Ries
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D7D-
I think we are two ships passing in the night, in terms of taste.
Obviously, Rome, Florence, Paris, and Istanbul are in the top ten cities in the world, in terms of heritage.
I am not suggesting Buenos Aires is Paris.
But I specifically said my area of interest in architecture is 1880 to the present- basically, Art Noveau thru modernism.
And for those styles, several of the cities you mentioned are, frankly, just not that interesting to me.
I have spent a lot of time in Florence, for example, and find most of it beautiful, but boring. I am quite a fan of the circa 1900 Florentine blacksmith Micchelucci, though, and tend to walk some of the neighborhoods a bit farther back from the Arno, photographing and sketching his work.
But, frankly, I will take Torino anyday over Florence, with the exception of the Stibbert Museum in Florence, not for the architecture, but the collection, which is in the top 3 collections of arms and armour worldwide...
London- ehhh. There are some great historic buildings there, and I am a fan of the Gherkin, but in general, its pretty mundane, value engineered late 19th century stuff. And there has been an enormous amount of demolition and development there in the last 20 years. Canary Wharf, for example.
I would nominate Brussels or especially Barcelona as being much more interesting than London.
16th and 17th century spanish colonial is not a big interest of mine either- so many of the older cities of South America are not to my taste, but I do like the post war modernism of Santiago, and, of course, Brazilia.
But I think one man's "bland and newish" is another mans heaven- and when I walk Rividavia, or Callao, and see building like El Molino, I am pretty entranced.
As a blacksmith, I find Buenos Aires pretty interesting as well. The top of the heap of designer blacksmiths, ever, was Mazucatelli, in Milano- but, even in Milano, he is not appreciated that much. Some of his work survives, but most of MonteNapoleano has had the storefronts redone a half dozen times since his era, and a lot is gone. Whereas here, there is a huge resource of quite good ironwork. I am pretty sure there is even a Mazucatelli or two- pretty sure I spotted one in Recoleta a while ago, although more research is needed.
But as I mentioned, I am quite happy with a nice art deco casa chorizo, and there is certainly no city in North America with as large a supply of basically unchanged early 20th century housing.
I dont know if you followed Robert Wright's series about workers housing in Buenos Aires, and now, unfortunately, his website is down, but this is another category of architecture here that interests me immensely- and is pretty unique to here.
As I mentioned, the Salamone's are an undiscovered but amazing group of buildings- James Oles, a professor at Wellesley, is currently writing what I believe will be the first english language book about Salamone. Until then, images are few and far between, although there are some great ones in the Bicentenario book, which just came out, that I bought last week at CP 67, the architectural bookstore on Florida.
I think that many Porteno's share your lack of interest in their heritage, which is why only this last year was the first book about Art Noveau in Buenos Aires published since the era of Art Noveau, at least according to my sources.
Mimi Bohm has followed that with a great book on Buenos Aires Art Deco, as well.
http://www.mimibohm.com.ar/
As a north american, I can attest to the fact that we have demolished most of our heritage of this era as well- yes, the Chrysler and Woolworth buildings still stand, but compared to Buenos Aires, there is no city in North America with as much early 20th century buildings. Places like San Diego, or Phoenix, or LA, have decimated huge swaths of the cities to replace them with mini malls.
I am passionate about this aspect of Buenos Aires, and it is definitely one of the reasons I come here.
I think we are two ships passing in the night, in terms of taste.
Obviously, Rome, Florence, Paris, and Istanbul are in the top ten cities in the world, in terms of heritage.
I am not suggesting Buenos Aires is Paris.
But I specifically said my area of interest in architecture is 1880 to the present- basically, Art Noveau thru modernism.
And for those styles, several of the cities you mentioned are, frankly, just not that interesting to me.
I have spent a lot of time in Florence, for example, and find most of it beautiful, but boring. I am quite a fan of the circa 1900 Florentine blacksmith Micchelucci, though, and tend to walk some of the neighborhoods a bit farther back from the Arno, photographing and sketching his work.
But, frankly, I will take Torino anyday over Florence, with the exception of the Stibbert Museum in Florence, not for the architecture, but the collection, which is in the top 3 collections of arms and armour worldwide...
London- ehhh. There are some great historic buildings there, and I am a fan of the Gherkin, but in general, its pretty mundane, value engineered late 19th century stuff. And there has been an enormous amount of demolition and development there in the last 20 years. Canary Wharf, for example.
I would nominate Brussels or especially Barcelona as being much more interesting than London.
16th and 17th century spanish colonial is not a big interest of mine either- so many of the older cities of South America are not to my taste, but I do like the post war modernism of Santiago, and, of course, Brazilia.
But I think one man's "bland and newish" is another mans heaven- and when I walk Rividavia, or Callao, and see building like El Molino, I am pretty entranced.
As a blacksmith, I find Buenos Aires pretty interesting as well. The top of the heap of designer blacksmiths, ever, was Mazucatelli, in Milano- but, even in Milano, he is not appreciated that much. Some of his work survives, but most of MonteNapoleano has had the storefronts redone a half dozen times since his era, and a lot is gone. Whereas here, there is a huge resource of quite good ironwork. I am pretty sure there is even a Mazucatelli or two- pretty sure I spotted one in Recoleta a while ago, although more research is needed.
But as I mentioned, I am quite happy with a nice art deco casa chorizo, and there is certainly no city in North America with as large a supply of basically unchanged early 20th century housing.
I dont know if you followed Robert Wright's series about workers housing in Buenos Aires, and now, unfortunately, his website is down, but this is another category of architecture here that interests me immensely- and is pretty unique to here.
As I mentioned, the Salamone's are an undiscovered but amazing group of buildings- James Oles, a professor at Wellesley, is currently writing what I believe will be the first english language book about Salamone. Until then, images are few and far between, although there are some great ones in the Bicentenario book, which just came out, that I bought last week at CP 67, the architectural bookstore on Florida.
I think that many Porteno's share your lack of interest in their heritage, which is why only this last year was the first book about Art Noveau in Buenos Aires published since the era of Art Noveau, at least according to my sources.
Mimi Bohm has followed that with a great book on Buenos Aires Art Deco, as well.
http://www.mimibohm.com.ar/
As a north american, I can attest to the fact that we have demolished most of our heritage of this era as well- yes, the Chrysler and Woolworth buildings still stand, but compared to Buenos Aires, there is no city in North America with as much early 20th century buildings. Places like San Diego, or Phoenix, or LA, have decimated huge swaths of the cities to replace them with mini malls.
I am passionate about this aspect of Buenos Aires, and it is definitely one of the reasons I come here.
