Back to Buenos Aires! Well, not literally… but I’ve neglected to place in this blog one very popular series of posts from the past. From 2007 to be exact. Back in the day when my only internet presence was line of sight, I wrote one of the most widely read English-language blogs about Buenos Aires. At the same time as I researched early housing projects in the city, I also began looking up & paying attention. I saw more domes than I’d ever noticed before, regardless of where those rambling walks took me.
The quest for domes turned into an obsession. As these things do. After photographing & posting hundreds of pics, I decided to select what I considered the best or most unique domes in Buenos Aires & make a map. Nothing complicated, & my nascent design knowledge wouldn’t allow for anything fancy either. In reality, the entire dome search was a way of avoiding other, more important projects & life decisions at the time. 2007 had its complications! But in the end, making this map started me on the path toward writing Endless Mile guides… so time well spent after all. Below are small images of the free version of the first map on line of sight + a 2011 incomplete attempt at redesign:
In the end, the original map transformed into a mini PDF guide for Endless Mile. I still give it away for free, mainly as an example of content & structure for all Endless Mile publications. Every visitor should explore one of the most interesting characteristics of Buenos Aires architecture… consider it a scavenger hunt while they’re still around! As I say in the guide:
At the end of the 20th century, economic concerns & political conflicts far outweighed those of architectural conservation & Buenos Aires fell into disrepair. Domes are, by their nature, fragile constructions. When funds disappeared, domes collapsed —never to be recovered.
In spite of a current economic upswing, local government still turns a cold shoulder to the city’s preservation. A recent law prohibits the demolition of any building constructed prior to 1941, but remember this is Latin America. Corruption & clandestine demolition are rampant. Citizen watch groups keep a vigilant eye on the city, but even they can miss signs of destruction or decay. Unfortunately, dozens of spectacular domes do not appear in our list because they no longer decorate the skyline. The only record of their existence is a collection of photographs & postcards taken by flâneurs of an earlier era.
With this listing, Endless Mile seeks to call attention to one of the defining characteristics of Buenos Aires… in the hope that more people will preserve what makes this city so unique.
Might have to alter that bit about “current economic upswing” given circumstances in 2019… we’ll see how things pan out after elections in October!
y las que ya no están…
Thanks to the rise of social media since those original posts, both individuals as well as government organizations can easily share past & present photos of Buenos Aires. Although I’ve left BA behind, whenever I see a picture of a dome that’s no longer standing I get a little nostalgic & miss those long walks around the city. Most of the images below come from the Twitter account of the Archivo General de la Nación. Can you imagine if these were still around today?
I’ll continue to add photos here as I find them online… & please post your own contributions in the comments section below!