, formerly a branch of Harrods of London.- History :Established in 1914 on 877 Florida Street as the only overseas branch of the renowned Harrods of London, the department store was expanded in 1920, and grew to occupy...
, the only overseas branch of Harrods
Harrods
Harrods is an upmarket department store located in Brompton Road in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air...
, and the illuminated spire topped Galería Güemes. The merger of Gath & Chaves and Harrods in 1922 created two of the most ornate institutions of their kind in the Americas. Florida Street also became the address for a number of important corporate headquarters during the 1920s, including BankBoston
BankBoston
BankBoston was a bank based in Boston, Massachusetts, which was created by the 1996 merger of Bank of Boston and BayBank. Bank of Boston had a venerable history dating back to 1784, but the merged BankBoston was short-lived, being acquired by Fleet Bank in 1999...
Argentina and La Nación
La Nación
La Nación is an Argentine daily newspaper. The country's leading conservative paper, the centrist Clarín is its main competitor. It is the only newspaper in Argentina still published in broadsheet format.-Overview:...
, the nation's leading news daily at the time. Lavalle Street, which intersects Florida, became a focal point of local cinema houses beginning in the 1930s.
The city's middle and upper classes would later relocate further north, to Recoleta
Recoleta
Recoleta is a downtown residential neighborhood in the city of Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina; it is an area of great historical and architectural interest, due, particularly to the Recoleta Cemetery located there...
, Palermo
Palermo, Buenos Aires
Palermo is a neighborhood, or barrio of the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires. It is located in the northeast of the city, bordering the barrios of Belgrano to the north, Almagro and Recoleta to the south, Villa Crespo and Colegiales to the west and the Río de la Plata river to the east. With a total...
, and Belgrano
Belgrano, Buenos Aires
Belgrano is a leafy, northern barrio or neighborhood of the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina.- Location :The barrio of Palermo is to the southeast; Nuñez is to the northwest; Coghlan, Villa Urquiza, Villa Ortúzar and Colegiales are to the southwest....
, however. This trend was reinforced by the 1953 arson
Arson
Arson is the crime of intentionally or maliciously setting fire to structures or wildland areas. It may be distinguished from other causes such as spontaneous combustion and natural wildfires...
of the grand Jockey Club building by a Peronist mob. Its decline, however, was slowed by both an era of relative prosperity in Argentina, as well as milestones such as the inaugural of the Hotel Claridge in 1946, the Torcuato di Tella Institute
Torcuato di Tella Institute
The Torcuato di Tella Institute is a non-profit foundation organized for the promotion of Argentine culture.-Overview:The di Tella Foundation and its institute were created on July 22, 1958, the tenth anniversary of the death of industrialist and arts patron Torcuato di Tella...
's Florida Street center in 1963 (which became a hub of Buenos Aires' avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
and pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
scene during the 1960s), and the 1971 conversion of the street into a promenade. Writer Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
lived near the northern end, and was fond of taking walks through the semi-deserted street in the pre-dawn hours. Borges was an outspoken critic of the renovation work done on the street in 1970; he was blind, and the new arrangement of trash cans, planters, flower pots, and magazine stands was a serious accessibility
Accessibility
Accessibility is a general term used to describe the degree to which a product, device, service, or environment is available to as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" and benefit from some system or entity...
risk for him. He was also influenced by his esthetic-minded friends, who saw the new scheme as a break with tradition.
