Buenos Aires Architecture: A Quick Guide

Do you have a favorite building in Buenos Aires? Mine is the one on the corner of Belgrano and Perú in San Telmo (see a picture of it here). The bottom two floors are nothing special – just roller doors that are always closed and then a set of shuttered windows – but on the third floor there appear a series of giant stone men who are carved so that they seem to be supporting the floors above on their shoulders. Then there are five or six floors of pretty balconies, and then it gets really wacky: three or four more levels built into a steeply sloping tiled roof topped by a pair of cupolas. It’s brilliant.

The architecture in Buenos Aires is easy to love. But how did it get that way?
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