Paseo de Julio. Behind, the Central Post Office building under construction.

Buenos Aires. Circa 1910.

Gelatin silver print. Measurements: 15 x 22 cm / 5.9 x 8.66 in. Framed work.

Since 1843 Buenos Aires was the predominant and even dominant city for the development of Argentine photography; It is not surprising then that the cameras of thousands of professionals and amateurs turned to this surprising city, always in constant change and accelerated building growth.

Towards the middle of the 1910s one of these cameras affirmed its tripod on the gardens of the then Paseo de Julio -today Avenida Leandro N. Alem- obtaining this unusual record of the Buenos Aires center through an interesting vanishing point. The image shows us the manicured tree-lined gardens of that promenade, with an elaborate flowerbed in the foreground and later, an artistic statue mounted on a pedestal.

From the documentary point of view we rescue the exceptional record of the construction of the Palacio de Correo y Telecomunicaciones, whose works began around 1888 at the initiative of the government of Miguel Juárez Celman and was only inaugurated on September 28, 1928 during the presidency of Marcelo Torcuato de Alvear.

The pharaonic work then took 40 years of economic vicissitudes, including the First World War, architectural marches and countermarches and many other difficulties. Construction that covers an entire block on Leandro N. Alem, Corrientes, Sarmiento and Bouchard avenues in the San Nicolás neighborhood and that even had to be built on land reclaimed from the Río de la Plata through 2,882 reinforced concrete piles of 10 meters each one.

The works began under a project by the renowned French architect Norbert-Auguste Maillart (1856-1928) but, due to its long continuity over time, it was in charge of other managers, such as the Russian architect Jacques Spolsky. In a clear style of French academicism, the Palace is 60 meters high, has eight floors and occupies an area of ​​88,050 meters2. After its disaffection as the headquarters of the Argentine Mail due to technological changes in correspondence, it was completely renovated and today it is the headquarters of an important Cultural Center, the CCK.

By Abel Alexander

President

Ibero-American Society for the History of Photography.