The economic crisis of the 1980s precluded any recovery, however. Nor did the street benefit from a consumer boom during the 1990s, as this was largely diverted toward a series of new shopping mall
Shopping mall
A shopping mall, shopping centre, shopping arcade, shopping precinct or simply mall is one or more buildings forming a complex of shops representing merchandisers, with interconnecting walkways enabling visitors to easily walk from unit to unit, along with a parking area — a modern, indoor version...
s opened in the city's north side. Galerías Pacífico was renovated and reopened in 1991, though Harrods Buenos Aires, which by then operated only on the ground floor, would close in 1998. Mayor Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa
Fernando de la Rúa is an Argentine politician. He was president of the country from December 10, 1999 to December 21, 2001 for the Alliance for Work, Justice and Education ....
had the textured concrete
Stamped concrete
Stamped concrete is concrete that is patterned and/or textured or embossed to resemble brick, slate, flagstone, stone, tile, wood, and various other patterns and textures. Stamped concrete is commonly used for patios, sidewalks, driveways, pool decks, and interior flooring...
pavers along Florida replaced in 1999 with granite
Granite
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...
tiles laid in a decorative black-and-white pattern.
Commerce along the street has been afflicted by proliferating street vendors in the ensuing years, a result of a legal loophole
Loophole
A loophole is a weakness that allows a system to be circumvented.Loophole may also refer to:*Arrowslit, a slit in a castle wall*Loophole , a short science fiction story by Arthur C...
in the municipal ordinance that otherwise prohibits the practice. Even so, Florida Street continues to command among the highest commercial rents in the city, and has become a favorite attraction among the city's growing number of foreign tourists.
Rivadavia Avenue to Perón Street
Florida Street begins at its southern end on Rivadavia AvenueRivadavia Avenue
Avenida Rivadavia is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires, Argentina, extending from downtown Buenos Aires to the western suburb of Merlo.-History:...
. The first block, made somewhat wider than the remainder of the promenade by a city ordinance, is overlooked by the Mappin & Webb House (1911) and the post-modern former headquarters of the Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro
Banca Nazionale del Lavoro SpA is an Italian banking firm. Founded in 1913 as Istituto di Credito per la Cooperazione, it was nationalized in 1929. It was re-privatized and listed on the Milan Stock Exchange in 1998, before being acquired by French banking group BNP Paribas in 2006...
in Argentina (1989); both became branches of HSBC
HSBC
HSBC Holdings plc is a global banking and financial services company headquartered in Canary Wharf, London, United Kingdom. it is the world's second-largest banking and financial services group and second-largest public company according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine...
upon BNL's departure in 2006.
One of the most iconic locations in Buenos Aires is the intersections of Florida Street and Diagonal Norte Avenue, built between 1913 and 1943. Two of the avenue's most distinguishable buildings are located at this intersection: the Plateresque
Plateresque
Plateresque, meaning "in the manner of a silversmith" , was an artistic movement, especially architectural, traditionally held to be exclusive to Spain and its territories, which appeared between the late Gothic and early Renaissance in the late 15th century, and spread over the next two centuries...
BankBoston Building (1924), the Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
La Equitativa del Plata (1929), and two cupola
Cupola
In architecture, a cupola is a small, most-often dome-like, structure on top of a building. Often used to provide a lookout or to admit light and air, it usually crowns a larger roof or dome....
-topped Bencich Buildings (1927). The intersection forms a triangular plaza adorned with José Fioravanti
José Fioravanti
José Fioravanti was a prolific Argentine sculptor known for the many civic monuments he created.-Life and work:...
's monument to President Roque Sáenz Peña
Roque Sáenz Peña
Roque Sáenz Peña Lahitte was President of Argentina from 12 October 1910 to 9 August 1914, when he died in office...
(1937).
Two important shopping arcades are located on the 100 block: Galerías Boston and the landmark Galería Güemes, designed by Francisco Gianotti
Francisco Gianotti
Francisco Gianotti was an architect who designed many important Art Nouveau buildings in Buenos Aires, Argentina....
and opened in 1914; distinguishable by the illuminated beacon atop its spire, it was one of the tallest buildings in Buenos Aires st the time. The former Gath & Chaves department store (1914) and annex (overlooking Avenida de Mayo
Avenida de Mayo
Avenida de Mayo , is an avenue in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina. It connects the Plaza de Mayo with Congressional Plaza, and extends in a west-east direction before merging into Avenida Rivadavia.-History and overview:...
