Antecedents of remodeling of Buenos Aires City
Impacts on Puerto Madero

1938 / 1940 : Plan of Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret
with collaboration of Jorge Ferrari Hardoy and Juan Kurchan

In 1929, Le Corbusier travelled for the Latin American capitol cities, from which he made many observations. Based on this impressions he made a plan for the urbanization of Buenos Aires City.

Under the ruling theories of functionalist racionalism, the plan resumed modernist concepts of adopting the natural, jumbled forces of progress, to canalize them under an organizative planning.

The plan was made while the Second World War took place, and the impact of the destruction of European cities, that would reflect in a urbanistic revision more in harmony with life, that Le Corbusier would propose for Buenos Aires. This plan was almost ignored until 1947, when the magazine "La Arquitectura de Hoy" ("Today's Architecture") decided to publish it.

Main proposals:

· Concentration of the urban structures of the city, which Corbusier saw "useless extended". The global urban new order included a distinction of zones based on uses and activities. The areas which would concentrate equipment were divided into:
- National Government
- City Government
- Finance
- College City
- Hotels and Commerce
- Leisure
- Homes

· Wide circulation ways concentrating the regional accesses to the Capitol, convergent to its central area.
· To compensate the unbalance between the north and south areas of the city, which axis is delimitated by the Avenida de Mayo, opening a master artery running north-south. An equal distribution of residential densities and establishing the industrial area in the south, in both sides of the Riachuelo.
By that time, Le Corbusier saw that the city was growing with its back to the river, what he expressed in one of his considerations in the following manner: "Oh! Buenos Aires has given its back to the river, never sees it, does not know it exists".

For the coastal front that implied Puerto Madero he proposed:
· To eliminate Puerto Madero, creating a large area devoted to public leisure, with cultural and sport uses, at a metropolitan scale. This sector included the big park previously projected by Briano, and the City Beach. The construction of a big, integral, city stadium was also projected, for sports, parades, theater, and public parties. A "Living Museum" was also projected to promote the knowledge about Argentina.
· The port functions would be splitted: Puerto Nuevo, with the enlargement proposed by Briano, would be the "Commercial Port", while the Riachuelo and Dock Sud areas would be the "Industrial Port".
· The idea of consolidating a coast front as an emblemathic element of Buenos Aires would be strenghtened by the continuation of Avenida de Mayo through a BRAZO that would go into the river until and artificial island where the "Cité des Affaires", composed by five skycrappers would be erected. This Financial district would be built on piles and would be the coastal avant-gard of the city.

Cité inmobiliaria	Area Puerto Madero

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