) were located here until the retailer's closure in 1974; the buildings today house Banco Meridian, the local branch of Deloitte, as well as Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
an retailer Falabella
Falabella
Falabella is a Chilean department store retailer owned by the Falabella company-Locations and products:Falabella department stores can be found in Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru. Falabella Department stores sell a wide variety of merchandise including apparel, home furnishings, electronics and...
.
Perón Street to Lavalle Street
The 200 block features the former Grand Florida Cinema (1925), created in an eclectic Art Deco design by Jorge Kálnay. The corner of Perón Street is overlooked by the Plateresque former Banco Popular Argentino (1931), today the headquarters of HSBC Bank ArgentinaHSBC Bank Argentina
HSBC Bank Argentina S.A. is the principal HSBC operating company in Argentina. The seventh-largest bank in the country, it provides a full range of banking and financial products and services, including commercial, consumer and corporate banking, to over 1.2 million customers.-Operations:HSBC...
. The corner of Sarmiento Street is the site of the Bank of the City of Buenos Aires
Bank of the City of Buenos Aires
The Bank of the City of Buenos Aires is a publicly-owned, municipal commercial bank in Buenos Aires, Argentina.-Overview:...
headquarters since 1968, located in a building originally opened in 1908 as the Mexico City Store.
The 300 block includes the oldest existing bookstore of El Ateneo
El Ateneo
El Ateneo Grand Splendid is one of the best known bookshops in Buenos Aires, Argentina. -Overview:Situated at 1860 Santa Fe Avenue in Barrio Norte, the building was designed by the architects Peró and Torres Armengol for the empresario Max Glucksman , and opened as a theatre named Teatro Gran...
chain (one of two on Florida Steet); founded in 1912, the booksellers opened their first Florida Street store in 1936. Facing El Ateneo is the former headquarters of La Nación
La Nación
La Nación is an Argentine daily newspaper. The country's leading conservative paper, the centrist Clarín is its main competitor. It is the only newspaper in Argentina still published in broadsheet format.-Overview:...
newspaper. One of numerous Plateresque office buildings completed in the area during the 1920s, the building, known today as the Mitre Gallery, is the second store opened on Florida Street by Falabella. The corner of the intersection with Avenida Corrientes is overlooked by office high-rises, a Stock Center sporting goods megastore, and, for contrast, the former Elortondo Alvear residence (1880); the neo-Gothic mansion was converted into a Burger King
Burger King
Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States. The company began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King, a Jacksonville, Florida-based restaurant chain...
in the 1990s.
The Julio Peña residence (1917), today the headquarters of the Argentine Rural Society, is one of the few private residences surviving from the time luxurious homes shared Florida Street with commercial establishments. The Richmond Café next door has been a favorite coffee house among local upscale patrons since the 1920s; Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
, Eduardo Mallea
Eduardo Mallea
Eduardo Mallea was an Argentine essayist, cultural critic, writer and diplomat. In 1931 he became editor of the literary magazine of La Nación.-Work:...
, and the Florida group
Florida group
The Florida group were a Buenos Aires-based avant-garde literary group in the 1920s, known for their embrace of "art for art's sake"...
of avant-garde writers were among the many literati who have gathered there. The 400 block ends at the intersection with Lavalle Street, and is overlooked by both curtain wall
Curtain wall
A curtain wall is an outer covering of a building in which the outer walls are non-structural, but merely keep out the weather. As the curtain wall is non-structural it can be made of a lightweight material reducing construction costs. When glass is used as the curtain wall, a great advantage is...
ed office mid-rises and French architecture
French architecture
The history of French architecture runs in parallel with its neighbouring countries in Europe, with France being home to both some of the earliest pioneers in many architectural styles, and also containing some of the finest architectural creations of the continent.-Roman:The architecture of...
. Lavalle Street, from the 1930s until the 1990s, rivaled Corrientes Avenue for the number of cinema
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
s along its downtown stretch. Most have since closed, however, and Lavalle, which was pedestrianized in 1978, became largely a shopping street; the large numbers of pedestrians at the intersection between the two also made the intersection a forum for performances by street artist
Street artist
A street artist is someone who creates and/or sells their art or craft in public for the pleasure of passers-by.Some people use the term 'street artist' more broadly and also refer to people involved in busking, such as musicians who sing and/or play instruments, acrobats, jugglers, living statues,...
s.
Lavalle Street to Córdoba Avenue
The 500 block was the site of the Jockey Club, designed by Manuel Turner and completed in 1897. Founded in 1882 by future President Carlos PellegriniCarlos Pellegrini
Carlos Enrique José Pellegrini Bevans was President of Argentina from 6 August 1890 to 12 October 1892....
, the institution governed horse racing
Horse racing
Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
in Argentina, and built the Palermo
Hipodromo Argentino de Palermo
Hipodromo Argentino de Palermo is located in Buenos Aires, Argentina. One of the most prominent horse racing venues in Argentina, its installations include a 2400 meter track suitable for races in all weather....
and San Isidro
Hipódromo de San Isidro
The Hipódromo de San Isidro is a horse racing track located in San Isidro, Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is owned by the Jockey Club. It was inaugurated on 8 December 1935 and is one of the largest in the Americas....
racecourses. An incident on April 15, 1953, in which bombs were detonated at the Plaza de Mayo
Plaza de Mayo
The Plaza de Mayo is the main square in downtown Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is flanked by Hipólito Yrigoyen, Balcarce, Rivadavia and Bolívar streets....
during one of President Juan Perón
Juan Perón
Juan Domingo Perón was an Argentine military officer, and politician. Perón was three times elected as President of Argentina though he only managed to serve one full term, after serving in several government positions, including the Secretary of Labor and the Vice Presidency...
's many rallies, resulted in the destruction of the Beaux-Arts landmark by enraged Peronists, who viewed the aristocratic Jockey Club as a center of anti-Peronism. The lot lay empty until the construction of Galería Jardín (1976), an office and retail complex designed by Mario Roberto Álvarez
Mario Roberto Álvarez
Mario Roberto Álvarez was a prominent Argentine architect.-Early life:Álvarez was born in Buenos Aires in 1913. He enrolled at the University of Buenos Aires School of Arquitecture in 1932, and graduated with Gold Medal honors in 1936...
in a belated International Style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
. The complex includes several levels of shops, a basement for offices and two high-rise towers, one of which is residential. Its retail section is known for its selection of consumer electronics
Consumer electronics
Consumer electronics are electronic equipment intended for everyday use, most often in entertainment, communications and office productivity. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver...
and computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
equipment.
An Art Deco office building on the northwest corner of Tucumán Street and the neo-classical Cadellada Building highlight the 600 block; a second El Ateneo bookshop, a third Falabella store, and the modern
Modern architecture
Modern architecture is generally characterized by simplification of form and creation of ornament from the structure and theme of the building. It is a term applied to an overarching movement, with its exact definition and scope varying widely...
Galería Arax (site of the Buenos Aires Auditorium) are also located there.
The renowned Galerías Pacifico
Galerías Pacífico
Galerías Pacífico is a shopping centre in Buenos Aires, Argentina, located at the intersection of Florida Street and Córdoba Avenue.-Overview:...
shopping arcade occupies nearly the entire block along the eastern side of the 700 block. The monumental building, designed by Roland le Vacher in 1888 to house the Au Bon Marché shops, also housed the National Museum of Fine Arts
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (Buenos Aires)
The National Museum of Fine Arts is an Argentine art museum in Buenos Aires, located in the Recoleta section of the city. The MNBA inaugurated a branch in Neuquén in 2004.-History:...
from 1896 to 1910, and thereafter the head office of the Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway
Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway
The Buenos Aires and Pacific Railway was one of the Big Four broad gauge, , British-owned companies that built and operated railway networks in Argentina....
; restored in 1991, its grand interiors also feature ceiling fresco
Fresco
Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...
es by Antonio Berni
Antonio Berni
Delesio Antonio Berni was a figurative artist, born in Rosario, province of Santa Fe, Argentina. He worked as a painter, an illustrator and an engraver. His father, Napoleón Berni, was an immigrant tailor from Italy...
, Juan Carlos Castagnino
Juan Carlos Castagnino
Juan Carlos Castagnino was an Argentine painter, architect, muralist and sketch artist.Born in the city of Mar del Plata, he studied in the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires, and became a disciple of Lino Enea Spilimbergo and Ramón Gómez Cornet.By the end of the 1920s, he became a member of...
, and other famed Argentine painters.
Córdoba Avenue to Plaza San Martín
The junction with Córdoba AvenueCórdoba Avenue
Córdoba Avenue is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires, Argentina.-History:Mayor Torcuato de Alvear, inspired by the urban redevelopment works in Paris at the hand of Baron Haussmann, drew up master plans for major boulevards, running east to west, every six blocks. During the 1880s,...
marks the street's entry into the Retiro
Retiro, Buenos Aires
Retiro is a barrio in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Located in the northeast end of the city, Retiro is bordered on the south by the Puerto Madero and San Nicolás wards, and on the west by the Recoleta ward.-Urban character:...
ward. The northeast corner is distinguished by the magnificent Naval Center (1914), designed by Jacques Dunant and Gastón Mallet in a Beaux-Arts style. Separated from the Naval Center by Galería Buenos Aires is the former Harrods Buenos Aires
Harrods Buenos Aires
Harrods Buenos Aires is a historic commercial building in Buenos Aires, Argentina, formerly a branch of Harrods of London.- History :Established in 1914 on 877 Florida Street as the only overseas branch of the renowned Harrods of London, the department store was expanded in 1920, and grew to occupy...
, completed in 1920. Following a lengthy legal struggle with the then-owner of the Harrods
Harrods
Harrods is an upmarket department store located in Brompton Road in Brompton, in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. The Harrods brand also applies to other enterprises undertaken by the Harrods group of companies including Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air...
on Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge
Knightsbridge is a road which gives its name to an exclusive district lying to the west of central London. The road runs along the south side of Hyde Park, west from Hyde Park Corner, spanning the City of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea...
, Mohamed Al-Fayed
Mohamed Al-Fayed
Mohamed Abdel Moneim Al-Fayed is an Egyptian businessman and billionaire. Amongst his business interests are ownership of the English Premiership football team Fulham Football Club, Hôtel Ritz Paris and formerly Harrods Department Store, Knightsbridge...
, the department store closed in 1998, and since functions intermittently as a venue for cultural events, notably the Buenos Aires Tango Festival. The current owners, Swiss equity firm CBC Interconfianz, filed permits to restore Harrods Buenos Aires in 2009. The modern Galería del Sol faces the former Harrods. Galería Florida (1964), a curtain-walled high rise designed by Álvarez for Air France
Air France
Air France , stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the French flag carrier headquartered in Tremblay-en-France, , and is one of the world's largest airlines. It is a subsidiary of the Air France-KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airline alliance...
, stands on the southwest corner with Paraguay Street, and the Florida Garden Café, opened in 1962 in a belle époque
French architecture
The history of French architecture runs in parallel with its neighbouring countries in Europe, with France being home to both some of the earliest pioneers in many architectural styles, and also containing some of the finest architectural creations of the continent.-Roman:The architecture of...
building, is on the southeast.
The Cultural Center of Spain in Buenos Aires (CCEB) is located on the 900 block. This block, however, is best known locally as the erstwhile site of the Torcuato di Tella Institute
Torcuato di Tella Institute
The Torcuato di Tella Institute is a non-profit foundation organized for the promotion of Argentine culture.-Overview:The di Tella Foundation and its institute were created on July 22, 1958, the tenth anniversary of the death of industrialist and arts patron Torcuato di Tella...
. Located on Florida Street during its heyday between 1963 and 1970, the institure was led at the time by former National Fine Arts Museum director Jorge Romero Brest
Jorge Romero Brest
Jorge Aníbal Romero Brest was an influential art critic in Argentina who helped popularize avant-garde art in his country.-Life and work:...
, who steered the center as the leading Argentine venue for pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
, experimental theatre
Experimental theatre
Experimental theatre is a general term for various movements in Western theatre that began in the late 19th century as a retraction against the dominant vent governing the writing and production of dramatical menstrophy, and age in particular. The term has shifted over time as the mainstream...
, and conceptual art
Conceptual art
Conceptual art is art in which the concept or idea involved in the work take precedence over traditional aesthetic and material concerns. Many of the works, sometimes called installations, of the artist Sol LeWitt may be constructed by anyone simply by following a set of written instructions...
, drawing artists such as León Ferrari
León Ferrari
León Ferrari , is a contemporary conceptual artist.Born in Buenos Aires, Ferrari employs methods such as collage, photocopying and sculpture in wood, plaster or ceramics. He often uses text, particularly newspaper clippings or poetry, in his pieces...
, Gyula Kosice
Gyula Kosice
Gyula Kosice, born Fernando Fallik in Košice is a naturalized Argentine sculptor, plastic artist, theoretician and poet, one of the most important figures in kinetic and luminal art and luminance vanguard....
, Luis Felipe Noé
Luis Felipe Noé
Luis Felipe Noé is an artist, writer, intellectual and teacher from Buenos Aires, Argentina where he is known as Yuyo. In 1961 he formed Otra Figuración with three other Argentine artists. Their eponymous exhibition and subsequent work greatly influenced the Neofiguration movement...
, and Antonio Seguí
Antonio Seguí
- Biography :Seguí is the oldest son of a middle-class and has three siblings. In the years from 1951 to 1954 he traveled through Europe and Africa, was visiting student at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid and at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris,...
. Romero Brest also promoted the center's famed Happening
Happening
A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
s, notably those of Marta Minujín
Marta Minujín
Marta Minujín is an Argentine Conceptual artist.-Life and work:Marta Minujín was born in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires. She met a young economist, Juan Carlos Gómez Sabaini, and married him in secret in 1959; the couple had two children...
, whose interactive displays and mazes helped make this block of Florida Street Buenos Aires' mazana loca (city block of madness).
The street continues into the Juvenilia Esplanade, centered around a memorial to writer Esteban Echeverría
Esteban Echeverría
José Esteban Antonio Echeverría was an Argentine poet, fiction writer, cultural promoter, and political activist who played a significant role in the development of Argentine literature, not only through his own writings but also through his organizational efforts...
, and overlooked by a French-inspired apartment building designed by Alejandro Bustillo
Alejandro Bustillo
Alejandro Bustillo was an Argentine painter and architect who left his mark in various tourist destinations in Argentina, especially in the Andean region of the Patagonia....
. The Ruth Benzacar Gallery, another leading promoter of local avant-garde art, opened in 1965 and is also located here. Facing the esplanade is Plaza San Martín
Plaza San Martín (Buenos Aires)
Plaza San Martín is a park located in the Retiro neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Situated at the northern end of pedestrianized Florida Street, the park is bounded by Libertador Ave. , Maipú St. , Santa Fe Avenue , and Leandro Alem Av....
, designed by the noted urbanist Charles Thays in 1889. Upscale Santa Fe Avenue
Santa Fe Avenue
Avenida Santa Fe is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The artery is essential to the imaginary axis of Barrio Norte in Buenos Aires, comprising the areas influenced by the route of the avenue through Retiro, Recoleta and Palermo neighborhoods, it is considered one of...
merges into Florida Street along the Plaza Hotel
Marriott Plaza Hotel, Buenos Aires
The Buenos Aires Marriott Plaza Hotel is a five star establishment located in the city's Retiro section.-Overview:The Marriott Plaza was originally developed by local landowner and banker Ernesto Tornquist. Facing San Martín Plaza, the nine-story hotel was designed by German architect Adolf Zucker...
(1909). Designed by Adolf Zucker for local banker Ernesto Tornquist
Ernesto Tornquist
Ernesto Carlos Tornquist is considered to be one of the most important entrepreneurs in Argentina at the end of the 19th century. The diversified business empire he created played a key role in helping to link Argentina with the trading and financial systems of the first world...
, the Plaza was acquired by Marriott Hotels in 1994.
Florida Street becomes San Martín Street one block south of Avenida del Libertador
Avenida del Libertador
Avenida del Libertador is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in points north, extending 25 km from the Retiro District of Buenos Aires to the northern suburb of San Fernando.-History:...
, and beside the best known of Buenos Aires' Art Deco landmarks, the Kavanagh Building
Kavanagh building
The Kavanagh Building is an Art Deco skyscraper in Buenos Aires, located at 1065 Florida St. in the barrio of Retiro, overlooking Plaza San Martín. It was designed in 1934 by local architects Gregorio Sánchez, Ernesto Lagos and Luis María de la Torre, and was inaugurated in 1936...
. Overlooking Plaza San Martín, the 120m (390 ft) apartment building was designed in 1934 by the firm of Sánchez, Lagos and de la Tour for Corina Kavanagh. Local lore has it that the wealthy Irish Argentine heiress planned the high-rise as a revenge against the Anchorena family, and made but one demand of the architects: that views of the Anchorenas' Church of the Holy Sacrament from their palace
San Martin Palace
San Martín Palace is located facing Plaza San Martín in the Retiro neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina and serves as the Ceremonial Headquarters for the Ministry of Foreign Relations.-History:...
be blocked.
Transportation
Buenos Aires Metro
The Buenos Aires Metro , locally known as Subte is a mass-transit system that serves the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The first station of this network opened in 1913, the first of its kind in South America, the Southern Hemisphere and the entire Spanish-speaking world...
(subte, or underground). Five metro lines have stations within a short walking distance of Florida. Most bus lines reaching the downtown area have stops near Florida Street, as well.
The Retiro transportation hub, which maintains a terminal for long-distance buses
Retiro bus station
Retiro bus station is the main bus terminal in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is situated in the Retiro district, 300 m north of Retiro railway station....
and a railway station for three major lines, is located near the northern end of Florida, across Avenida del Libertador
Avenida del Libertador
Avenida del Libertador is one of the principal thoroughfares in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in points north, extending 25 km from the Retiro District of Buenos Aires to the northern suburb of San Fernando.-History:...
. Line C
Line C (Buenos Aires)
Line C of the Buenos Aires Metro that runs from Retiro to Constitución terminus, opened on 9 November 1934, and it has a length of 4.3 km.-Stations and connections:-Murals:...
of the metro provides access to both Retiro and Constitución Stations
Estación Constitución
Constitución railway station is a large railway terminus in Barrio Constitución in central Buenos Aires, Argentina...
.
See also
- Florida groupFlorida groupThe Florida group were a Buenos Aires-based avant-garde literary group in the 1920s, known for their embrace of "art for art's sake"...
- Tourism in Buenos AiresTourism in Buenos AiresBuenos Aires is in the midst of a tourism boom, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, it reveals strong growth for Argentina Travel and Tourism in 2007...
- Obelisk of Buenos AiresObelisk of Buenos AiresThe Obelisk of Buenos Aires is a national historic monument and icon of Buenos Aires. Located in the Plaza de la República, in the intersection of avenues Corrientes and 9 de Julio, it was built to commemorate the fourth centenary of the first foundation of the city.In order to enrich the...
- Teatro Colón
- Tourism in ArgentinaTourism in ArgentinaTourism in Argentina is favored by its ample and varied natural assets and by its cultural offerings. The country is lucky to have everything a tourist would ask for...
- List of upscale shopping districts
External links
- Florida Street
- Welcome to CalleFloridaStreet.com